A godless rabbi in a wealth of joy.

Derrick Brown- Cotton in the Air.  This is greatness.

realitycheckindianimages:

saskgirly:

Watch around the 2:00 mark.

It’s pretty offensive. Me and my sisters weren’t sure if we should laugh or be offended. We laughed.

Goodness, if there haven’t been any misrepresentations of Native people on this blog, then now there sure is.

This animation is disgusting. I don’t care that it’s looney toons. I don’t are that it’s from the 1940s, 50s, or 60s. It’s not a “product of it’s time.” People knew better than to make racist cartoons even then.

Lets just get a few things clear. Native Americans and First Nations people were not mindlessly killing people on the “frontier.” These white “settlers” were invaders. The lands of North America are STOLEN lands. This place was NOT unoccupied as advertisers then liked to say and as the history books STILL like to tell it. On the North American continent, it is estimated that there were between 10 and 50 million people living here.

There were mound builders living here who created structures with bases larger than that of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. There was at one point, prior to contact, a city with a population estimated at around 30,000 people. There was a complex trading system in place which stretched all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, another which went to the West Coast and more. At the same time the rest of the world were going through the agricultural revolution, so were the Indigenous people of North, Central and South America. During that time crops like corn were perfected… and as I’m sure you know, corn isn’t a plant that can simply grow wild.

In North America there were between 500 to 711 tribes; and by the late 1800 due to the United State’s and Europe’s (i.e. the Dutch, French, the British, and Spanish) senseless genocide of Native American people from 1492-the late 1800s, 10 to 50 million people were reduced down to 250,000 people.

So the Native Americans had ample right to attack the “settlers” or invaders. Even when treaties were made between the government and the Native tribes, the government would say that that land would be their’s forever… and forever conveniently only lasted 15 to 20 years before the government started advocating the theft of land and forced removal of the Native people till they were all mostly in Oklahoma (which isn’t that big of land for that many people). I’m not gonna go into all the dynamics now, because this is already long and i’ve just begun. But that fort there on that land in that cartoon was most likely one which the army just set up on Native land which had a treaty and the gov’t just gave no fucks. The Natives weren’t dumb, we knew what was goin on.

Second, the term “injun” is fucking offensive.

Third, though there is not some homogenized “Native” culture, each tribe/band/nation has it’s own distinct culture like each country in Europe does, I think it’s pretty safe to say that the Native Americans were not bad warriors as depicted here. They gave the army a fucking run for their money. They were amazing tactically, and in skill. Why do you think the “Indian Wars” lasted from 1492-1880/1890?

Fourth, I know that America just LOVES the image of a white man being “Indian” and being/becoming “more Indian than the Indians,” but I’m sorry, unless that was placed during the civil war, then this shit would not have flown.

Fifth, fuck that “one little two little three little Indian” song. AND FUCK BLOOD QUANTUM! Blood quantum was only something that the United States came up with when they placed the Natives on reservations in order to make an excuse that they wouldn’t have to provide to all the people they placed on there. “Oh sorry, you’re not “Indian” enough. You won’t get our shitty rations like molded cow meat because although our Indian Agents are corrupt as fuck and are taking all the money they’re supposed to be using to get you medical help and decent food, you’re still not good enough to receive our shitty rations. Just starve.” The whole blood quantum thing is fucked up. It was fucked then, it’s still fucked now… and sadly it’s something we’ve internalized from our oppressors.

Lets make this clear, “half breed” is an offensive term. Don’t use it. Also, just because that person might have been “half” doesn’t take away from the tragedy. I hate how they trivialize the deaths of Native Americans and really trivialize and glorify the genocide of the Native Americans in this animation. It’s disgusting.

Native people, even back in the 1400s were eloquent with their words and extremely smart. I hate how in popular culture, again and again Natives are portrayed as being complete idiots, when the reality is so completely contrary. I hate also that even in present times, Natives are dipicted speaking poor broken English. This makes little sense considering the fact that Native Americans were for decades were taken as children (sometimes as little as 3 years old) and sent away to boarding schools which had poor health conditions, poor quality food, or little food (so the children starved) and they were forced to learn the “white man’s way.” The people there went as far as to torture the children if they spoke their own language. So many people forgot their language there. In the boarding schools they were stripped not only of their language, but they where stripped of their names, their religion, their culture, heritage, everything. The purpose was to “kill the Indian, save the man,” which is a direct quote from Pratt, the man who got the military style of boarding schools for natives started.

Also, Geronimo wouldn’t have taken that shit.

The way in which Native Americans are characterized (drawn and portrayed) in this animation is in the same manner that the Nazi’s depicted the Jews. Yet few people say anything.

(via adailyriot)