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.

Finally the Outcast

During my professional semester, I have learned many valuable things. The thing that I feel is most applicable to this class; however, is the feeling of being in the minority. In my personal life, I have never been the outcast or in the minority based solely on my appearance. I grew up in a place where more than 90% of the population is white. You could literally sit there and name the students in your grade who were not white. So, this was an entire new experience for me, when I walked into Reading High School for the first time. Reading is ethnically split up like this: 80% Latino, 15% African American, and the rest are white. So, I was finally in the small number of the statistic. I was no longer in the largest and most dominant group, I was the pariah. This made me think about Native Americans. I feel like I got a small taste of what their everyday is like, even in a small way. I am obviously not even close to feeling how a Native person must feel, because there is probably a much smaller percentage in most schools of Natives, except in places like Oklahoma. However, I finally know how they feel, at least a little.

It is really very interesting to walk around and see no one who looks like you. I mean I could tell you the students that I helped teach that were white. Instead of hearing conversations that started off with “well this African American girls were saying” I now heard “well this white girl is weird for washing her hair everyday” I actually laughed to myself first thinking about telling this girl that it is actually really common for white girls to wash their hair every day, and then thinking just how wonderful labeling is. I am a big advocate, even among my friends, of people not being described by their race or ethnicity.  You should not start off a sentence with well my black friend Myron said…Now, here I am thinking that I am protecting those very people, but the people who were in the minority in the majority of my life are saying the same thing about white girls. It was a great moment of clarity. White people, in this instance are not being overtly rude; we as Americans apparently just have this obsession of labeling and describing people based upon their appearance. Well, at least it isn’t one of those things that people in the dominant majority of the group slip into, it really is just a thing that we do. This we is the collective whole of everyone, not just Americans, not just anyone apparently every one labels others-this was news to me! Not really sure when this trend started, or where but it was and continues to be an eye-opener when you are the only person around of that particular race.

The only difference with me, versus Natives, is that I actually like being the only white person. I’m sure some Natives feel that way, they like the fact that they are different. However, I don’t know if I would like being different all the time. For a two week period, it’s okay to be the oddball. For my whole school existence? I don’t think that I could handle that; I would need some camaraderie, someone who was like me. But, what if you were like Natives, what if there wasn’t anyone else like you? What if you felt isolated, alone, and like no one understood? I think that that would be how I felt if I was a Native American, and quite frankly, that does not sound like a fun time, in fact it sounds like quite a tight spot to be in.

Apparently, at Reading High School, I am the outcast, I am the little white egg. This picture seems oddly fitting of that fact.

Alcatraz- Prison or Sanctuary?

Alcatraz Island is an interesting place, full of history. Alcatraz is the Island also knows as “the rock”. It is located 1.5 miles off of the coast of California. It was a federal prison until 1963 and was also equipped as a military base. That all changed though, when somewhere in the range of 80 Native Americans started an occupation of the Island. It lasted for 19 months. The Island is now a historic and national landmark, and is a top tourist destination for those visiting the San Francisco area. Most of the Natives were college students (at first) that went to school in San Francisco and wanted to start a rebellion that was similar to the ones going on around the country by other Natives.

Personally, I think that the most interesting thing about Alcatraz is the relationship and irony between Natives seeing the location for a federal prison to be the site for their “liberation” or freedom. It is intensely weird to think about. In what way does a prison promote these feelings of jubilation? They by their very definition are supposed to do exactly the opposite! So, this is why I find it very interesting that Natives today still visit Alcatraz as a historic landmark of something good for their people. Some even go apparently twice a year, on Thanksgiving and Columbus Day, the two times a year where non-Natives celebrate travesties done towards the Native people.

The other interesting part is that Natives don’t see Alcatraz as a victory; they see it as a failure in many ways. It was a success in the fact that it did gain national attention; it just didn’t hold the attention for very long. They also feel that no real good or change had come from the occupation; it was a silent protest, in many ways. Then, after it was all done, the story was told in a much different light than of a peaceful protest. It was told that the Natives were “destructive rebels” and other such things that were not told in a positive light, in the slightest. Of course, outsiders are always the ones that get blamed for things being crazy, or unruly, or they get accused by these critics who probably don’t know the whole story. It reminds me of the Civil Rights Movement, when many peaceful protesters had tear gas used on them, or were even shot. They were not doing anything accept meeting peacefully, but because they were not only the minority in numbers but also ethnicity they are seen as bad.

Alcatraz is a very interesting symbol for the US as a whole. There is an air of mystery based on the fact that it was a prison, and that a lot of interesting things and people were kept there. However, I think the most interesting part about Alcatraz is one of its least known facts, that for 19 months, it was occupied by Native protesters searching for their own identity and their place in life.  They were searching for sanctuary from the judgment, the hate, and the oppression they faced on a daily basis that is still present today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2TXvRpdDTw
This link goes to a youtube video that is a collage of all different pictures taken during the Native occupation of Alcatraz.

The Little Box We Never Fit Into

The little box we never fit into is the box you are forced to check on standardized tests. The one that makes you pick what ethnicity you are. There are always about 6 or 7 choices that are something like: Native American, Latino, White/Caucasian (What is Caucasian anyway?), Pacific Islander, African American/Black, Asian, and Other.

So, I looked up exactly what Caucasian was and according to the dictionary, it is: “relating to people who are light-skinned or of European origin “ and also “belonging to the light-skinned peoples of Europe, northern Africa, and western and southern Asia, formerly considered a distinct ethnic group”. Well that cleared things up considerably, didn’t it? So, if I am a light skinned person from Algeria, then I am Caucasian. What about if I am a light skinned person from South Africa? Am I Caucasian? Am I African? Or, do I go by the fact that I am technically a white African? Good Lord, how can any one person fit into this?

What if we don’t fit into the little box? What if we are more than one of these? What does it matter if we are Pacific Islander? What if we don’t want to be in the box? As a person whose ethnicity is 100% Irish, I know which box I am supposed to fill out. White. But, you know what? I always felt cheated. I wasn’t a person that was interesting, and got to pick one of the more complicated choices, I was the white girl. But, you know, I never really liked being called white. It doesn’t say anything about who you are or where you are from. The more interesting part is that if I feel this way, then how in the world must someone feel that is Chinese-American and Nigerian? Then what do you choose? What if you are from Iraq? You are from the continent of Asia, but would not always be considered “Asian”, you are Iraqi. Or what if you have dual citizenship from America and Canada? Does that still only qualify you as only white?

What is white? My skin tone is much peachier or even pink in color, certainly not just plain old white. White is boring, and non-interesting. White is the majority white is bland. You know what is much more interesting? Colors are much more interesting. But at the same time, Natives have been called red, Asians have been called yellow, and Africans black or brown. What is this obsession with color? And, why must we say what “color” we are on standardized tests? It is honestly infuriating to be pigeonholed into one tiny little box.  If I feel that way, then how in the world must the other people feel when they are forced to fill out the box? Humiliated/confused/proud/racist/baffled?

The dreaded standardized test.

This woman came up when I googled "Caucasian"

The apparent region where "Caucasians" hail from, notice that it is in ASIA!

 A Nigerian woman and an Asian American man. What box will their child fill out on the SAT?

"A Pacific Islander woman"  Whatever that really means. 

The Girl Who Relates Everything to Books

So, I am the girl that relates everything back to books, partly because I am a library science major, and thus am literally immersed in literature on a daily basis, but partly because I am one of the people that are constantly reminded of other things. I could be watching a movie and I will say to myself “oh, that character reminds me of the one in this book!” or something of the sort. But, after this long ramble, I just kept being reminded of books today in our class discussion. I think that today was one of our better discussions, simply because the whole class was there and was seemingly more willing to participate than usual. We were also talking about a lot of interesting topics, of course all relating to Native Americans.

The interesting thing is that I kept being reminded about Banned Books through the discussion. Banned books are something that are talked about quite frequently in the library world, due to the fact that we often have to deal with those who wish to ban the books, and that we have an entire week dedicated to celebrate banned books. The reason that today’s discussion reminded me of banned books is because banned books are often the forgotten, but never really gone. They are also often taught in schools, and the people who are banning them usually have never even read the book or if they have they miss the greater purpose the author was trying to portray. In many ways, as saddening as this sounds, banned books remind me of Native Americans.

Natives are often all but forgotten, although they are not in fact gone at all. (Is it sad that Natives are less prevalent and heard about now than they were when they were an almost extinct population? They really are never in the news, that’s the truth.) There are some 3 million Native people in just the US alone, but there must be millions more if you count the whole of just North America. So, why are they all but forgotten? (I think that that should actually be the new title of the course, because I’m pretty sure that we have more questions now, as time goes on, than ever.) Natives are also often taught about in school, albeit the information is usually much fabricated and usually about Pocahontas or Thanksgiving, with maybe a little Sacajawea thrown in for good measure. The people who are censoring/excluding/banning/segregating/ignorant about Natives are often the people that have never actually met a Native person in their lives. These are often the ignoramus type of people that would shout things such as “Go back to the reservation” or other convoluted things. They have no real sense of who Natives are, or the fact that they do not want to simply be categorized by a name that was made up by Christopher Columbus, in his own misguided adventurous way. An Indian is a person from the country of India, so why did the incorrect and often rude name stick? Anyway, in many ways I feel like Natives are the banned people of America. Still very much present, but no one seems to really know what to do with them. They are the outcasts, the mysterious, and the often celebrated for entirely the wrong reasons.

Now this is what we should be teaching in schools!

Some censored books

This is ironic considering Natives always have to carry identification and often how "Indian" they are is determined by how much Indian blood they have.

This so true but so sad.

This looks like a good source of information on Native Americans

Banned books, what are you so afraid of?

Then What?

So, after all of this talk about how Native Americans are disappearing, I decided to do a little research, because I was curious about if people were really exaggerating or if Natives were really not in the news. I was also intrigued when I read Hallie's blog about Natives being "missing". This got me into an investigative mode. So, I googled "Native Americans". The only things that came up were Wikipedia articles about Natives from the past. (We are seeing the whole Plains Indians with buffalo circa 1890 again.) Then there was a project from some person's elementary class about "the first thanksgiving" and how natives and the Pilgrims were friends. About 10 links down was a website with actual current information about Natives. It was the Indian Country Today Media Network, which of course I had never heard of. So now I am googling things I google. Thank God we live in a technological time or otherwise I would have had no information at all! So What I learned is that this website, Indian Country Today is actually a legitimate organization that is run FOR Natives BY Natives. They actually include indigenous peoples everywhere, not just in America and Canada. They include: " Canadian First Nations, South and Latin American Indigenous Peoples, Pacific Islanders, Australian Aboriginals and Indigenous Peoples in all corners of the world" according to the website. The more interesting part is that this organization was actually founded on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,  which is owned and operated by the Oneida Nation of New York. The newspaper was headquartered in Canastota, New York until 2011, when it was moved to New York City, also according to the newspaper. This is the poorest reservation of them all and one of the ones that we have specifically mentioned in class. I also seem to remember that this reservation is the same one where Crazy Horse was killed. This reservation, seemingly is an important place, because it keeps coming up in conversation. First with the fact that that is where the Lakota people were forced to go, then the monument to Crazy Horse, and now the only actual website I could find about current natives was started on the Pine Reservation. If this reservation is of such importance, why have I never heard of it before? I think it is one of the moments we have also been taking about in class, that it's not that it wasn't important, it was just that it wasn't taught to us. Maybe that's how the government want us to think about it? Maybe that's how the Natives feel? Just leave us alone... you have already done enough damage. I'm not sure, but it is something that I will be thinking about, that I can assure you of.

So basically, my googling of Native Americans really only gave me more questions then it answered (no surprise there, it seems to be a reoccurring theme these days, and with all Native studies for that matter). Now I honestly want a more concrete reason why we hear so little of Natives in the news. Yes, it may be easier, but is it right? Probably not. Maybe the reason that Native don't want to be apart of the mainstream is because of all of the injustices they just have had enough and want us to just leave them. But what if we can't, what if now that we know we feel like we just can't sit by and ignore them any longer? Then what?

Native Map (which I wouldn't be surprised if it was incorrect). Notice the natural resources depicted by the little images. I really like the tipis and the log homes that are depicted, as well,  and the totems that are going on up in Canada.

Yet we have huge monuments for generals of every war ever, and this great leader gets a hastily thrown together rock formation? I guess I should be happy he got some recogniton right? (sarcasm)

Not really sure how to feel about this one...

Typical Plains Indian depiction of what "real Indians" look like (apparently even today)