Funny or Just an Ass with a Microphone?

Today, I read an article that Dr. Morris had posted on herFacebook, about the mayor from Topeka making a racist joke about Natives. Itwas exactly what we have been talking about I class, about how who says thejoke really makes a difference. He basically said that he used to date “anIndian girl” and when they used to go out dancing “it used to rain afterwards”.Overall, while this is offensive to both Natives and women, this is not theworst joke in the world, in fact, if a Native person had said it, it would probablybe a huge hit. But a Native person didn’t say it did they? No, a white man wasonce again publicly making a joke in which he knew was inappropriate, but hereally didn’t give that much consideration, if any.  In response to these comments, ThePrairie Band Potawatomi Tribal Council issued a statement to the Topeka CapitalJournal in reaction to the terrible joke. The mayor then was asked topublicly apologize, and responded with “Idon't think I have anything to apologize for,” and “They were just little jokesand probably were inappropriate, but I didn't mean any harm, and I don't thinkit did any harm to anyone.” He even went as far as to saythat there are a lot of jokes madeabout a lot of different groups and that people shouldn’t be so sensitive aboutthese comments. The most annoying part about this whole scenario, to me is thatthis man said these things and then not only didn’t apologize but thenbasically scoffed about the outcry of people to make an apology. The ignorance of people will NEVER cease to amaze and horrify me. Why a mayor of a city, a public figure, a role model, would think that it was okay to say these things, I will never know. Clearly this man just condones sexism, anti-feminist thoughts, and racism. Good for him, politics wins again.

http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com/racist-joke-by-topeka-mayor-disappoints-prairie-band-tribe.html

Pictures Say it All...

 

For this blog post, I was basically thinking that pictures are stronger than words. These pictures are all things that I found on Google or Pinterest, when I searched "Native Americans", except the last picture, which I took myself. A lot of these pictures are really disturbing, like the first man pictured, with his shirt off, the caption under that one read "Indians are hawt". The one woman showed, in the sequence of three, really was blatantly gross. The woman was clearly portreyed as a sexual object. Also, notice that there are a lot of headdresses. Notice the dog and car dressed up as "friends" AKA the Indian and the Pilgrim. I am also a fan of the bike with tie die that had the caption "an Indian bike, if they rode bikes". Yes because I'm sure Natives are too odd or are dead, hence they cannot ride bikes, but If they did they would apparently ride hippy bikes. Good, that makes sense. The "historical" pictures are great and I'm sure really accurate. Why is this okay?

I would also like to say that until this class I wouldn't have known the magnitude of how offensive some of these things are. I think on the surface I would have realized that it was probably a little sad or rude but I would never have been as incensed as I am now. I have really learned so much from this class, not just the main points like rhetorical sovereignty or the different themes in Native humor, but small things that I never would have thought of. Such as i never would have thought that I would have pounced on someone for making an "Indian headdress" or calling someone chief. I wanted to thank everyone who was in this class for making it really intellectually stimulating and thought provoking. Also a special thanks to Dr. Morris for being an innovative and extremely interesting teacher and facilitating a fantastic class. I am so happy I took this class. Thanks again!

The National Museum of the American Indian- Washington D.C.

So, our class went on a field trip today to visit the National Museum of the American Indian. It was a really impressive day, from start to finish. I really loved the museum, in the fact that there were so many things to look at. The first thing that I noticed that I really liked was the architecture of the building. It does not look like the rest of the buildings that are on that block, it completely stands out in that the building is made of some type of natural stone. It honestly looks like sandstone. Then, you walk around the building and there is a hugely impressive fountain that is just chilling there, with even ducks living there. Overall not only is the exterior of the museum esthetically pleasing it also makes perfect sense to me and was so beautiful.

We then went inside. The first thing that I noticed was the rotunda-like ceilings. There was so much natural light pouring forth, and there were prisms on the wall so that at each different point of the day there were rainbows scattered along the walls and floor of the main area.

Then, we went to go see the actual exhibits. It was so cool; honestly I have no idea where to begin. I really liked how the curators separated the different tribes but still made the area open up to the whole main part, showing unity of the whole space. I had no idea that Native beliefs differed so much until I saw the displays that explained what each tribe believed. I really loved all of the costumes, the part about how horses are a part of many Native cultures, the presentation about the Inuit people and their love of the whale and how they could not exist without each other. I also loved that we had the opportunity to sample some real Native food. The frybread was absolutely fantastic and I know that I will be going back to this museum one day and spend the whole day there again, because there was so much great stuff, that I don’t know that I got to see everything.

Ranting, What Else is New?

Can I just start off by saying that I am so glad that we aredone speaking about humor in class… Obviously everyone knows how much I do notfind Native humor funny. It does irritate me though because of the fact that Ido not find Native humor funny, people in our class assume that means that Ihave no sense of humor. I am not the Grinch or Scrooge; I laugh quite a bit,and make others laugh as well. I realize that everyone has different senses of humor;I just wish that people wouldn’t judge me based on my “lack” of humor. There isno reason for people to be snarky and say things like “what a shocker” or “wellshe doesn’t find anything funny” while speaking about humor in class. Justbecause I don’t find this kind of humor funny does not make me have a monotonepersonality. (If you still think so, you should see me watch The Big Bang Theory-I think that most of the class would be taken aback at how much I laugh). Personally,I don’t know all of the people in our English class, and I thought that we weretrying to stop judging people through what we have learned in this class, but Iguess I was wrong, apparently being judged on what I find funny is still fodderfor others to poke fun.

Also, I was really alarmed when Joe was talking today aboutsomeone thinking our program was racist. If anything, it really is the exact opposite;we are fighting stereotypes, racism, and the social norms. It was reallyirritating that people would take the poster out of context, and I agree whenTaylor said that they probably will not be attending our program. People reallycan be so irritating and ignorant.

"Fighting Stereotypes"

Sorry for the rant, this was obviously not the best blogpost ever; I was just irritated for a change.

Let the Games Begin

So, for this post, I have three seemingly unrelated things to talk about. Librarians, Rue from The Hunger Games series, Jewish persons, and Jacoby Ellsbury. The reason that I wanted to talk about these three things was to carry on the tradition of Stereotyping.

Personally, as a library science major, I never really considered my major an odd choice. It really seems to fit me, and fit what I love to do. However, this fact appears to be a bone of contention with a lot of people. People are constantly laughing about my major, whether it is to ask about “if I really need a degree in that?” “How is library a science?” or my favorite “what are you going to do, sit around and say shhhhh all day?” Obviously we know that people are ignorant, and if it wasn’t my major it would be something else they found unsatisfactory. The people asking these impertinent questions are the people that one must take a deep cleansing breath about before answering. I calmly try to explain that indeed you do need a degree, just like everyone else in education, and so on. Though, the toughest part of my major is trying to explain to non-majors what it is that I actually “do”. How do you explain to people that I am in charge of information literacy, cataloging books, or I assigning the materials subject headings, I place Mylar covers on the books along with the spine label I made and the barcode I also made. What about the circulation desk, technology policies, fair use policies, collection development, reference, media specialist, library administration, preservation, conservation and all of the differences in between. This is not a conversation that I would like to have with a person that is usually one step up from a Neanderthal. How do you explain something to someone who does not know or want to know? Most people do not actually care enough to know, they are just asking because I am like a zoo animal- something to be looked at, but not to get familiar with. Personally, I am really touchy when people laugh at me based upon my decision to become a librarian. I am slowly getting used to it, and I know that it is not just me that feels this way (all of my library friends and I speak heatedly about the topic). A perfect example of this is one of my teachers, who has a Master’s degree in library science, was walking by two students, one of them worked at the information commons desk in the library. The other student asked the worker what it felt like to be a librarian. Clearly that person was not a librarian; they were a library worker if anything, but to some people they have no clue what that would even mean. Those are the times that you must bite your tongue and walk away. It just does not make it any easier to assimilate into what people THINK a librarian is or what they do.

My second topic is about a horrifying fact that I have recently come across. I am an avid reader (obviously) and thus, I was before the craze of The Hunger Games. Long before the movie was coming out, I was devouring the books. I absolutely think the books are fantastic, and very different than the usual young adult craze. It is post-apocalyptic and has some very dark tones. It is in no way your classic boy meets girl type of book. Katniss Everdeen is a stunningly relatable character, and I believe that she is even a feminist. She is fiercely independent and very intelligent. In short, whereas Bella Swan from the Twilight series is mostly a damsel in distress, Katniss is a strong woman who fights for what she believes in. That all being said, there are several characters that enter the Games with Katniss and the male lead of the story, Peeta; there are two characters: Rue and Thresh both from District 11. These characters are described in the book as having “beautiful dark brown skin and eyes” personally; I would take that as a person of an ethnicity other than white. Well, apparently when the movie came out, people were outraged that African American actors were chosen for the parts of Thresh and Rue.  I think that the actors both did a fantastic job, and were very good convincing fits for the role. People on Twitter actually said that when the character Rue died, “they did not feel as sad, because she was black” That is one of the more tame statements made. I am really not sure why people care about the look of the actors- they played their roles to the tee and I think that they were some of the better cast roles. It pains me that in 2012 we still have people who are ignorant enough to say these hurtful things, but I suppose that I should not be surprised at this.

To preface what else I am about to say, I would like to point out that one of my best friends is Jewish, and to be honest that is one of my favorite things about her. She adds a lot of interesting things and knowledge to my life just based on the fact that she has had a lot of different experiences that I have had. Such as, she is participating in not eating meat on Friday during lent, and I will be participating in not eating anything with yeast during Passover. Another instance that happened this week of serious irritation involved someone being Jewish. My friend who is Jewish (her name is Heather) was in one of her classes- a diversity class no less, when the teacher had the class do an activity where they were to categorize themselves based on race. There were many familiar races up on the board for the class to choose from. However, Heather was confused. Jewish was on the board. Being Jewish is not a race, and thus Heather asked politely if they could choose two of the categories. Her teacher asked her which two she was and Heather explained that she was white and Jewish full well knowing that Judaism is a religion, culture and ethnicity, but not a race. The diversity teacher said that being Jewish trumped being white. Which personally, made no sense to me; Jews are not a “race” of people. So, I posted an angry-ish Facebook status about how ridiculous it was that a diversity teacher would say something like that. Perhaps I was asking for it, but I did not know that I would have such an outcry of attention. So, people were saying that a court case ruled that Judaism was a race to “protect” Jews from discrimination. I’m sure that that was highly effective (sarcasm). Then someone else said there is a higher instance of diseases due to gene mutations in Jewish people. I did a little research and came up with: “the people who are Ashlenazi Jews have more genetic mutations/diseases. This is due to the fact that there were only a select few Jews in that area and there was a lot of inter-marrying. However this is not unlike hemophilia among Queen Victoria's descendants.” Thus, I personally think that this disproved any of that discrimination. What do people not understand? Why do we have to pigeon hole people into these little boxes, like if you are the “race” Jewish, that overrides being white? What sense does that make?

Finally, I found out an interesting fact the other day. I am a very big Boston Red Sox fan, and one of my favorite players is a man named Jacoby Ellsbury. I recently was looking around the internet and came to find that he is Navajo and a member of the Colorado River Indian Tribes and is the first Native American of Navajo descent to reach the Major Leagues. I found this fact to be really interesting because I love Jacoby and I think he is one of the most talented members of the Red Sox, but I was saddened that he was the first Navajo person to make it to the Major Leagues. I wonder why that is? Was it because Native kids don’t like baseball, or was it because there were good Native players but they were not allowed to play? I’m not really sure, but I was happy to find that one of my favorite players was Navajo.

So, why am I rambling about all of this? Well to tell you the truth most of the library talk was about the fact that this was one of the weeks where it felt like every day I got an annoying comment. Also, the Rue from The Hunger Games was just because I was irate at how frustrating people are, I was honestly incensed about the way the diversity teacher handled herself and stated that being Jewish was a race, and finally I was just really happy that one of my favorite players was Native. This all is stemming also from the fact that ever since this class, I am more and more outraged about the treatment of others on literally a daily basis. Stereotypes are clearly here and here to stay unless we all chose to do something about it and for heaven’s sake we should try to do some research about whom we are talking, and thus prevent any ignorance.

No class = No rest for the weary

The first website took us to Youtube, to watch a video blog posted by a man named Jim Ruel, a Native American who proudly proclaims himself to be “Nerdtastic”. He starts talking about obscure space junk falling in a small town in Siberia, and then quickly moves to Ashton Kutcher and how he wants to pay $200,000 to get some weightless time in space. He is horrified that other poor nerds are not getting the opportunity to get to go up in space. I was personally not thrilled when he started in about the release of The Hunger Games, but I suppose that is to be expected. It is just annoying when people critique books and movies when they have never read or seen them. The irony of course is that Ruel likes the movie Borat, a horrifying excuse for a comedy. The irony of course here is that I have never watched Borat, yet I just judged it. See, two can play that game! Then he speaks about the idea of free will. An illusion or a real decision made by our thoughts and feelings? Then he makes a bad joke about his soul being constipated by the thought. He also speaks about the new season of Game of Thrones coming out, which is very interesting because I just had a friend in my class do a presentation about the books that the TV show is based on. Overall, I really didn’t like this man’s blog. It reminded me of just another blog about people going off about their opinions (or is that the point of a blog?). I found his humor unsatisfactory and I would not voluntarily watch this blog again.

I really liked the second cartoon; I think it said a lot in the fact that it was titled “The Last Real Indians”. The caption above the man in the cartoon says “have you had your identity stolen?” and on the desk is written “identity theft protection here”.  These of course are interesting thoughts because Natives seem to struggle with their identity so much more often than other Americans and that with everyone doing their banking online, there are much more cases of literally identity theft. It really is no wonder with the terrible treatment Natives had faced and still face today that they feel that their identity has been stolen. I love the bottles presented on the desk that say “hipster repellent” it is a standing joke that people don’t like hipsters, so this made me laugh. I also liked that the flyer said will barter, because of course Natives are known for their trading, and you are accused of being an “Indian giver” if you give something to someone and take it back. The Native man looks like he is the “typical” Indian with a headdress and feathers, and even a buckskin coat. I like the nature of this joke because it is not from the 1800’s it is clearly talking about present day issues.

The next video is from the Chiefs of Comedy, the skit is called "Dropped Feather". It is possibly the weirdest video I have ever witnessed. It shows three Native men, all wearing “Native” clothes. Then one of them looses a feather from their hair, and they all stare at it and start dancing to this electronic beat. Then, they grab the feather and run away, only to drop another feather. The same thing occurs, with robotic dancing and yelping, to add to the overall strangeness. I get the point of the fact that Natives can listen to electronic sounding music, generate this music, dance to it, and feathers are a thing of the past, but other than that I was stumped. Maybe I just don’t get the point of this video but I did not laugh once.

The frybread movie trailer was next on the list. Again it was an odd video, all about the art of making frybread, and the Arizona state competition about who makes the best frybread. It shows several contestants in the competition. They also show that the winner receives a trophy, and $10,000. There are rules about the frybread and how large it is, color and smell. There are 22 Native tribes competing, with one representative from each tribe. Apparently this is to become a real movie, which would be interesting to see. I for one had no clue there was such an art to creating frybread. The people participating in the show are very overdramatic, but what do you expect from a reality-tv-esque show?

Charlie Ballard: Being Gay and Native American was next. I had the same problem with Charlie Ballard because I just found the humor sad. I realize that self-deprecation is part of Native humor; however his jokes went beyond that. Things you should not joke about, such as the Trail of Tears were made into farce. Personally, not a fan in the slightest, maybe I am just too touchy, or too non-Native. I would not ever watch Charlie Ballard again. He is just too offensive for my taste.

Overall, I have now realized that on the whole I probably do not have a Native sense of humor. I do not understand about 85% of it, and the rest of it I feel is too offensive. I understand self-deprecation for a laugh, but sometimes things just go too far. I would be the equivalent of making fun of the Holocaust or poking fun at people suffering in Darfur, or even the Irish Potato Famine. Call me touchy, naïve, or accuse me of having no sense of humor, I really am not offended. I have a sense of humor, but it does not include these examples.

Humor: the undefinable, the untangible, the hilarious

               Humor is a very elusive thing. Not everyone has the same sense of humor, or even finds the same things funny. I for example, do not think that comedians are funny about 85% of the time. Disgusting comments, racial slurs, and cursing do not qualify as humor to me. Anyone can use profanity, only the people who do not use is should be taken seriously. This being said, until recently I never really thought about the fact certain cultures think that certain things are funny, or have a particular kind of joke. We have learned, through reading Me Funny that Natives in particular, like to reverse the situation. So instead of saying the obvious, they turn it inside out, and make it funny. I really like this concept because when I saw Markus Zusak (author of The Book Thief and I am the Messenger) in the fall, he made a point of saying that humor derives from the unexpected. A story is not funny until something you have not foreseen occurs. He even told us a story where he was sick of being bullied by his brother, so he sets him up for revenge. He switches his brother’s hardboiled egg for a regular egg, and he watches in horror as his brother cracks the egg on his head and is immediately covered in yolk. The funny part of the story is when Markus went to confess the deed to his father, to prevent the disastrous consequences, his father does not reprimand him, he congratulates him on his scheme. Hence, the unexpected reaction from Markus’ dad makes the story funny.

               I personally do not have a Native sense of humor. I realize that part of the reason that I do not is that I am not, in fact Native. But, there are people out there that are not Native that have the same sense of humor; I am just not one of those people. Probably the reason behind this is that I do not understand a lot of the innuendos and the humor that goes in between the Native Nations. I have also never lived on a reservation, so that could indeed be another aspect of the problem.

               I have also discovered that I fall into the category of non-Natives that feel bad about laughing at Native jokes. I am one of the people that always second-guesses my laughter when it is at the expense of other people, regardless of who it is. I feel bad when I laugh at a joke that is about Natives, even though obviously the comedian is saying this for a laugh. This also happens to me with African-American comedians as well; yet I have no problem laughing when the comedian is a white woman. Some white men also bother me, when they make rude jokes about their wives, or things of that nature. I think that honestly what this boils down to is the fact that my own brand of humor is lightly teasing someone about something, self deprecation, and a heavy dose of sarcasm.

               This all being said, I do think that Native humor is at the very least entertaining, and I particularly like Don Kelly and his jokes. My favorite of his jokes is when he is talking about being Ojibway and Swedish- and his name should be "Dances with Bjorn". The rest of Me Funny that I have read so far has been a little bit of a letdown, I had expected it to be a little funnier, and once again that could be due to the fact that I don’t get the humor or don’t have that sense of humor. We shall see though, if the book takes a turn for the hilarious, I am only on Chapter 6.