Native American Lawyer on MSNBC: ‘The Word Pocahontas Is Not a Slur’

HAYES: “Do you think — are you surprised — well, the reaction to it, it does seem to me that this is a slur. People understand that. Do you think that this sort of way in which this plays throughout the public conversation recognizes this sort of offensiveness of it?”
ROSS: “Yeah, you know, the thing is the word Pocahantas is not a slur. That’s a person’s name. And I’m not suggesting that you said that. But it was a historical person. But obviously, he is using this to play — to be entertained and to entertain other people who find our community, native people to be funny or to be novel. And Chris, let me just tell you really quick, you know, for our community, for native people, if you go to a powwow, a powwow is a Native American celebration where there is dancing and where there is music. And if you go there, the two groups that we absolutely revere, just like anybody else, there is no unanimity of native thought. But the two groups we revere are veterans and elders. And somehow this dim witted completely mush-mouthed fool managed to offend the two groups with which he said he was honoring at this time in front of a portrait of Andrew Jackson, who as you pointed out, signed the Indian Removal Act and killed thousands of native people.”
HAYES: “Yeah, that was a particularly incredible cherry on top of this entire scene that we got to see today.”
ROSS: “It’s horrible.”