• Mike D.@lemm.eeM
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    7 months ago

    I don’t understand “so-called Oakland, CA” in the byline. It is in Oakland.

    • FiveOPA
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      I think the author would rather call it by the Chochenyo name “Huichin” since it is stolen Ohlone land by western standards of property. The typical journalistic standard is to call the land by its people’s language rather than its colonized name, like Việt Nam instead of Indochina, or Sri Lanka instead of Ceylon, but obviously there is an exception with land in the United States where most writers passively deny the colonized people continue to exist or that colonialism is an issue.

      Calling it “so-called Oakland” is a compromise that improves the accessibility of the article to a general audience and encourages conversations like this.