* Added excerpt for ok-hand * Added excerpt for AsAm * Added excerpt for East Asian * Added excerpt for South Asian * Added excerpt for SE Asian * Added excerpt for bierasure * Added excerpt for biromantic * Added excerpt for bisexual * Added excerpt for cisgender * Added excerpt for crazy * Add excerpt for dumb * Add excerpt for derpy * Add excerpt for digital blackface * Add excerpt for dude * Add excerpt for ESL * Add excerpt for fatphobia * Add excerpt for gaslighting * Add excerpt for gender pronouns * Add excerpt for Hispanic * Add excerpt for hysterical * Add excerpt for latino * Add excerpt for latinx * Add excerpt for mansplain * Add excerpt for minorities * Add excerpt for minoritised * Add excerpt for neopronouns * Add excerpt for non-binary * Add excerpt for OCD * Add excerpt for Oriental * Add excerpt for ORM * Add excerpt for pansexual * Add excerpt for performative allyship * Add excerpt for polyamory * Add excerpt for pow-wow * Add excerpt for preferred pronouns * Add excerpt for pronouns * Add excerpt for r-word * Add excerpt for sane * Add excerpt for sanity check * Add excerpt for savage * Add excerpt for spaz * Add excerpt for suicide * Add excerpt for tone deaf * Add excerpt for transfeminine * Add excerpt for URM * Add excerpt for unreal * Add excerpt for white feminism * Add excerpt for white fragility * Add excerpt for women and people of colour * Add excerpt for transgender * Fix spelling for "existence" Co-authored-by: Tatiana Mac <github@tatianamac.com> * Fix wording for digital blackface excerpt Co-authored-by: Tatiana Mac <github@tatianamac.com> * Add indicators for flag levels Co-authored-by: Tatiana Mac <github@tatianamac.com> * Revert "Add indicators for flag levels" This reverts commit a291d5fa668156970e2496710bd6c39a53819e1b, because the flag level is already indicated in the excerpt structure. Co-authored-by: Oscar <ovlb@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Tatiana Mac <github@tatianamac.com> Co-authored-by: Tatiana Mac <tatiana.t.mac@gmail.com>
4.5 KiB
title | slug | speech | defined | excerpt | flag | reading | alt_words | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
savage | savage | noun or adjective | true | (adj) not domesticated, primative or civilised; wild, uncultivated; cold-blooded; colloquially used to mean ruthless or unconscionable. (noun) an undomesticated person, subhuman. historically used to by European settlers to dehumanize Indigenous peoples |
|
|
|
(adj) not domesticated, primative or civilised; wild, uncultivated; cold-blooded; colloquially used to mean ruthless or unconscionable. (noun) an undomesticated person, subhuman.
Issues
"Following the discovery of America, the phrase "savage" for indigenous peoples was used disparagingly to justify colonialism. The concept of the savage gave Europeans the supposed right to establish colonies without considering the possibility of preexisting, functional societies."1.
The term savage is deeply rooted in settler colonialism, used primarily to justify colonisation by dehumanising Indigenous people, in particular, with regard to North American Indigenous peoples.
The theories behind the "noble savage" led to scientific racism. Boarding schools were constructed to separate Indigenous children from their parents, becuase white colonisers didn't believe that they were equipped to be parents.
“When the school is on the reserve the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write … [T]he Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.”2
Impact
By continuing to use this word, rooted in colonist history and context, while Indigenous people's lands are still being occupied and unceded, while more and more Indigenous women and girls continue to go missing, we are perpetuating a word that has been used to justify the past and the ongoing harm we commit against Indigenous peoples. Seemingly small actions like this contribute to the normalisation of the harm.
Denying the etymology or power of the word as irrelevant is denying the history of its strength: Savage has been used to dehumanise Indigenous people in order to justify oppressing them or granting them fewer rights. The justifications have even included Supreme Court cases.
The imagery associated with the "savage" is used to justify oppressive and systematic racism against Indigenous peoples; that they somehow deserve injustice because it is their own fault.
Considerations
Rihanna has a lingerie line called Savage by Fenty. Megan Thee Stallion has a song called "Savage."
The intersection of oppression of Black and Indigenous cultures is one worth noting. Gwen Benaway's piece, Rihanna’s Lingerie Line Brings Up a Complicated Discussion About Language addresses this complexity: "As much as we like clear right and wrongs with easy retweetable hot takes, some issues—like the dialogue about savage between Indigenous and Black communities—isn’t one to simplify."