One of my items concerns a hot controversy in northern Wisconsin — where a teacher handed out a math assignment. The assignment asked the question, “What happened after Chief Short Cake died?” Then you solved some problems. And, in so doing, you were shown the answer: “Squaw bury Short Cake.”Stupid liberals. Jay thinks they should chill out! Know WHO ELSE might think stupid liberals should chill out? Ha ha, not Hitler: guys who burn witches.
The teacher was flayed for a hate crime, basically: that word “squaw.” He was even condemned in the London Daily Mail, the world’s most popular newspaper, as I understand it!
Some of my mail might say, “Whatever ‘squaw’ was in the past, it’s now an epithet on par with the N-word.” I don’t really buy it. But I realize that words are subject to fashion as hemlines are — probably even more so. And if the custodians of the culture declare a word radioactive: well, I guess it is.
In the column, I say, “Society can be very puritanical, about certain things. The puritanicalness doesn’t change; only the ‘things’ do, if you know what I mean.” If the Salem witch-burners were alive today, and beheld our reaction to the Wisconsin teacher, they might say, “Whoa, chill, dudes. Ease off. Life’s too short, you know?”
Case CLOSED, stupid liberals.
Modest trolling, let's see if it works:
