From David Skinner at Slate:
So, if only you knew the story behind redskin you would find it offensive, right? Well, not exactly.
In 2005, the Indian language scholar Ives Goddard of the Smithsonian Institute published a remarkable and consequential study of redskin’s early history. His findings shifted the dates for the word’s first appearance in print by more than a century and shed an awkward light on the contemporary debate. Goddard found, in summary, that “the actual origin of the word is entirely benign.”
Redskin, he learned, had not emerged first in English or any European language. The English term, in fact, derived from Native American phrases involving the color red in combination with terms for flesh, skin, and man. These phrases were part of a racial vocabulary that Indians often used to designate themselves in opposition to others whom they (like the Europeans) called black, white, and so on.
Interesting read. Check out the whole article from the beginning.
