Offensive #IndianIgnorant hashtag tweeted by Ethical Oil group

A hashtag tweeted by the pro-oil group Ethical Oil has been deemed racist by many Aboriginal people and caused the group into damage-control mode. In its attempts to discredit singer/songwriter Neil Young’s public views on the environment and the tar sands during his Honour the Treaties tour, Ethical Oil tweeted the hashtag #IndianIgnorant while sharing a news story from the Sun News Network. Response was swift, with one tweet calling the hashtag contemptible.  Ethical Oil spokesperson Amanda Achtman said she had posted the tweet, which she described as careless. She said the hashtag was intended to describe Neil Young as being uninformed about Canadian Indian Affairs. During an email interview with the Vancouver Observer, Achtman said “As sometimes happens with on-the-fly tweeting, the phrase could be taken out of context or misinterpreted, so it was deleted.”