In the most recent issue of City Pages is the following letter to the editor:
If you say “Nordeast,” you are a racist: Your reference to Nordeast is offensive and highly politically incorrect … The Nordeast word goes back to the Eastern European immigrants who early on populated lower Northeast Minneapolis; they were learning how to speak English and had a problem with pronunciation, often using words such as “dem” for “them” and “dose” for “those.”
It may be “offensive” to you, Concerned Reader, but it’s not racist nor is “politically incorrect” IMHO. Is the “Oreo” cookie next on your list? Are you going to go after Ole and Lena jokes (or anyone who speaks in a funny Scandahoovian accent?), too?
9 Reader Comments
8:39 am
I had to trim your post a little, Noodleman, to make it fit our format. Noodleman had some additional comments, as follows:
I admire cultural sensivity as much as the next guy but “Nordeast” has never been used in a deragotory manner AFAIK. It has been claimed by contemporary generations — including the sons and daughters of the immigrants who settled there — in the same manner that Frogtown or the Dago sandwich have been used.
Rather, I think Concerned Reader may be racist … that by homogenizing and removing unique cultural identities, he/she is trying to foist — and force — everyone to think only one way: The mind-set of “guilty, white liberals.”
9:02 am
I speculate that the term “racist” was put on “Concerned Reader” LTE headline by the staff at CP to catch the eye and maybe push a few people’s buttons (it clearly worked).
I geneally don’t worry much about the opinions of someone who won’t sign their name (I’m Bob Moffitt, BTW) to an LTE or online comment. This one almost sounds like a spoof, but I have meet self-appointed defenders of various demographic groups, so who knows.
I, for one, will continue to use the term Nordeast with the same pride it residents feel for the term.
9:03 am
Thanks, Max. I did have trouble formatting after pasting in the letter, and appreciate the assistance.
9:54 am
IMO, the term Nordeast celebrates the heritage of that part of town.
If you want to hear people speaking with a similar inflection in 2009, visit Rhinelander, Wisconsin.
10:01 am
Nord is many foreign languages term for the word north, including Italian, French and German. This person needs to get a life
10:10 am
I agree with Ed Kohler. My family finds a point of pride and oral history in discussing and mimicking the way our immigrant ancestors adapted to their new home in Eastern MN and Western WI. Not to mention my father and uncles’ childhood TV friend Axel and his Dog.
5:03 pm
So, when my mom refers to Germans as Krauts, is that racist too?
/we’re almost fully German.
7:38 pm
Don’t worry, I already called Al Sharpton on my Blackfone(tm). He should be here in a matter of days to protest this injustice.
11:44 pm
I have a friend who headed a band a few years back here in Minneapolis, and their band name was “Nordeast.” Two of the band members grew up in Nordeast, and they were damn proud Nordeasterners. Sometimes I wish I would have grown up in Nordeast, don’cha know.