A friend of the blog emails:
Last night at a prayer meeting one of the members of the group told us that Minneapolis public schools made a change to job titles. This friend of mine is a teacher at Minneapolis South. He said it was announced yesterday that all titles in the Minneapolis public school system with the term Chief in them will be changed. It’s the end of racism as we know it.
Excising a word that existed in a constant context in the English language for hundreds of years?
Yeah, that oughtta fix it.
Soon restaurants will no longer hire chefs. Same origin as chief. As one who considers himself knowledgeable about language and grammar, I’m distressed by the continual perversion of speech. Use of plural personal pronouns for individuals. The southern mushmouth “y’all” appearing in emails sent by a Macalester grad I’m considering hiring as an editor. “Woke” is not an adjective, it’s a verb.
From Etemology.com
chief (n.)
c. 1300, “head, leader, captain; the principal or most important part of anything;” from Old French chief “leader, ruler, head” of something, “capital city” (10c., Modern French chef), from Vulgar Latin *capum, from Latin caput “head,” also “leader, chief person; summit; capital city” (from PIE root *kaput- “head”). Meaning “head of a clan” is from 1570s; later extended to headmen of Native American tribes (by 1713; William Penn, 1680s, called them kings). Commander-in-chief is attested from 1660s.
As golfdoc correctly points out, “Chief” meaning “Native American leader” is relatively recent usage and if you want to be politically correct, it’s an example of White people slapping their own words on Native Americans. Rather than stop calling our leaders ‘chief,’ we should stop calling Native American leaders ‘chief.’
What’s the Ojibwe phrase for “head of the tribe”?
Another exercise of power by white people!