So, the first one isn't new, but I just found it, so it's new to me! I've seen different versions of this "Native American and immigration" joke, but it pretty much sums up how I feel about immigration today - and why I don't think many Native people (at least not up here) feel very strongly against "modern-day" immigration. Kinda too late now!
Are we a nation doomed to be violent?
An excellent piece in Indian Country Today by Mark Trahant, regarding the Arizona shooting:
"Let’s use this tragedy as the call to civility. When political rhetoric goes too far, say so. Seek out those disagree and praise them for their ideas, then politely dissent. We must praise those who agree to disagree. We need to make the politics of hate absolutely unacceptable."
Sanitizing Mark Twain classics
I've seen this in the news for a while now, and have tried not to roll my eyes every time. For those that haven't seen it, there's a new edition of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer that eliminate the usage of words like "injn" and the big N. A bias, maybe - big Twain fan - but I came across this (long!) American Indian analysis focused more on taking out the "injun" references, and got pretty engrossed. While the huge post is great as a critical review and summary of the passages that include the word, I thought the comments below it were very well thought out as well. A few excerpts:
"Taking out the stinging words, sugar-coats and white-washes some of the nasty bits of American history. It pretends those words were not used and some ancestors were better human beings than they really were.
Who exactly is the sanitized edition for? Obviously, not for American Indians and African-Americans."
"Just as my dad was a product of his times, that's the way I think we should read Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn--as products of their time, with language of the time."
Sanitizing the MLK message
This is from an interesting blog I follow, Newspaper Rock ("Where Native America meets pop culture"). Although I don't fully agree with this opinion (that might be a reprint itself?) that we (and specifically Michelle Obama) shouldn't be so "service oriented" on this day, it made me think pretty differently about it. Worth a read!
1 comment:
The cartoon would be just a little better if the native character was dressed as one of Arizona's peoples.
Post a Comment