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Comment by ozborn | Hacker News Reader

The parent post is referring to Native Americans in California.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_Californ...

I was being sarcastic, I thought non-native American people stopped calling native Americans "Indians". Btw love the downvotes (sarcasm).

Sarcasm or not, your post is racially insensitive, hence the downvotes.

Sorry? I am pointing the fact that I thought it was at minima "outdated", if not racist to reffer to native american as indians, the downvotes comes from people thinking it is ok to call them indians and I am being too sensitive to raise this issue.

Anyway I think HN is a good source of information, and I enjoy it, but there is something that is probably inherit to all vote based online platform that turns social online interactions in the same way, interesting fact. I will stay a passive user when my karma reaches 0. Peace.

https://youtu.be/7VyfP0AkQbw

The main issue here is that you made a joke about race. It wasn’t funny, and was extremely distasteful. If this is still lost on you, then I suggest you take a moment to educate yourself on the matter and consider why this was offensive to so many people.

Is the list of the safe topics to make jokes published somewhere?

Obviously not, but I think it’s pretty straightforward: use common sense. If you think someone might take offense, then don’t say it.

Anyone might take offense, that's the point. Offense is taken, not given.

The proper way to refer to the indigenous peoples of the America is honestly a pretty complicated topic. "American Indian" is still generally considered valid. In some cases it may even be more correct, like when referring to indigenous peoples from outside the modern United States. It's typically preferable to name specific groups though, as indigenous peoples weren't homogenous. Just "Indian" is pretty outdated, but you'll occasionally see it on things with a lot of historical baggage, like the BIA.

What about real Indian people? I understand it is a complicated topic and I have no problem discussing it, but as long as a comment does not contains insults, I think a comment should not be downvoted just because you disagree.

Many of the first people of what is now known by many as the United States prefer the label of "Indian" over the label "Native Americans".

A very excellent (if also very "edutainment") exploration of labels and the label of "Indian", based on conversation with people who identify as "Indians", can be viewed here:

https://youtu.be/kh88fVP2FWQ

The term appears to be almost as offensive to Canadians as the n-word is to Americans.

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