In the documentary, Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian, directed by Neil Diamond, he investigates the progression of how cinema has portrayed the Native American. They begin with the early classic films that first were made up until recent times. The image of the Indian has been portrayed in several ways and films had typically created misleading depictions of the Indians. What was created in these films are often stereotypical and what many people today believe to be true. Throughout the documentary, we see many themes being presented and these are themes of how the image of Native Americans were viewed as the “bad guys” during some early films and how they evolved to show how they were really just human beings.
Little after did he know he was carried to the “white people’s country” to work for them. He hasn’t seen such cruelty towards blacks, but also some whites. When he was there he couldn’t hide the fact that he was scared. He thought the white people had a special spell to put in the water to stop the vessel. He was amazed and thought they were spirits.
Throughout the book The Long Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie the Indians were always treated as minorities. For example, when the narrator walked into the 7-Eleven, the clerk “looked me over so he could describe me to the police later. I knew the look.” (Alexie 182) The clerk kept watching him, thinking he was about to steal something.
Only speak when they speak to you.” ( ). “I knew it must’ve been serious. Daddy has the biggest mouth of anybody I know, and if he said to be quiet, I needed to be quite”( ). This part of the book really shows you how feared the police are in the black community when they shouldn’t be.
One of the earlier examples of cultural imperialism and marginalization is when Saul is kicked off of the town hockey team, “‘It's because I'm Indian isn't it?’ [...] ‘Yes.’ He said. ‘Do they hate me?’ , ‘They don't hate you Saul’, ‘Well, what then?’
This sparks the topic of race in his head. Later on in the story the unnamed narrator decides that whatever race people assume him as he will go with, because the topic of race is too much for the unnamed narrator. In the beginning of the story the unnamed narrator said "I know that in writing the following pages I am divulging the great secret of my life, the secret which for some
The narrator’s violent actions are understandable because as Dr. King mentions, “Vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim” (2). When a person is the victim of this kind of hatred it is understandable why is he has bitterness and rage and that he may turn to violence after he experiences of any type of continued
The man convinces the narrator that when they see the first white guy come by, they’ll kidnap him and rob him. The two men finds a white couple together going towards a big party. While the women hollered at the man asking if he can get her purse and items she left in the car, he went and the two men kidnapped the rich man. They both called him “white boy” and they threatened him for the “white boys’” money. While time passed, both men gave up and decided to leave but the narrator stayed behind to watch for cops as the men told him to do so and got nothing in return from the man who robbed the “white boy”.
Some the whites did not know how to live with the colored. Some of the white were fine with living freely with the colored.
Finally, there is a lot of racism towards the Indigenous Peoples tribes. First, the Ute article states that, “It is a complete lack of appreciation for cultural diversity.” This is saying that nobody appreciates that there are other cultures or ethnic groups within our society. Second, it is one thing to respect the tribe 's tradition, but to cover a white guys face with paint and ride an Appaloosa to the middle of the field is another.
He had told his mother about what had happened that day and in response, she had beaten Wright to the point of a fever, telling him to never fight white people again and that the white people were “right” for harming him and he should express gratitude that they
Once European men stepped foot onto what is now known as North America, the lives of the Native Americans were forever changed. The Indians suffered centuries of torment and ridicule from the settlers in America. Despite the reservations made for the Natives, there are still cultural issues occurring within America. In Sherman Alexie’s, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, the tragic lives of Native Americans in modern society are depicted in a collection of short stories taking place in the Spokane Reservation in Washington state. Throughout the collection, a prominent and reoccurring melancholic theme of racism against Native Americans and their struggle to cope with such behavior from their counterpart in this modern day and age is shown.
Even though America has become quite the diverse place with diverse cultures, the cultural appropriation found within the American society contributes to the loss of multiple minority culture’s identity. Native Americans are one of the minority groups most heavily impacted by cultural appropriation. From offensive sports, many American Indians feel as though their cultural identities are lost in the mass of stereotypes and false representations of them in popular culture. In literature and film, Indians are too often portrayed as some variation of “the Noble or Ignoble Savage” (Gordon, 30), violent and uneducated, and it is easy to imagine how this negative representation inspires resentment in the Native American community, who have no interest in having their cultures and peoples being reduced to mere savages,
“I had a series of petty jobs for short periods, quitting some to work elsewhere, being driven off others because of my attitude, my speech, the look in my eyes” (Wright 182). Richard is at first confused why he is being fired, but as it happens more and more he learns the smallest actions can infuriate white people. Richard struggles to accept these features that are deemed unacceptable and adjusts his behavior in the presence of whites. “What I had heard
The story represents the culmination of Wright’s passionate desire to observe and reflect upon the racist world around him. Racism is so insidious that it prevents Richard from interacting normally, even with the whites who do treat him with a semblance of respect or with fellow blacks. For Richard, the true problem of racism is not simply that it exists, but that its roots in American culture are so deep it is doubtful whether these roots can be destroyed without destroying the culture itself. “It might have been that my tardiness in learning to sense white people as "white" people came from the fact that many of my relatives were "white"-looking people. My grandmother, who was white as any "white" person, had never looked "white" to me” (Wright 23).
