Doesn’t matter. It isn’t their name. It’s NEVER been their name. It’s the name explorers gave them based on stuff their non-Inuit guides told them. The very fact of saying “we don’t care what you call yourselves, we’re calling you Eskimos” is innately derogatory. It’s declaring they don’t have a right to name themselves. I say you’re Tim and I don’t give a crap if you wanna be Jim, Tim it is, suck it up. Same thing. They’re Inuit. Their name. That’s ALWAYS been their name. And we know this now. The word has circulated. So stop calling them Tim.
“he very fact of saying “we don’t care what you call yourselves, we’re calling you Eskimos” is innately derogatory.”
But that was not generally known that Eskimo was not the correct name.
It was never meant as a derogatory term or racial epithet.