"More PC nonsense" Topic

The ending of the column shows how bad this has gotten.
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An official at the U.S. Naval Academy strongly is urging officers to no longer refer to the exercise "Indian runs" as such in order not to offend Native Americans, according to a series of emails sent from the academy's equal opportunity adviser and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Master Chief Christopher Gary informed all officers at the USNA complex in a May 14 email slugged, "Seriously Folks—This is Stereotyping," that it is not appropriate to use the term "Indian run" in reference to the jogging exercise in which midshipmen run single file, and the man in the rear of the line sprints to the front, a process which is then repeated.

"The term ‘Indian Run' is used to describe the alternating sprint exercises at various levels here at the Academy, and it is widely used among the public," Gary wrote in the May 14 email. "I hope all can already see the problem with this, but let me be clear, this is a form of stereotyping."

Gary told the Free Beacon in an interview that while there is no officially sanctioned term for the exercise, he sent the email as a way to open up dialogue among USNA leaders.

"It was something internal to say, ‘Hey, can we come up something different?' " Gary said. "I thought, ‘Hey, lets discuss this among the leadership here.'"

Gary's email comes as Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren finds herself in deep water for claiming she has Cherokee Indian heritage.

Gary's missive goes on to explain that while the term "Indian run" is commonplace, many in the institution are likely to find it offensive—and that it could cause the USNA an unneeded political headache.

"The simple question is often the tip of the iceberg; as with icebergs, its what's underneath that has sunk many ships," he wrote. "I am asking everyone to revisit practices that may have caused you to pause, so we can keep our ship afloat.
I'm also seeking input on an alternative name for these sprints."

In a subsequent email sent Tuesday, Gary offered several alternatives to the supposedly offensive phrase, among them "back to front sprints," "drafting sprints," "speed intervals," and "leap frogs."

Gary also noted that he received "52 emails in response" to his initial request.

Some of those who offered Gary feedback accused him of acting like the so-called "PC police."

"People warned me about being overly sensitive," Gary said. "I understand their concerns, but we can't fix everything. It's just something to look into."

"Several made attempts at establishing the term's origin; two cautioned against being overly sensitive; and one, who self reported as being of Native American decent, said he was always offended by the term, but didn't speak out because he just wanted to fit in," Gary wrote in the May 15 email. "We may not have the ability to remedy every concern that comes our way, but should be willing to address them. What the responses overwhelmingly show is that many of you are at least willing to consider things you might not have otherwise."

Earlier today, Gary sent out another email apologizing for his use of the term "leap frogs"—a term that he speculates could be seen as offensive to the French.

"It was brought to my attention this morning that the term ‘frog' was used as a slur to refer to Franco-Americans," he wrote. "There is ample information to support this concern. Under the list of alternatives I offered for ‘Indian Runs', please strike from the list ‘Leap Frogs.'"

Gary said he was simply looking to open "an opportunity for dialogue and to be reasonable and just look at it."

I guess next we'll have folks objecting to "speed intervals" because of the apparent endorsement of illegal drugs, "back to front sprints," based on the sexual position of choice (or necessity) for some people, and "drafting sprints," as some sort of "code word" for speaking out against the all-volunteer force and the lack of a draft. Heck, "sprints" may be upsetting to all of the handicapped people who can't sprint.

Don't we have more important things to do, really?

JJ

The Army switched to calling them Last Man Up runs a while ago.

Sexist!

The Horror…..

Next up, they are going to ban the use of the name "Geronimo" before jumping out of aircraft…

I'm loathe to criticize a military man who has risen to such a significant rank, but really? Really? Really?!? This is what we're worried about in the US Navy? Whether something is called "Indian sprints?"
Iran's trying to get boomers and close the Persian Gulf, China's making moves on the western Pacific, pirates are plaguing the Indian Ocean, and who knows what Putin will decide he wants, and we're worried about somebody crying because we call an exercise "Indian sprints?"
Next we'll want to change Farragut's quote to "Oh, phooey— torpedoes. Let's be extra careful."

Pffffffffffffttttttttttt!

May as well call them Sand People Sprints.

What gets me is that a "self identified" Native American is insulted by the use of a term that most Native Americans don't identify with in the first place.

Google has already closed the Persian Gulf. Apparently, some Arab states objected and it's the Arabian Gulf now.

True. Iran are suing Google over it. Seems they like it being the Persian Gulf.

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What a world we live in.

Remember the good ole days, when folks could speak their minds, giving an honest opinion, abiding by their word, and the news was just that….the news, not some agenda?

Me too. I miss it.

Why not 'Runnings' ?

OK, offensive to diarrhea sufferers.

But that 'Last Man Up' is offensive to anyone suffering
from – well, y'all know…

<Remember the good ole days, when folks could speak their minds, giving an honest opinion, abiding by their word, and the news was just that….the news, not some agenda?>

Not really, no. The agendas were still there, they were just hidden behind a pretext of objectivity. And in those good old days, there were an awful lot of people who could not speak their minds, and were in fact largely invisible to society. Pluses and minuses.

I'm just waiting for the day things get so bad that the makers of the product Spic 'N Span feel compelled to apologize to the millions of Hispanic housekeepers for the name they chose to one of the most popular cleaning products ever:

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Things are just getting way out of hand.

Dan

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Didn't the tribes call that 'wolf-running'?

It's the end of the world as we know it! My god. What next? Genocide!?!?

Yeah, just replace "indian" with honkey-pig, or n****r, or jewboy and you can see how really innoffensive "indian running" is.

(please read as if written with heavy sarcasm – because it was. The term is racist and challenging this is not "Political Correctness gone mad")

yup, Rich is right – how will we be able to live if they have to change a term used in the military, it'd be much better if they meddled with important things instead. rolls eyes.

Changing from Indian Sprints is probably a good thing. The argument against Leap Frogs however is asinine.

Has anyone with native american origins expressed concern over the name of the exercise or is it just white people getting offended on their behalf ?

probably the latter if it's like the UK when for example Muslims turn round and say 'well, we didn't ask for X,Y,Z – it was the bloody PC brigade sticking their nose in' – normally the neighbourhood watch curtain twitching god squad over here – the kind normal people – religious or not, neighbourhood watch or not, tend to try and avoid. :-)

The term is racist and challenging this is not "Political Correctness gone mad"

I don't know if it is racist or not. My Amerind friends just laugh at folks getting worked up it. My point was that as soon as you ring the cultural sensitivity bell, you then start getting the nonsense about the other things that might be offensive to other people – like "leap frog."

The argument against Leap Frogs however is asinine.

There are always people who are looking for a reason to be offended by something, and my point was that this was illustrative of what may be a good idea then gets stupid from the domino effect. Yes the leap frog argument may be asinine, but that hardly stops folks from upsetting themselves over things that are taken out of context or were clearly never meant in the manner they are perceived, such as Spic and Span, a chink in your armor, a nip in the air when it is cold out, history as sexist (herstory) ad nauseaum.

Oh, get real, 20thMaine. "Indian" isn't offensive and never was; it was just ignorant on the part of Columbus, who thought he had made it around the world to the eastern edge of the "Indies." The term was no more meant to be offensive than "African," "European,""Chinese" or "Japanese" or any other regional term for an indigenous people. If "Indian" is offensive, then "Native American" is offensive, given that "America" is not an indigenous word, but an Italian name. (Not to mention that the term makes no sense, as "native" literally means "born in a region." Hence, Saxon-descendant me, would be a "native American," as I certainly was born in America.) The terms you used, however, were created deliberately to be offensive in the first place. There is no equivalency.

(By the way, having been a colleague of an actual Blackfoot Indian, who held the national title for traditional dance, and was the only man I have ever known to have two bald eagle feathers as part of his costume— for which he held the very rare and required Federal permits— I know that the "Native American" appellation was originally considered utter nonsense by traditionalists among the Blackfoot tribe. According to him, they preferred "American Indian" as the general term, and were insulted by the insinuation that they found it offensive. This was back in the early '80s, when the media push to change the term, largely touted by bleach-white media twits, began.)

Personally, I think anyone who can't deal with the word "Indian" has other issues than the term itself. It would be as if I were upset about being called "white" (I'm actually sort of a pinkish beige) or "Caucasian" (I'm not from the Caucas area of Eurasia) or "Saxon" (I'm not from Saxony or Saxon England) or whatever. You can even call me "paleface" or "honky", or, if you like, "cracker," though I'll know you're stretching. None of that is really offensive, though it's often intended to be, and in any case says more about the speaker than it does about me. So, frankly, anybody truly upset about the whole thing needs to "grow a pair." Oh, wait, that's offensive to women. Well, they can grow their own pairs. Or how about, we can all just grow up. (Dang. Now I'm attacking children.)

Okay, let me create a new term: wussult: any innoccuous phrase or term of minor importance which a group or individual arbitrarily elevates to the status of grossly offensive, regardless of the actual meaning or intent of the term. As in "That's not an insult, it's just a wussult."

First nations ? That suit you honky ?

I'll leave it to you to have the activity renamed "paleface honky running" – good luck with that by the way

(To be clear :

You can even call me "paleface" or "honky

"Paleface honky running." No, that would be me chugging along a sidewalk. And you don't want to see that.

Guess we'll have to go back to "Redskins runs"

I notice that on any thread like this, there are always a few defenders of the status quo who have
a Native American friend who doesn't mind being called an Indian or a redskin,
or a black friend who considers colored a term of endearment,
or a Mexican friend who thinks wetback is a badge of honor,
or an Asian friend who thinks being called slant-eyes is all in fun,
or a Muslim friend who finds the term towelhead amusing,
or a wife who laughs when her husband calls her a .

I don't buy any of it. (And I'm curious to see if any of the above terms get bleeped.)

Times change, guys. Call it Last Man Up or the Wolf Run and let it go. It's not like the US Army has such a great track record (track record – see what I did there?) with Native Americans in the first place.

That's very true – a couple of years ago there was a bit of a fuss about Prince Charles – he has nick-names for the people he plays polo with.

One of them he calls "Sooty". Would it surprise anyone to know that Sooty is the only non-white person in the team ?

But it's ok, because Sooty says he likes the nick-name, and he can't see anything racist in it.

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And that is weird.

Guess we'll have to go back to "Redskins runs"

That sounds more like the northern version of Montezuma's Revenge…

This comedy skit seems somehow appropriate here

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Well, and good luck putting that into action !

Well, I have some Cherokee in me, more than what's her name in Mass. And I simpley don't care. However, I remember when a chief in the Navy was someone who was a vet and had earned repect because of their knowledge and experiance. As opposed to this PC wuss. How times have changed.

This guy sounds like he has no real job and is just there until his retirement paperwork comes through….