[obligatory] It is inappropriate and morally reprehensible. [/obligatory]
Can you not look at nuclear reactions and separate that they are used to make a nuclear bomb?
It was a succinct phrase. It is visually and connotatively arresting. As is evinced by the amount of ire it has provoked.
As a side note, I still read the phrase 'wild Indians' with an image of children misbehaving, especially as it is paralleled later by Barbarians, a generic term for uncivilized behavior. So to me the phrase 'feather not dot' was a preemptive defense against moral grandstanding; what's more, to me it conjured up (in just three words) the very history of the name 'indian' (which when googled on my browser, despite having no interest in baseball, only returns the Cleveland team) - a name misapplied by foreigners.
Now, reading the poster's later defenses[1], I can see that he in fact had no such thoughts when using it...but I am a relativist when it comes to art and believe the perception of the audience supersedes the intent of the artist, and so for me, the phrase still stands as evocative without being ugly.
[obligatory] It is inappropriate and morally reprehensible. [/obligatory]
Can you not look at nuclear reactions and separate that they are used to make a nuclear bomb?
It was a succinct phrase. It is visually and connotatively arresting. As is evinced by the amount of ire it has provoked.
As a side note, I still read the phrase 'wild Indians' with an image of children misbehaving, especially as it is paralleled later by Barbarians, a generic term for uncivilized behavior. So to me the phrase 'feather not dot' was a preemptive defense against moral grandstanding; what's more, to me it conjured up (in just three words) the very history of the name 'indian' (which when googled on my browser, despite having no interest in baseball, only returns the Cleveland team) - a name misapplied by foreigners.
Now, reading the poster's later defenses[1], I can see that he in fact had no such thoughts when using it...but I am a relativist when it comes to art and believe the perception of the audience supersedes the intent of the artist, and so for me, the phrase still stands as evocative without being ugly.
1.http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3987141 : "Note, in my comment, I am not saying all Indians are wild, I am only specifically referencing the wild ones."