Manitoba MP stated the term “barnburner” is a “derogatory term against indigenous people"
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Summary
In a recent comment, Manitoba MP Lea Ghazan stated that the term "barn burner" is a derogatory term used against Indigenous people. I looked it up and found no evidence of this being the case. And if you're curious about this as I was, check out the link in the comments.
Transcript
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Manitoba MP Lea Ghazan stated that the term barn burner is a derogatory term used against
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Indigenous people. Ghazan made the comment on a recent Facebook post but didn't provide
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further explanation as to her sources. The term barn burner is commonly used to describe
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something intensely exciting, highly exciting. There's no evidence to suggest that this term
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refers to indigenous people in any kind of derogatory way. And while I think this term is
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familiar to many people, it was unfamiliar to me, so I went and looked it up. Apparently,
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according to Merriam-Webster dictionary, barn burner is an informal American English term
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referring to, quote, very exciting, thrilling, or intense events, often used in context of sports,
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elections or debates. And etymology websites say the term originates in the mid-1800s and is an
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allusion to the story of an old Dutchman who relieved himself of rats by burning his barns,
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which were infested. I didn't find any evidence it was a derogatory term against Indigenous people.
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Last year, Gazan is the same MP who introduced a bill in the House of Commons to jail people
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for what she called, quote, residential school denialism. And the even more interesting thing
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about the term barn burner is I found that historical sources say that the term was also
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used by progressive political factions in the New York State Democratic Party. So it's a
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political term. It's said that the group were willing to take extreme measures to address
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corruption, even at the cost of damaging existing institutions, but didn't have anything to do with
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Indigenous community at all. And if you're curious about this as I was, check out the link in the comments.