"Savage" is racist. On top of that, you sound dim-witted and moronic.
I challenge you to widen your vocabulary past futile slang words such as "savage." The power of rhetoric is so strong and the new generation is losing this charm through words such as these, and many of us aren't feeling the full gravity in which they are carrying.
There are always those few social medialites commenting "savage" on a post. Whether it be a video of someone pranking another, or a screen shot of a text conversation, "savage" always seems to make its way in the comments section.
Ever seen Pocahontas? If not, what are you doing on this website? Pull up Netflix and watch it. There's one disturbing scene in particular in which the colonists are singing about the Native Americans labeling them as "savages." Their reasoning for labeling them as such?
"Their skin's a hellish red, barely even human, they're not like you and me, which means they must be evil." Lyrics taken directly from the scene.
Clearly, it was used a racist term back during the colonization of America. Many people are thinking right about now, "But Bri! I don't use that term in the sense of slandering Native Americans." I understand; in fact, I too used to use this slang word in order to convey that what someone said was "savage" or what someone did was "savage" rather than using words like merciless, unrelenting, or wild.
I get it. You're not using the term in the sense that the colonists used it as. But let me ask you a question, do you celebrate Columbus Day? Why did schools stop taking off Columbus Day? Because the colonists came over to America and brutally slaughtered Native Americans that originally lived here. They took their land as their own, wiped out a majority of them with diseases they brought over, and viciously murdered many of them.
You're contributing to racism in our society that began since the white man first stepped onto North America, whether or not you are using the word in the sense it first originated.
Terms change over time; I understand that. To put this into perspective, let's say I came home and exclaimed to my roommates that the meeting I went to was "so gay." 100 years ago, that would have meant that the meeting I went to was fun and jovial. However, today the word "gay" in that context means something stupid or unfortunate, originating from homophobia.
Why is it that we can recognize that saying gay in this context is not OK even though our intentions are not to be homophobic, but we can't recognize that "savage" isn't OK to use even if our intentions aren't to be racist?
The term has changed but the rooted meaning has not. Would you be comfortable using this term in front of a Native American? Even if it's just amongst your non-Native American buddies, you're contributing to a culture of racism.
You're normalizing hurtful, prejudiced terms that once rationalized the killing of others. Crack open a dictionary and find another word that didn't justify slaughtering masses of people.
