Because in Australia, the perception is that "Indian" is kind of racist, and also confusing, because Indians come from India, and that "Injun" is to "Native American" as "Abbo" is to "Indigenous Australian". e.g. really damn racist. And I'm learning that American perceptions have shifted since Australia redefined its terms, but I'm not sure entirely what's correct now.
It's not just you folks in Australia: even in the U.S., a lot of non-Indian people have somehow gotten the idea that "Native American" is now the overwhelmingly preferred, polite modern term and "Indian" is somehow seen as being outdated and offensive like "Oriental" or "Negro". I've seen remarks to that effect cropping up two or three times just in recent MammothFail discussions, and I'm not even *trying* to follow each and every link. But while it definitely seems to be the preferred term in some venues like academia, and amongst well-meaning non-native folks who want to show willing, actual usage and preferences amongst native folks is a lot more varied. This article sums it up pretty neatly: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmterms.html. While the survey mentioned there is more than ten years old, so far as anecdata goes the patterns of mixed usage, lack of strong preferences and offense not commonly being taken at either of those general terms is very much in line with my own observations (and my own usage, for that matter -- I'll use either one, and a range of other slangier terms, depending on the situation and audience, but "Indian" is definitely the more comfortable default of those two for me. But I'm not at all bothered by being called NA instead, especially since I know a lot of the people using it are doing so precisely because they're trying to be polite and respectful.)
Although I'm not sure I'd call it quite parallel to AZN, because - again - the experience I have with AZN here is that it's not actually a good term... AZN is a term used largely by thugs appropriating the most unpleasant, caricatured elements of hiphop culture, whereas Asians are the people I see around every day.
*nods* Countries divided by a common language, etc. -- the main impression I have of the folks in the US using that formation is that they're mostly on the younger side, leaning heavily towards the teenybopper MySpace sort of demographic. (And probably from the mainland, because I grew up in Hawai'i where the Asian population is vastly larger than in most parts of the mainland U.S., and the cultural zeitgesit around identity was very different. I'm guessing there's probably less of a deep sense of need to form pan-ethnic identities as a form of solidarity amongst tiny minorities in a place where you are essentially closer to the majority yourself.) "NDN" I suspect first took root amongst a similarly young-and-wired crowd, but it seems to have spread a lot further past that initial youthful demographic than "AZN" has. (And hip-hop is HUGE in Indian Country too, along with plenty of intra-POC skanky race issues about "acting black", but oh man that could be grounds for another sprawlingly huge rant entirely...)
I'll just have to go away and think about how awesome Saiyuki is instead.
Always an excellent choice, especially as an antidote to headache-inducing fail! Too bad this OpenID thingy won't let me use my huge selection of LJ Saiyuki icons, which I of course lovingly and traditionally hand-crafted with trade beads, buckskin, and quills since graphics editing programs would be far too much for my savage brain to cope with. ^_~
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It's not just you folks in Australia: even in the U.S., a lot of non-Indian people have somehow gotten the idea that "Native American" is now the overwhelmingly preferred, polite modern term and "Indian" is somehow seen as being outdated and offensive like "Oriental" or "Negro". I've seen remarks to that effect cropping up two or three times just in recent MammothFail discussions, and I'm not even *trying* to follow each and every link. But while it definitely seems to be the preferred term in some venues like academia, and amongst well-meaning non-native folks who want to show willing, actual usage and preferences amongst native folks is a lot more varied. This article sums it up pretty neatly: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmterms.html. While the survey mentioned there is more than ten years old, so far as anecdata goes the patterns of mixed usage, lack of strong preferences and offense not commonly being taken at either of those general terms is very much in line with my own observations (and my own usage, for that matter -- I'll use either one, and a range of other slangier terms, depending on the situation and audience, but "Indian" is definitely the more comfortable default of those two for me. But I'm not at all bothered by being called NA instead, especially since I know a lot of the people using it are doing so precisely because they're trying to be polite and respectful.)
Although I'm not sure I'd call it quite parallel to AZN, because - again - the experience I have with AZN here is that it's not actually a good term... AZN is a term used largely by thugs appropriating the most unpleasant, caricatured elements of hiphop culture, whereas Asians are the people I see around every day.
*nods* Countries divided by a common language, etc. -- the main impression I have of the folks in the US using that formation is that they're mostly on the younger side, leaning heavily towards the teenybopper MySpace sort of demographic. (And probably from the mainland, because I grew up in Hawai'i where the Asian population is vastly larger than in most parts of the mainland U.S., and the cultural zeitgesit around identity was very different. I'm guessing there's probably less of a deep sense of need to form pan-ethnic identities as a form of solidarity amongst tiny minorities in a place where you are essentially closer to the majority yourself.) "NDN" I suspect first took root amongst a similarly young-and-wired crowd, but it seems to have spread a lot further past that initial youthful demographic than "AZN" has. (And hip-hop is HUGE in Indian Country too, along with plenty of intra-POC skanky race issues about "acting black", but oh man that could be grounds for another sprawlingly huge rant entirely...)
I'll just have to go away and think about how awesome Saiyuki is instead.
Always an excellent choice, especially as an antidote to headache-inducing fail! Too bad this OpenID thingy won't let me use my huge selection of LJ Saiyuki icons, which I of course lovingly and traditionally hand-crafted with trade beads, buckskin, and quills since graphics editing programs would be far too much for my savage brain to cope with. ^_~