Being Politically Correct: Are Ethnic Groups called Tribes or Nations?
Labels:
Education,
Ethnic Groups,
Language,
Politics
Growing up in Nigeria, one of the first things you learn in your social studies class is that Nigeria has three major ethnic groups: Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa. For whatever reason, the teachers never mentioned that we had over 200 ethnic groups. I found out about that when I came here.
While I was in Nigeria though, it was perfectly acceptable and common to refer to ethnic groups as "tribes." I never heard anyone say it was offensive or even insinuate that it could be offensive to say a person was from a particular tribe. That is, until my college days here in the United States.