Let's not complicate, politicize, or broaden to include food a straightforward comment made about people in the USA, a comment whose context and about which objective facts are neither ambiguous nor inviting of multiple interpretations. To wit:
- The person who allegedly made the statement is American.
- He is not just American, but an American politician (i.e., a government representative), and as such - in my opinion - should be expected to fully understand the two definitions that follow, though his statement ("Native Americans [in the USA] should be sent back where they came from") reflects otherwise, hence my characterization of it as ignorant
- In the USA, the term "Native American" is precisely and legally defined as: American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, or Native Hawaiians. Some of these terms are further defined (e.g., by the U.S. Small Business Administration, here ) as follows:
Quote:
Alaska Native means a citizen of the United States who is a person of one-fourth degree or more Alaskan Indian (including Tsimshian Indians not enrolled in the Metlaktla Indian Community), Eskimo, or Aleut blood, or a combination of those bloodlines. The term includes, in the absence of proof of a minimum blood quantum, any citizen whom a Native village or Native group regards as an Alaska Native if their father or mother is regarded as an Alaska Native.
Indian tribe means any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community of Indians, including any ANC, which is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians, or is recognized as such by the State in which the tribe, band, nation, group, or community resides.
Native Hawaiian means any individual whose ancestors were natives, prior to 1778, of the area which now comprises the State of Hawaii.
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- In the USA, the legal definitions of "Native American" and "natural-born" (i.e., born on USA soil) differ.