So apparently there used to be an Advanced-level square dance call entitled "Half Breed Thru". I say 'used to be' because the call is, as of a few weeks ago, named "Brace Thru". I discovered this because at the Peppers dance tonight, the folks who dance Advanced were whining about the political-correctness-motivated change.
WHINE MOAR.
This is an open letter from January, from a California square dance club, petitioning for precisely that change of name. Note this paragraph:
[A]t the time that I introduced the motion I was calling and teaching regularly in Round Valley, both in the schools and at a monthly community dance. Round Valley is home to the second largest Indian Reservation in California. I had a regular weekly club in the closest town, Willits, which danced Plus and was dabbling in A-1. I mentioned to one of the tribal leaders that if their students continued to progress in the activity they would eventually meet up with a call named “Half Breed Thru,” and asked him how much of a problem he thought it might be. He asked me with disbelief if this was actually the name of dance move, and then he told me to fix it before any of his kids had to be subjected to hearing it.
I am just a
little more worried, re this issue, about the opinion of mixed-race people who have been insulted by the term 'half-breed' than I am about the opinion of the white-as-snow folks who dance with Peppers.
On the other hand, the call name
has been changed. So there's hope.
