Moniquilliloquies.
Showing posts tagged stereotypes

Talking to Young Children About Thanksgiving - ICTMN.com

adailyriot:

As much as some Natives might like for it to, Thanksgiving is not going away. And, in fact, many Natives fully enjoy the sentiments of Thanksgiving — it’s the historical and cultural inaccuracies that are troublesome. Many of these can be traced to beliefs propagated over generations in classrooms all over the country.

Take, for example, the children’s book StickFiggy Presents The First Thanksgiving, available as an e-book at memetales.com. While not mean-spirited, it presents a version of the story that children will end up (one hopes) having to unlearn later on in their education.

We went looking for some ideas of how to explain Thanksgiving, and Native cultures, in a way that doesn’t send their impressionable minds down the wrong track. The list below is adapted from “Teaching Young Children About Native Americans” by Debbie Reese, Nambe Pueblo, who is the author of the popular blog American Indians in Children’s Literature.

It’s sound advice — think of it as a cheat sheet for the next time a non-Native friend or educator asks “Well, what are we supposed to teach them about Thanksgiving?”

1. At Thanksgiving, shift the focus away from reenacting the “First Thanksgiving.” Instead, focus on items children can be thankful for in their own lives, and on their families’ celebrations of Thanksgiving at home.1. Provide knowledge about contemporary Native Americans to balance historical information. Teaching about Native Americans exclusively from a historical perspective may perpetuate the idea that they exist only in the past.

2. Critique a Thanksgiving poster depicting the traditional, stereotyped pilgrim and Indian figures, especially when talking to older elementary school children. Take care to select a picture that most children are familiar with, such as those shown on grocery bags or holiday greeting cards. Critically analyze the poster, noting the many tribes the artist has combined into one general image that fails to provide accurate information about any single tribe.

3. Talk about specific tribes, rather than “Native Americans.” For example, discuss the people of Nambe Pueblo, the Turtle Mountain Chippewa, the Potawotami. Ideally, choose a tribe with a historical or contemporary role in the local community. This will provide children with culturally specific knowledge (pertaining to a single group) rather than overgeneralized stereotypes.

4. Find images of contemporary children of all colors engaged in their usual, daily activities playing basketball, riding bicycles as well as traditional activities.

5. Cook ethnic foods but be careful not to imply that all members of a particular group eat a specific food.

6. Be specific about which tribes use particular items, when discussing cultural artifacts (such as clothing or housing) and traditional foods. The Plains tribes use feathered headdresses, for example, but not all other tribes use them.



Read more:http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/11/22/talking-to-young-children-about-thanksgiving-147135 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/11/22/talking-to-young-children-about-thanksgiving-147135#ixzz2D0OGLOnL
(Reblogged from rematiration)
“
But it’s disappointing that in a movie devoted to explaining the abolition of slavery in the United States, African-American characters do almost nothing but passively wait for white men to liberate them. For some 30 years, historians have been demonstrating that slaves were crucial agents in their emancipation; however imperfectly, Ken Burns’s 1990 documentary “The Civil War” brought aspects of that interpretation to the American public. Yet Mr. Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ gives us only faithful servants, patiently waiting for the day of Jubilee. This is not mere nit-picking. Mr. Spielberg’s “Lincoln” helps perpetuate the notion that African Americans have offered little of substance to their own liberation. While the film largely avoids the noxious stereotypes of subservient African-Americans for which movies like “Gone With the Wind” have become notorious, it reinforces, even if inadvertently, the outdated assumption that white men are the primary movers of history and the main sources of social progress.

Kate Masur

She’s an associate professor of history at Northwestern University, and wrote this review of the film Lincoln for The New York Times. Quote above is an excerpt.

This review is why I will be skipping the film. (Actually, I was already not too interested in going.) Sure, Steven Spielberg is a great director. I actually like some of his films. He’s talented. Sure, Daniel Day Lewis and Sally Fields are great actors. But this is not about who is “talented” or not. That’s really not the point. (For some reason, possibly a part of the annoyance that is the theory of American “exceptionalism,” being “talented” is license to do whatever someone wants without contextual repercussions.)

Hollywood films are often propagandist and seek to whitewash and alter history (or reinforce stereotypes, or both) under creative license and do so for a viewing public that is grossly uneducated about the facts (and process many films as history lessons), or if educated, reject the reality of the complex history that is Black and White people in America. And, though it will have nice costumes, production design, art direction, makeup, cinematography and good overall film direction, I am just not in the mood for the context/theme of this. I’m rather tired, actually. So I will skip this film.

Oh, and before people who refuse to think suggest that I am calling Spielberg racist, and then of course they’ll mention The Color Purple…just…NO. Read her review. Read the last line of this quote. Sometimes “well meaning” people create propaganda that harms as well. (Kola Boof suggested the same thing in her response to Cynthia Mort.) 

(via gradientlair)

(Reblogged from madamethursday)

whitefluffyhat:

You know what pisses me off in TV shows?

  •  When one of the female characters gives birth, and then right after the birth her child is taken and raised away from her…
  • And from then on the other characters attribute elements of this woman’s personality to the fact that “she’s a mother.” 
  • No. She’s not a mother. She gave birth to a child, but she never actually got to be a mother. 
  • Vala from Stargate interacting with Adria for like five minutes when Adria was four doesn’t count as being a mother
  • Amy from Doctor Who growing up with River as a childhood friend doesn’t count as raising her
  • Stop attributing these women’s wisdom or ferocity to the fact that they’re “mothers”
  • because guess what, these elements of their character come from THEMSELVES, not the fact that they gave birth to a child
  • and calling it their ‘motherhood’ perpetuates the idea that women’s entire psychological make-up is rewritten once they’ve given birth
  • which is entirely fucking untrue
  • guess what? women can be strong and important without being mothers
  • and the fact that the other characters only recognize their strength and importance once they’ve given birth 
  • and even then, they attribute it to the fact that the woman’s a “mother”
  • that sends the message to girls that the most important role they can play in their life is having babies
  • and that they need to be “a mother” in order to be appreciated or in order to even be a worthy person
  • and that is downright fucked up
  • and don’t get me wrong moms are awesome, but moms are also their own people
  • and women can also be awesome people without being moms
  • the fact that some TV writers need this spelled out for them actually disturbs me
(Reblogged from blonde-cyborg)

thefundamentals:

I just wrote a paper on stereotypes in media. The group of people I had to research was “Native Americans” and I watched all of these videos about how early media stereotyped them into being these horrible people. But the truth is, growing up I always wanted to be a Native American Indian. I thought they were great, and in the 1st grade I cried when I was picked as a Pilgrim instead of an Indian in our Thanksgiving play. I didn’t want to be a “white man”. Funny, I guess I never saw the negativity in the stereotype. 

If your paper isn’t turned in yet, I’d like to offer you another resource. Even if it is done and turned in, I’d like you to read it.

The following is a post about Woo

(Feel free to quote from it; correct attribution is to Monique Poirier, Seaconke Wampanoag)

(Reblogged from thefundamentals)
“
When men attempt bold gestures, generally it’s considered romantic. When women do it, it’s often considered desperate or psycho.

Carrie Bradshaw (via clarissa-dalloway)

(Extra points for some of the ‘bold gestures’ often seen in romantic movies being legitimately creepy or indicative of deep problems.)

(Reblogged from cockchomp)
bittybandolero: nativevoice: Culture by greyshine on Flickr. ovaries. I need to reblog this again to point out just why I love this particular picture so. That thing he’s holding? Yeah that’s a roll of packing tape in a plastic holder. That’s a thoroughly mundane, inarguably ‘modern’ artifact. Let me tell you why that’s important. Many of the most famous and ‘iconic’ vintage photos of NDNs are from the body of work of Edward Curtis. You probably recognize some of them: Thing is, Edward Curtis was a fucking lying liar about NDN lives. Curtis documented some aspects of the customs and lifestyles of American Indians of the trans-Mississippi West. The publication of Curtis’s work, highly romanticized and most craftily staged, exerted a major influence on the image of Indians in popular culture. Curtis is reported to have retouched some of the photographs in order to remove modern objects, adding to the popular illusion of Native Americans as a primitive people. VS Yeah, see how that second photo is deliberately sepia-toned and how the clock between the two individuals has been removed because it’s ‘too modern’? Fuck that shit. That image up there is of a child in full tradition regalia…carrying a roll of tape. Because that child exists today in the modern world where tape is a thing. That regalia exists -today- and is not a ‘historical costume’. My love for that image is the same as my love for things like this traditional elk hide hand drum painted to look like Captain America’s shield by NDN Etsy Artist JBear: Or this kid in Superman Powwow Regalia: (Photo of Brandon B at the Red Paint Powwow by R. Lohr) Because NDNs are modern, living people influenced by modern pop culture. It’s what makes things like traditionally-beaded sneakers so awesome: (Beaded sneakers made by Elizabeth Doxtater, Mohawk) We are here, living -today-. Sometimes we own clocks and carry tape and reference cheesy summer movies and wear sneakers. And when we do these things, they are NDN things.

bittybandolero:

nativevoice:

Culture by greyshine on Flickr.

ovaries.

I need to reblog this again to point out just why I love this particular picture so. That thing he’s holding? Yeah that’s a roll of packing tape in a plastic holder. That’s a thoroughly mundane, inarguably ‘modern’ artifact. Let me tell you why that’s important.

Many of the most famous and ‘iconic’ vintage photos of NDNs are from the body of work of Edward Curtis. You probably recognize some of them:

Thing is, Edward Curtis was a fucking lying liar about NDN lives.

Curtis documented some aspects of the customs and lifestyles of American Indians of the trans-Mississippi West. The publication of Curtis’s work, highly romanticized and most craftily staged, exerted a major influence on the image of Indians in popular culture. Curtis is reported to have retouched some of the photographs in order to remove modern objects, adding to the popular illusion of Native Americans as a primitive people.

VS

Yeah, see how that second photo is deliberately sepia-toned and how the clock between the two individuals has been removed because it’s ‘too modern’? Fuck that shit.


That image up there is of a child in full tradition regalia…carrying a roll of tape. Because that child exists today in the modern world where tape is a thing. That regalia exists -today- and is not a ‘historical costume’. My love for that image is the same as my love for things like this traditional elk hide hand drum painted to look like Captain America’s shield by NDN Etsy Artist JBear:

Or this kid in Superman Powwow Regalia:

(Photo of Brandon B at the Red Paint Powwow by R. Lohr)

Because NDNs are modern, living people influenced by modern pop culture. It’s what makes things like traditionally-beaded sneakers so awesome:

(Beaded sneakers made by Elizabeth Doxtater, Mohawk)

We are here, living -today-. Sometimes we own clocks and carry tape and reference cheesy summer movies and wear sneakers. And when we do these things, they are NDN things.

(Source: )

(Reblogged from ishkwaakiiwan)
“
[Stereotypes] are factually incorrect; they are products of a “faulty” or illogical thought process; they are characterized as inordinate rigidity; they are derived from an inadequate basis of acquisition, such as hearsay they are consensual beliefs within a culture, perhaps implying a lack of individual thought; they serve a rationalization function for ethnic prejudice; they ascribe to racial inheritance that which may be cultural acquisition and they serve as justification for prejudicial or discriminatory social practices.
Sierra S. Adare, “Indian” Stereotypes in TV Science Fiction: First Nations’ Voices Speak Out (via realitycheckindianimages)
(Reblogged from vkvsamv)
View high resolution

(Source: feminishblog)

(Reblogged from blonde-cyborg)
You forgot some tags on your vintage racist horrorshow. View high resolution

You forgot some tags on your vintage racist horrorshow.

(Reblogged from massifattack)

thisisargon:

I’m reading along in the Native American tag, and I keep thinking of something that happened in November (which is Native American Heritage Month).

Read More

(Reblogged from thisisargon-deactivated20120306)

arrow-and-oracle said: Wow, I wonder what is the definition of “hippie bullshit”. Does it have something to do with the ideals of Native peoples? Peace, love, respect, all that???

Holy glittersnorting snotgarling shit.

“The ideals of Native peoples?”

Yes, all indigenous folks everywhere on earth have a shared set of new-agey ideals. Clearly this must be the case since we are a monolithic, undifferentiated mass in no way made up of millions of individuals of all ages and backgrounds from thousands of disparate cultures, each having a unique experience that shapes our personal worldview. That would be silly.  

velocicrafter: racist stereotypes in ‘classic’ Disney films for $1000, Alex! Wait,is this why hipsters are so fucking into triangles?

velocicrafter:

racist stereotypes in ‘classic’ Disney films for $1000, Alex!

Wait,is this why hipsters are so fucking into triangles?

(Source: translucentmind)

(Reblogged from dammitcaleb-deactivated20130328)
velocicrafter: yourmommakesthebestfrybread: emmyjoleigh8: Should I buy this wicked Johnique by the Desert Child headdress and go as an indian princess for Halloween this year? I’ll probably be kicking it on Bourbon St… No you fucking shouldn’t. You’re pretty much asking if you should be a racist for halloween. First of all, indian princesses don’t exist. Second of all, that’s like asking to dress up in blackface for halloween. It isn’t fucking cute. it’s disgusting. ^^^^^^all of this, and that “headdress” is neither remotely accurate for any group I know of, nor is remotely cute. r

velocicrafter:

yourmommakesthebestfrybread:

emmyjoleigh8:

Should I buy this wicked Johnique by the Desert Child headdress and go as an indian princess for Halloween this year? I’ll probably be kicking it on Bourbon St…

No you fucking shouldn’t. You’re pretty much asking if you should be a racist for halloween. First of all, indian princesses don’t exist. Second of all, that’s like asking to dress up in blackface for halloween. It isn’t fucking cute. it’s disgusting.

^^^^^^
all of this, and that “headdress” is neither remotely accurate for any group I know of, nor is remotely cute.

r

(Source: twentysomethingyearsandcounting)

(Reblogged from karnythia)

facingfallacy: Stereotypes<Realities

facingthefallacies:

1. Stereotype: Indians are all alike.

Reality: In America alone, there are 2.1 m of us belonging to 511 culturally distinct  federally recognized tribes or an additional 200 or so unrecognized tribes.

2. Stereotype: Indians were conquered because they were inferior.

Reality: We were conquered because we had no immunity to European diseases.

3. Stereotype: Indians were uncivilized when Europeans came to America.

Reality: We had our own unique societies, different from those already seen by Europeans.

4. Stereotype: Indians arrived here via land bridge.

Reality: We believe we have always been here. Each tribe has its own creation stories.

5. Stereotype: Indians were “savage” and mean to one another.

Reality: We fought to defend our cultures, land and people from invaders.

6. Stereotype: Indians have no religion.

Reality: We each have our own religious beliefs that are specific to each tribe.

7. Stereotype: Indians welcome outsiders to participate in their religious      ceremonies.

Reality: We usually practice in secrecy and ask for privacy in worship.

8. Indians are a vanished race.

Reality: There are 2.1 million of us in the USA today.

9. Stereotype: Indians are confined to reservations, live in tipis, ride horses and always wear their hair in braids.

Reality: There is nothing that confines us to reservations, few of us wear braids, ride horses and even fewer own tipis.

10. Stereotype: Indians have no reason to be unpatriotic.

Reality: Most American patriotism is the celebration of Euro-American history and Interests. Euro-Americans’ behavior and policies towards us have been brutal throughout American history.

11. Stereotype: Indians get a free ride from the government.

Reality: This money either comes from casinos owned by individual tribes, or is granted as compensation for treaties and government agreements.

12. Stereotype: Indians have a tendency towards alcoholism.

Reality: We are no more likely to be alcoholic than anyone else.

13. Stereotype: All Indians have an “Indian Name”.

Reality: Most of us only have Euro-American names and those with tribal names are the minority.

14. Stereotype: Indians are stoic and have no sense of humor.

Reality: We have as rich a sense of humor as anyone else. 

15. Stereotype: “My grandmother was an Indian.”

Reality: Thousands of Americans “wannabe” us… but they are not.

Taken from American Indians: Stereotypes and Realities by Devon A. Mihesuah

(Reblogged from karnythia)

http://moniquill.tumblr.com/post/10573048919/ijustforgot-moniquill-velocicrafter

rosencarousel:

The images and the argument made in defense of them, while I understand that there is a lack of intention to offend and a desire to make up for it, is still a lot of “white-splaining”. Even with one having been raised in an area that was predominantly native, it doesn’t excuse the appropriation, which is still what was done here. I was raised in a very Italian neighborhood, and as much as I love the culture and will participate in events in the Italian community, I’m not going to claim a right to Italian culture because of the setting of my childhood. It’s worse when “Italian” gets replaced by a culture that has been oppressed and appropriated for over 300 years and still is on their home soil. We all have rich cultural backgrounds and don’t need to take from another for a “richer” rp experience. If it’s a tribal romance the OP wants? The Irish actually have that in their history; she can take from there.

Also, another fun fact I was told about: even when a hipster says, “My great grandmother was Cherokee, so I’m just exploring my roots,” if you lack the desire to register that background with a tribe and to actually learn directly about those roots, you are still appropriating. You are using an ancestor you do not honor enough to fully follow in their footsteps to excuse a rather gross “fashion trend”. The same thing goes with armchair shamans. Why use a bad, appropriated spiritualism with the excuse of a Native ancestor when that Native ancestor’s blood grants you the right to try to register and learn the real religion from an elder? Animism abounds in the history of most cultures: why do you have to take from Native practices so badly? It’s very different from reconstructionalism, where you simply convert and do ages of research on what is an otherwise dead religion, and arm-chairing is not comparable to switching from Catholicism to Buddhism: you aren’t joining a tribe, you aren’t learning from the elders, but taking tiny bits of their culture and saying it’s your right.

I honestly can’t speak further on that, because I’m not Native, but just… as it was said, be polite and thankful when you’re invited to participate in another culture’s traditions, but don’t push it with appropriation. If it isn’t daily wear and if it seriously has a religious connotation, don’t do it, and if you aren’t sure, don’t do it.

(Source: ijustforgot)

(Reblogged from rosencarousel)