(Ethnic group) offended

Trying to determine which aspersions cast upon my ancestors would offend me.

Actually, none. I don’t get offended. I get pissed off, but never (except in sarcasm and irony) will these words leave my mouth: “You hurt my feelings.” Or, “You have insulted my ancestors.”

But, to the ethnicity. English, Irish, Scots, Scandinavian (unknown specific, but I’ll take Danish, because most Vikings were Danish and everybody loves a Viking). Some relatives would like to (or do) claim American Indian, but there is no proof. Some relatives do not (No, no, no) claim African anywhere along the family tree, and there is no proof, so that is in the “probably not” column.

Tangent on unsubstantiated American Indian blood: Only from one of the favored tribes, don’t you know. Cherokee leads the list. Seminole possibly on list because they are, after all, “The only Indian tribe that never surrendered to the U.S. government and, technically, are still at war.” So I heard several times while growing up. But nobody can be technically at war if a declaration was never issued.

Not favored tribes: Apache (too small) or Choctaw (too dark). Plains Indians are out because none of my relatives lived on the plains.

Anybody can say any stupid thing about the English, Irish, Scots and Scandinavian he or she desires, and such stupids will not offend me.

To research this column, I searched “ethnic group offended.” One of the more humorous hits was:

http://www.csusm.edu/equity/

Office of Diversity, Educational Equity and Inclusion for California State University San Marcos. I read a new phrase – “cultural appropriation”
-- and a new title, “obmbuds.”

At first I thought the site was a joke, a well-thought-out satire. But, no. The AVP-DEE is quite serious in what he does. So serious is he, that his smiling face leads the home page.

Oh, the DEE faculty/staff associations include: African-American Faculty/Staff Association; Asian Pacific Islander Faculty Staff Association; Latino Association of Faculty & Staff: and, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning and Ally Faculty Staff Association.

Clicking on links: All AAFSA members are black! All APIFSA members are Asian looking! There is no picture of LAFS members, nor for LGBTQA members, but the link does say the LGBTQA “promotes the various LGBTQA cultures.”