I am ashamed and appalled by the treatment some of the Kos folks are giving indigenous American people. While the original article in question by Rebecca Sager was respectful and well-written and a good peek into the ever imploding Herschel Walker candidacy, the comments were absolutely enraging.
One commenter asked “What should we call him?” alluding to former President Trump’s mistreatment of Elizabeth Warren and his use of the name Pocahontas* to charge her with lying about her indigenous American heritage.
One commenter referred to Walker as “Chief Shitting Bull” referring to a man whose peoples’ territory was stolen by colonizers, forced to flee, and then murdered because he might have joined the Ghost Dance movement.
Another commenter made fun of the “traditional” Indigenous American names, calling him “Dumb Like Buffalo” which not only makes fun of Indigenous American naming conventions** but also spits on Plains Indians who revered the buffalo.
We can’t be this way. There’s a habit I’ve seen in progressive spaces where someone makes fun of someone without thinking about collateral damage. I remember years ago where I saw people using a transphobic term to describe Ann Coulter. People using Trump’s weight, or purported “endowment”, or other things of that sort as a cudgel against the man.
Using terms like this — poking fun at someone for something they can’t help — hurts people who occupy that same space. People who are overweight see you making fun of a man’s weight and it hurts them the same way. Calling her “Man” Coulter exacerbates the fear of passing that many transgender women have.
And yes, calling Walker “Chief Shitting Bull”, makes Indigenous Americans feel like they don’t belong in this space, because you’ll use the tragic memory of a man who just wanted to live in his homeland to poke fun at someone.
Be better people than conservatives are.
*I have a connection to Matoaka, seeing as I’m Pamunkey, so using this as a slur against someone is extremely angering to me. Matoaka was a sad young woman who was brainwashed into accepting a religion she had no part in, kidnapped across an entire ocean, and died in a land she’d never known with no one she loved — as no different from a carnival sideshow act.
**FFS, my name is Kevin — it means “gentle in nature” or “handsome in birth”, there’s absolutely no difference between Indigenous American naming conventions and everyone else’s naming conventions yet I always see people use “savage speak” when they “translate” Indigenous names.