Just put a ban on calling Predators "Jamaicans". Do you know what was stupid? Calling Runners "Red Dogs!" during First Contact. But you know what?
1. They were red.
2. They were vaguely dog-like in shape and mannerisms.
Now, let us compare a Yautja
- to the two people someone will think of when the word "Jamaica" comes to mind.
That's not even the end of the utter lack of comparisons between the two.
The Jamaican People Popular in Western Media. Yautja as are presented in Colonial Marines. Wear bright colors. Wear camouflage and metal. Have somewhat oval-shaped faces. Wear masks, marines couldn't tell. Tend to have leaner bodies. Muscled, burly. Soon to be 48x48 sprites opposed to human's 32x32. Have brown skin, doesn't crack. Have green, roughly patterned and quilled skin. Jamaican men average 5'7". Regularly surpass 7'. Speak English or a form of Creole. Near-incomprehensible l337-5p34k. Soldiers wear blot camouflage, with berets and assault rifles (not unlike Dutch's Dozen). Fishnets, masks, and *use swords and lasers*. Often stereotyped as marijuana enthusiasts. Won't even take a chocolate bar off a marine. Highest population on their bright, tropical island. Frequently seen at night in jungles, space stations, deserts, tundras, and would have been on an island *if we had any in the map rotation.* Pretty chill. Currently covered in three different species' blood as I write this, probably. AND LASTLY Have a rich and storied history of cultural hairstyles, from a variety of ornate to simple braids, curls, *including* dreadlocks. Have fucking smooth tentacles sticking out the back of their heads.
Calling Predators "Jamaicans" is lazy, racist, and inaccurate. It's not even that a few marines say it, it's to the extent that the command staff of a multi-ethnic battalion that has soldiers from all over the earth and even more planets - including not just Jamaica, but Greenland (home of indigenous Inuits), Germany, Japan, and every other hunk of rock - use the term when referring to Predators. Even when the most racist caricatures we know, Juro (Who rike-as to carr for kamikaze strike-as) and Windhealer (Or, should I say, Brave War-Chief with heart of the mighty bear-spirit), they keep such stereotypes to themselves, or use fun terms for the xenomorphs (like "filthy dogs" or "xenomingos"/"wanaxingos", respectively).
This is perhaps one of the more flattering and professional screenshots of Command refferring to "Jamaicans". It doesn't even say they're kill on sight.
What else could we possibly call them?
- Natives. They appear outwardly primitive, and some marine ignorance would make sense here. Plus, some people already call them Natives to begin with.
- Hunters (as we observe them hunting marines and xenos).
- Spooks/Ghosts/Wraiths (a shape in the dark, moving almost imperceptibly).
- Crocs (Rough skins and often aggressive).
- Lizardmen (Again, rough green skin).
- UECs (Unidentified Enemy Combatants, we already have FOB, JTAC, HEDP, OB, UPP/CLF, ERT and more internalized, it is the marines after all).
- Chrome-Domes (on behalf of the masks).
- Boogeymen (While we're approaching this as First Contact, there have likely been other stories of something coming out of the jungle and dragging off marines in the night on other planets).
- Headhunters. A bunch of autistic lizards who talked about "yeeting the talls" and "getting the tendies for mommy" could manage this pre-RP crackdown, and the Predators couldn't even rip their heads off.