So a mini-essay on why I do not like the word “Eskimo.” I
understand why a lot of people from my community use it and I know that some
people would say that they’ve appropriated the word and made it their own. I get it. It is not unlike other Indigenous people using Indian to self-identify. But my first
response to the question “Why don’t you like using the word ‘Eskimo’?” would
be, “Well, what is wrong with using Inupiaq to self-identify?”
My other response is a little more complex. To me, “Eskimo” is not a
real person. It is an image, a stereotype, and as of lately, it is even a
Halloween costume. People may not know what you’re talking about when you say
Inupiaq, but say “Eskimo” instead and more often than not, they think of
primitive Eskimos in fur parkas and mukluks who live in igloos and have a
million different words for snow. Sorry folks, not my reality.
But it is more than simply a stereotype. I read a book awhile
back entitled Give Me My Father’s Body,
which chronicled the experiences of a young Greenland Inuit boy named Minik who
was taken to New York by Robert Peary, an American explorer. Peary brought
approximately 6 Inuit to New York as “specimens” to display at American Museum
of Natural History. I remember seeing one photograph in which Minik was on
display holding an “Eskimo” sign. I found that particular image jarring and
upsetting (I will post the image as soon as I dig out the book from storage).
While Minik was from Greenland, it is that attitude people have
towards the “Eskimo” that upsets me.
“Eskimo” is something to be on display in the museum, it is to be
studied in the name of science. “Eskimo” is the dehumanized version of an
Inupiaq person. Granted that Minik’s case took place in the late 1800s, I think
some of that legacy carries on today.
I know that when people say “Eskimo” they may not necessarily
have this in mind, but again, what is so wrong with self-identifying as
Inupiaq?
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