you don't say "there's too many Indians around here..." to someone that just employed two on her team

[twoopsie]

OK I think I may have overreacted, but in my early morning meeting my manger started saying "there are too many Indians around here.."

I've recently employed two for my team, so I butted in with a long rant including the British empire, the equality act and so on while raising my voice.

He actually was saying "there are too many Indians and not enough chiefs" as a general statement for our department.

Was IBU to but in? I think I've made a tit of myself

I think your boss is the one who should feel embarrassed at having used the phrase tbh.

American Indian is actually preferred over Native American by many American Indians, but either term is generally fine. American Indian is the only ethnicity we name with "American" first in the name, which is as it should be. All the rest of us have our origin named first as in Scottish-American, Anglo-American, Irish-American, Italian-American, African American, etc.

This is soooo funny. Just goes to show that the world has gone PC nuts. What about the saying ..... "pay peanuts and you get monkeys". Is that racist? Another "get over yourselves" is in order here.

And yes YABU for " jumping the gun" and not asking what the man meant before launching into your oratorical anti whatever spei

haha that is funny but UANBU as he shouldnt use this phrase today. is non PC and unprofessional in todays world

To be honest, I think YWBU. I wouldn't dream of raising my voice at my manager, regardless of what he said. I would discuss any issues I had at my next 1:1. And in this case it would have served me well, as I wouldn't have accused my boss of making racist comments in a public forum.

"I wouldn't have accused my boss of making racist comments in a public forum."

True. maybe would have been best not to have accused him in a public meeting

It was a 1:1

Did you laugh about it with him afterwards once you got the gyst (and calmed down) Otherwise, if I was him, I'd think you were a bit "highly strung"

pay peanuts and you get monkeys". Is that racist?

Quite possibly, yes.

Although I thought the phrase was generally too many chiefs and not enough Indians?

I can imagine him being completely confused as you had a bit of a rant about a completely different continent to the one he was thinking of...

Only if that is how your mind works - in which case you are racist.

It was a 1:1

So why on earth did you not say "what do you mean by that?" Before you launched into you righteous speech?

I still think that it is unacceptable that you raised your voice at your manager. You shouldn't be raising your voice to your manager or colleagues, it isn't appropriate.

at scones. of course its not how damn ridiculous.

It depends on the context. If you said it in a workplace that employees black people at low wages, I think some of those people might perceive it as racist.

I'm still a bit embarrassed today said OP

And so you should be.

Why on earth would you think that? Like another poster just said, depends how "your" mind works.

Are people on here genuinely not aware that 'monkey' can be a racially charged term, depending on the context?

But in that context ( pay peanuts, get monkeys) it is definitely not racist. Speciest maybe.

No, people on here genuinely feel that the world has gone PC mad and you can turn almost anything around to have the wrong meaning, then rant about it in a righteous manner just like the OP did.

A right eous manner.

That's leftist that is!

Yeah, how dare you Nomama!

Oh and you shouldnt be on here anyway no mama, this is site is for mothers, hence the name

In Japanese, I would agree, Twinks

(Remains cryptic - ish)

How did your manager react to it?

As an American Metis person, I've never heard of that expression before and would have at first felt awkward and pushed for clarification. While the general expression as explained here does rely on the common Western homogeneous image that many American Indigenous are trying to change (obviously not all of the over 500 American Indigenous nations refer to our leaders as chiefs), it seems a general expression rather than one that is dus

I found the debate on what to call us here interesting and well meaning, I find that the general history of the terms usage often gets left out. It does varies widely by person as do most such labels (I prefer American Indigenous peoples/nations when talking about all of us, nation names when referring to an individual person or nation). American Indian is not outdated or an insult (Red Indian very much is as that is tied to other slurs used in documents about payments for our murders) and many use it these days for themselves and when discussing treaty rights and obligations (as American Indian is how nations and individuals are commonly referred to in US treaty documents). The American Indian Movement - AIM - is one of the biggest US solidarity group for American Indigenous peoples and has aided in many issues between the US government and Indigenous nation's rights.