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It can be very offensive when members of the dominant culture appropriate piecemeal bits of language to imitate or perform impressions of an ethnic or racial minority. Borrowed words like firewater, squaw, and wigwam, or imitative words like how were once used for comedic effect, but they are now considered insensitive to Native Americans and their cultures. Firewater is particularly offensive because it is associated with racist stereotypes about disordered alcohol use among American Indians, which contributed historically to blaming Native victims of racial injustice through disparagement of their moral character.