"Angry NBC Tech Quits, Siouxs"

Blogger Adrienne Keene adds a note to the story of the Native employee taunted with a hanging doll. Judging by the URL, the article's original title was "Angry NBC Tech Quits, Siouxs."



Native Ex-NBC Employee "Siouxs" for HarassmentClever, NY Post, clever. A convenient homophone for sue is SIOUX. I'm rolling my eyes right now, though I realize you can't see. In the grand scheme of things this may not seem to be a big deal, and I also realize that it was probably some tech intern who made the url, chuckling to him or herself about the cleverness of it all, not thinking anyone would look closely enough to see it. Well I saw it, and to me it points to EXACTLY what this article was talking about. When Native people are harassed because of their heritage, there's always an underlying smirk. This man had a doll dressed as a Native American (a very stereotypical one, at that) strung up on a noose in his office. That is completely unacceptable, yet your subtle play on words makes the whole story into a joke. "Har, Har, Har look at this Indian SIOUXing NBC! I wonder if he will take his payment in firewater!"

I can hear you now. "Whoa there. Just calm down, bury the hatchet, smoke the peace pipe, woman! We were just kidding!" I'm sick of Native issues being made into a joke and racism against Native people being condoned and ignored.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Understanding Implicit Bias and Hipster Racism.