Many of the terms used to describe different groups of people that we have analyzed over the course of our project are archaic, inaccurate, deeply racist, and inherently problematic. If offensive terms are seen that are pejorative towards people of African descent, Indigenous Nations and their citizens, Irish persons, or any other group, it is not because we agree with these terms or wish to use these terms, but rather that these terms were used to describe these people in the span of time that we are analyzing. In order to find these marginalized groups in the historical record, we must identify them by these problematic terms to identify them for analysis at all.
The keywords used in our project do not reflect any of our beliefs about these groups. They reflect those of 17th century English colonizers, who brutalized, sold, murdered, raped, and subjugated these groups.
16th and 17th century colonization efforts serve as the basis for the racialized social system that still remains in place today. As we study this moment in history, where peoples from three different continents converged for the first time, we can see how this inaccurate and problematic language surrounded the invention of the construct of race as we know it today. Modern race was invented at this juncture and this racist language is what brought it into being. As a consequence, any analysis that endeavors to make sense of shifts in this language must analyze these problematic terms.
