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Reel Injun Analysis

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The subject matter of the film “Reel Injun” was an especially intriguing and surprising concept to me. The idea that an entire race of people could be so severely underrepresented in popular media is terrifying, and goes to show just how easy it is to cast an imprecise portrait of an unknown culture. What really fascinated me was the segment on Iron Eyes Cody. How could one of the most popular depictions of a Native American actually be a second generation Sicilian immigrant? What other lies have I been told about these people? Is this sort of inaccurate depiction still happening today with other cultures? Reel Injun uses the word “Injun” as reference to the dated vernacular featured in several 1950s spaghetti western films. A picture of John …show more content…

We have since adopted the phrase “Native American,” as a more appropriate (and yet still all encompassing) term. However, another antiquated expression has recently gathered a lot of media attention. The National League Football team for the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area plays under the name “The Washington Redskins.” “Redskin” is an extremely derogatory term used to describe the reputed color of a Native American 's skin tone. Along with the simply disrespectful terminology, the phrase has a history of being used alongside bounty for the scalping of Native Americans, so it is without a doubt offensive to many people. Washington 's choice to continue using the word as a name for their popular sports team has been the cause of much controversy. Despite the pleas of millions of people, advocacy groups and even government officials to change the name, the sports team remains unchanged. Even the United States Patent and Trademark Office has refused the renewal of their name, logo and likeness, citing the combination as “disparaging to Native Americans" National public opinion polls have found that 60 to 83 percent of the general public supports the teams ' decision to continue using the name, yet only a small majority of fans think the term is offensive to Native …show more content…

A popular theme in the Reel Injun was the portrayal of Native Americans as savages. In addition to the cinematic examples of this, the idea of “Cowboys and Indians” comes to mind. A simple childhood game where the two sides are depicted in battle over territory. Now I 'm not sure if this is just my own personal connotation of the game, but as a child I remember the Indians always being the “bad guys,” and the goal was to protect your land from them. In reality it was the entire opposite way around, the Native Americans were trying to protect their land from the settlers. Was my characterization of sides influenced by the media? Had I seen one too many Looney Tunes episodes where the likable Bugs Bunny gracefully fires his shotgun into crowds of Native Americans? It 's hard to say, but I can say for certain that something very similar is happening

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