Stop Being Culturally Arrogant, White People!
[post by Dana]
I think we are supposed to be abuzz about the “bold”new cover art from the New Yorker. Artist Bruce McCall:
“It’s not profound, you know—nothing I do is profound—but I wanted to address the whole kerfuffle over the Redskins’ name,” Bruce McCall says.
Rather than viewing the team name as a “badge of honor” like owner Dan Snyder, McCall has a different take:
“This is 2014, and it seems a little late to be dealing with that stuff,” McCall says. “It should have been quashed a long time ago. We did everything to the Indians that we could, and it’s still going on. It seems crude and callous. Names like the Atlanta Braves come from another time. So, in my cover, I’ve brought the cultural arrogance of one side back to the sixteen-hundreds and the first Thanksgiving dinner, just to see what would happen.”
–Dana
Hello. Or in the words of my people, Howka.
Dana (8e74ce) — 11/22/2014 @ 10:30 amI have to wonder if he has ever spoken to a Tribal person who wasn’t a professional grievance pimp?
C. S. P. Schofield (848299) — 11/22/2014 @ 10:32 ami can smell the white privilege from here…
i wonder if this time i’ll finally get some, after all these years of going without it?
redc1c4 (cf3b04) — 11/22/2014 @ 10:33 amAs one wag on twitter suggested, rename the team the Washington Fruit Pickers to reflect more current ethnic stereotyping by our self-anointed intellectual and moral betters.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 11/22/2014 @ 10:34 amThis is 2104, by golly! We should really demand idiot, lunatic libtards grow up and stop whining about such nonsense. There are real, important issues to be faced and yet they have their heads in some dark, dank place arguing about the number of perceived ethnic slurs dancing on a pin head.
I don’t use such references, but I don’t get all bent out of shape if somebody calls me “whitey” or “honkey” or “round-eyes” or even “pale-face.” It is (still) a free country.
One almost gets a sense that idiot, lunatic libtards aren’t fully grounded in reality…
WarEagle82 (b18ccf) — 11/22/2014 @ 10:34 amHe buried his head up his wounded ass.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/22/2014 @ 10:36 am“… just to see what would happen.”
Well, people who are easily offended by stereotypical cartoons about stereotypical cartoon characters will be offended.
Others, not so much.
Beldar (fa637a) — 11/22/2014 @ 10:39 amNew name: “The Washington Executive Orders.”
Unstoppable?
Beldar (fa637a) — 11/22/2014 @ 10:40 amI imagine if the royalty question could be settled on mutually acceptable terms, posters of that cover autographed by the team’s players would be a hot seller at the stadium.
askeptic (efcf22) — 11/22/2014 @ 10:42 am“… just to see what would happen.”
Bet he used to do the same thing around his mommy and daddy
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/22/2014 @ 10:55 amwho can ever forget the fleet feet of “Runs Like Deer For 27 Yards And Fumbles”?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/22/2014 @ 10:57 amYeaah. All those states and counties and cities which named themselves after the native peoples who had settled there. And the rivers. Real disrespect, that. And more than half the country anymore lives in ignorance and probably don’t even recognize that all these are Indian inspired names.
elissa (91b301) — 11/22/2014 @ 11:03 amWere I a native American, I think I’d be more offended by the twenty dollar bill. But I guess that requires some literacy.
Kevin M (d91a9f) — 11/22/2014 @ 11:06 amSpeaking of Native Americans …
A family comprised of these fine people moved off the reservation and into a small town populated with white devils. The family had a 6-year-old boy who came home crying his little eyes out after his first day at school.
“What is wrong, my son?” the boy’s father asked. “Why do you weep?”
“The white children made fun of my name all day long,” the sobbing youngster replied. “Why do our people have such strange names? Why can’t I be called Billy, or Tommy, or Jimmy?”
Taking the boy gently upon his knee, the father said, “Well, my son, it is an ancient Native American custom to give each of our children a name that is relevant to the circumstances of their birth. For example, on the morning that your brother was born, a great deer with huge antlers came bounding across the meadow. That is why we call your brother Running Buck. And your sister was conceived when we lived next to a beautiful mountain stream. That is why we call her Babbling Brook. Now, does that answer your question, Broken Rubber?”
Whitey Nisson (9b08e4) — 11/22/2014 @ 11:08 amthey originally were the Boston Braves, before they moved to the Beltway, I guess one could call them the RedCoats, or the way they’ve been playing lately, the Red Shirts,
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/22/2014 @ 11:33 amChange their name to the Washington Vipers.
Kevin M (d91a9f) — 11/22/2014 @ 11:43 amChildish Rebellion, so daring
billypaintbrush (c91a0a) — 11/22/2014 @ 11:44 amI grew up on the prairies of the west Texas Panhandle, in a town named “Lamesa.” It’s pronounced “lah-MEE-sah” by everyone who lives there, including the very substantial plurality of the townsfolk whose first language was Spanish. Lamesa was given that name when it was founded in the very early 20th Century, with the explanation of its founders that the name was based upon the Spanish phrase for “the table” — “la mesa.” This was thought appropriate, they said, because the town sits atop the Edwards Plateau at the edge of the Llano Estacado that sweeps up North America. “‘Tain’t much ‘tween Lamesa and the North Pole,” I was told as a child when it snowed, ‘ceptin’ for some bob-wahr [barbed-wire] fence.” The land was, and is, as flat as a table-top.
This provenance is unusually certain, because the town was founded one day before a county-wide election to choose the county seat for Dawson County, Texas. The choosing of the county seat would determine the location of the county courthouse required by the Texas Constitution, which in turn would become the natural nexis for further town development of all sorts.
It had been universally presumed that the largest settlement in the still-mostly-unpopulated county, the whimsically- and not very accurately-named “Chicago Heights,” would be ratified as the county seat. But apparently a disaffected faction who didn’t get along with Chicago Heights’ city leadership decided to mount a last-minute competing bid for their adjacent, just-for-this-purpose incorporated city, which they had decided that day to call “Lamesa.”
There were allegations of vote-buying using both cash and whiskey. Lamesa beat Chicago Heights, it’s told, by one vote; whereupon Chicago Heights, in a spirit of good humor and good faith, dissolved itself and accepted immediate annexment into Dawson County’s new county seat, Lamesa.
Since I moved away, I’ve been told more than once — usually by non-Texans, but uniformly with an arrogant and condescending tone — that I mispronounce the name of my home town. I’ve been told that to honor the town’s and the State’s Hispanic roots and heritage, I ought to begin pronouncing my hometown as if it were named “the table” and as if I only spoke Spanish.
My position is that you honor your roots by actually learning something about them, and remember them, instead of arrogantly spewing fictionalized and PC-sanitized versions of those roots onto everyone around you.
Beldar (fa637a) — 11/22/2014 @ 11:48 amOne could say that assuming you know how other people should feel about their culture is what is culturally arrogant.
What I have seen says that the majority of people of Native American background are just fine with it, and that it was a Native American who actually designed the logo.
So instead of someone of white privilege, presumably, telling Native Americans what they should be offended by, maybe they should ask them first what they think.
Of course, if the data I have seen is wrong, then the correct data may lead to a different conclusion.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 11/22/2014 @ 11:51 amYou’re next Winnebago. Racist RVs!
Gazzer (cb9ee2) — 11/22/2014 @ 12:07 pmsince daniel snyder and the commissioner are both jewish call them the JEWSKINS!
Native american (72ea49) — 11/22/2014 @ 12:09 pmThen out spake prim Horatius,
nk (dbc370) — 11/22/2014 @ 12:12 pmThe Censor of the Gate:
“To every persyn upon this earth
Butthurt cometh soon or late.
And how can we do better
When facing fearful speech,
Than shut down all discussion,
And stop the crimethink’s reach
— Ken White, Baron Popehat
After my dad retired from 26 years in the USAF he did substitute teaching here in California, refused to teach the PC version of the building of the transcontinental RR (great grandpa Malynn came from Ireland, worked on the roads from east to west). California teaches that “all creeds and colors built the RR”, it was Chinese coolies going from west to east, and poor white immigrants from east to west. Most kids like the truth.
There are plenty of inspiring stories showing contribution from “all creeds and colors”, but bastardizing history diminishes all of the true stories.
Steve Malynn (0aa613) — 11/22/2014 @ 12:14 pmMD,
In light of your comment, this week I was with 5 natives, including myself. One of them brought up the Redskins kerfuffle and discussion ensued. In our small sampling, it wasn’t a big deal. Four were whatever about it and one felt it should be changed because there are those that are indeed offended. The elder in our group felt that it was all pretty silly and made Indians look petty. The middle-aged were not offended. The youngest (early 30’s)felt it was offensive. I think this microcosm is reflective of the whole in that there is no overwhelming concensus. Of course, having a blase attitude or seeing the name as an honor isn’t quite as sexy a narrative as OUTRAGE.
Dana (8e74ce) — 11/22/2014 @ 12:20 pmI think it was D’Souza who, back at Dartmouth, contacted 100 tribal leaders across the nation to learn if the term “Dartmouth Indians” was considered rude or racists. You know the answer.
It *is* true that young people are pushed into thinking about a “victicrat” political sensibility. But the fact is, we are all more similar than we are different.
I used to hear all the time how Native Americans lived close to the earth (and because of my grandfather, I have Native American ancestry, though I never have claimed it). I would try to point out we know a lot about ancient tribes because their trash heap middens.
People are people.
But progressives like to divide people into warring camps. It has been pushed like crazy on campus. But as I told DRJ on another thread, for all the vocal victicrats on campus, there exists a silent majority that are pretty fed up. We saw that in the last election.
Fingers crossed.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 11/22/2014 @ 12:31 pmNow, does that answer your question, Broken Rubber?”
That’s a good one. A guffaw came out of me when I saw the punchline.
You’re next Winnebago. Racist RVs!
And that’s no joke when the New Yorker’s cartoonist blabs about “names like the Atlanta Braves come from another time.” Oh, for God’s (or Allah’s) sakes. So now even the very innocuous “Braves,” which, if anything, sounds rather flattering of Native Americans, is also moving into unacceptable territory?
Artist Bruce McCall should be required to live amongst the Nidal Hasans of American society. Better yet, the lunacy of such deranged liberals deserves no less the same consequences as that which befell the victims (aka, sacrificial lambs) of the US military’s own brand of PC derangement and the resulting bloodletting at Fort Hood.
Mark (c160ec) — 11/22/2014 @ 12:40 pmthat one feller needs to out some clothes on
i can’t even imagine what he’s thinking but it’s just flat-out inappropriate
happyfeet (831175) — 11/22/2014 @ 12:53 pmto *put* some clothes on i mean
happyfeet (831175) — 11/22/2014 @ 12:53 pm“It *is* true that young people are pushed into thinking about a “victicrat” political sensibility. But the fact is, we are all more similar than we are different.”
Truer words were never spoken.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/22/2014 @ 12:53 pmAt least it isn’t a magazine named “The Chicagoan.” Chicago is an Indian word for “bad smell.”
Mike K (90dfdc) — 11/22/2014 @ 12:56 pmI see that cover and think of it as showing the degradation of Thanksgiving into a gathering in front of big screen TVs in preparation for running to get a bargain on another big screen TV when Big Bargain Box opens its doors at midnight.Except now it’s at 4PM. Before long Black Friday sales will start the day after Easter, and going to church on Christmas will be a quaint custom performed to indulge grandparents.
If the above seems over the top…I work in retail, and invariably by 12/24 I have decided Scrooge should not have changed his mind.
kishnevi (a5d1b9) — 11/22/2014 @ 12:56 pmMr Feets, also inappropriate is the idea that residents of Massachusetts [origin of that name is of course relevant here] would root for a football team other than the Patriots, or call themselves something other than Red Sox Nation. Bbut what are facts when compared to the demands of political correctness.
kishnevi (a5d1b9) — 11/22/2014 @ 1:02 pmDana @ 24….
askeptic (efcf22) — 11/22/2014 @ 1:08 pmIt just shows which segments of our society have been infected with PC-itis.
maybe we should all go around in a circle and say what we’re thankful for
happyfeet (831175) — 11/22/2014 @ 1:12 pmI’m thankful for my wife, our beautiful granddaughter, our three, fine young adult chilluns, our extended family, good health, good friends, and the good fortune of living and working in the USA. Oh, mustn’t forget the 500 gallons of whupass let loose on the Left earlier this month.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/22/2014 @ 1:25 pmAs 1/128 Hopi, on my fourth-grade classmate’s college roommate’s first cousin’s bridesmaid’s side, I am going to adopt the Indian name Iyoho’o Qlaq Patupha (Shivers By Lake) to show my solidarity. And take a correspondence course on flintknapping.
nk (dbc370) — 11/22/2014 @ 1:25 pmnk mine is Runs with Scissors…
Gazzer (cb9ee2) — 11/22/2014 @ 1:27 pmWear goggles, nk. My wife bought me a obsidian chipped knife that is outrageously sharp (I dare not use it to open letters).
The woman who made it (Alaskan Native American) talked to us a lot about the dangers of chipping away. She told me that she would bet a lot of the ancient craftspeople were missing eyes. Ouch.
As for ancestry, I shrug my shoulders. I could claim it, and I never have (and believe me, in academia, this is important). I was raised in the city, not on a reservation. There was absolutely nothing culturally Native American in my upbringing. And my grandfather was an awful man who used to beat my grandmother and mother.
I have been told many times I am foolish for not making that claim. I’m foolish about a lot of things. But I am not actively dishonest, nor do I try to “work” the system. That matters to me.
I have no problem with folks who are culturally Native American claiming that ancestry. It’s the Elizabeth Warren types who turn my stomach.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 11/22/2014 @ 1:31 pmi’m thankful for chicago being so super-nice and welcoming
happyfeet (831175) — 11/22/2014 @ 1:33 pmNaw. The perfect solution would be to name the team in a way that still pays homage to this country while also pays tribute to an undervalued group recently emancipated by royal decree by our great Emperor and Lawgiver and Resident Golf Pro.
They should change the name to the Choctaw Casino Resort and Hotel Bedmakers.
Steve57 (c4b0b3) — 11/22/2014 @ 1:41 pmI give thanks that the three sides of my heritage all contribute to my appreciation of fine whisky (Irish) and wine (Italian) – well, except for the German part that keeps order during spirited arguments.
askeptic (efcf22) — 11/22/2014 @ 2:04 pm==i’m thankful for chicago being so super-nice and welcoming==
So you’ve survived your first few weeks in the scary “murder capital of America”. Be sure to mention this to mark. OK?
elissa (91b301) — 11/22/2014 @ 2:09 pmPerry never fails to be full of hate and bile.
JD (86a5eb) — 11/22/2014 @ 2:25 pmGazzer – I am content with Floating Sheets.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 11/22/2014 @ 2:27 pmYes, there was not even a question that that that turdlet @21 was dropped by Perry, JD!
elissa (91b301) — 11/22/2014 @ 2:34 pmi haven’t heard a single gunshot yet even
happyfeet (831175) — 11/22/2014 @ 2:43 pmHey, maybe they should rename the team after Perry. The Washington Senile Dimentias.
It would also bring Granny Botox, the guy who’s afraid Guam might tip over, and that twisted, little shriveled up old guy who keeps libeling people as he drools on the Senate floor to mind, among others.
Steve57 (c4b0b3) — 11/22/2014 @ 2:45 pmNorthsiders are considerate of their neighbors — they use silencers.
nk (dbc370) — 11/22/2014 @ 2:46 pmYou’ve got to wait til it warms up.
Steve57 (c4b0b3) — 11/22/2014 @ 2:47 pmyeah that’s a good point it’s very brisk
happyfeet (831175) — 11/22/2014 @ 2:48 pmLooking west from the Brown Line, between Diversey and Fullerton (closer to Fullerton), you can see the Biograph where Dillinger was shot.
nk (dbc370) — 11/22/2014 @ 2:54 pmhah that reminds me i went to a bank on Michigan with a friend and was kinda loitering while he did some stuff
and i noticed i was making security really twitchy
my friend said lol it’s probably the ball cap
but I’ll look for the Biograph… would love to get a pic really
happyfeet (831175) — 11/22/2014 @ 3:00 pmIt’s a couple of blocks, if that, west of the Fullerton stop on Lincoln Avenue. Three blocks north on Sheffield and Schubert is my church, St. George Greek Orthodox Church. Crash a wedding or christening on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon if you want to take pictures of the frescos and icons. Very Byzantine. No pictures during regular services.
nk (dbc370) — 11/22/2014 @ 3:06 pmok I’m bookmarking that
happyfeet (831175) — 11/22/2014 @ 3:10 pmThis is the hockey team, right?
I stopped caring about pro sports about 3 decades ago, back when the strikes started.
Dan (00fc90) — 11/22/2014 @ 3:56 pmWashington Panderers. Washington Plutocrats. Washington Pickpockets. Washington Bedwetters. Washington Spinsters. Washington Usurpers. Washington Nitpickers. Washington Easy Riders.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 11/22/2014 @ 4:37 pmWashington Freeloaders. Washington Conspirators. Washington Weasels. Washington Tar Babies.
Washington Whiners.
umm, when i saw the cover i thought it was celebrating the nickname. it was only when i read the artist description did i realize the intent. The cover still seems to support Snyder and others who maintain the Redskins nickname is not a dig.
btw: does this artist always sound so idiotic?
seeRpea (ff2cfe) — 11/22/2014 @ 6:16 pmIt’s not possible to get your panties in a wad over the Redskins name and not sound like an idiot.
Steve57 (c4b0b3) — 11/22/2014 @ 6:21 pmEh, I’ma gonna keep callin’ alla’em tribal folks Red Injuns.
Because there’s precious little that’s ‘Native’ about them, if you believe the usual narrative about the land bridge some 10k or so years ago. The term ‘American’ itself is imperialistic, seeing as the continent is named after Amerigo Vespucci, as if he were the first person to discover it.
Boy, we could /so/ do this all day! Or, we could have reasonable ideas about traditions and legacies, and not try to generate artificial outrage.
I can guess the way the liberals would rather have it, though.
Gregory Kong (eccdfe) — 11/22/2014 @ 6:24 pmThings white people like: self-hatred.
Patricia (5fc097) — 11/22/2014 @ 6:41 pmSpeaking on behalf of white people, an honorary position bestowed upon me by dent of skin tone, I’d just like to say we white people, most of us don’t like the self pitying hate wallowers.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 11/22/2014 @ 6:59 pmBruce McCall is older than dirt. He was an illustrator for National Lampoon when I was a teenager and I’m older than the dirt that P.J. O’Rourke wipes off his shoes before breakfast.
If you don’t get what I’m saying, Hillary is today’s youth movement.
Ag80 (eb6ffa) — 11/22/2014 @ 8:59 pmIs there no end in popular culture to the ‘myth of the noble savage?’ As in all primitive tribal cultures, life among the Indians was nasty, brutish, and short – even among the few peaceful agrarian tribes. It was the Indians who ran the bison to near extinction; blaming the white man is simply another myth.
North America was sparsely populated and there was plenty of room for at least the first few centuries of white settlers. In most cases, hostilities were initiated by the natives, but the settlers are supposed to feel guilty for winning in the end. This is not to say there were no atrocities or injustices committed by whites against Indians, only that this was also true in the reverse and not at all unusual at that point in human history – or, truth be told, in this one either.
The simple truth is that a big majority of those with Indian blood don’t object to the Redskins name or consider it insulting at all. There is even a Redskin Theater in Oklahoma founded, owned, and operated by Indians. But one powerful chief whose Northeast tribe operates casinos is a very big Democratic donor, and he doesn’t like it. Once you understand this, things clear up.
It is similar to the Democratic opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, it is opposed by a couple of their favorite billionaire donors.
Screw ’em, I say.
Estragon (ada867) — 11/23/2014 @ 3:25 amMcCall evidently has never read a history book. Here is a story from my family, published contemporaneous with its occurence: On April 6, 1794, a Chickamauga war party led by one of Dragging Canoe’s fiercest warriors, Bob Benge, swooped down on a white settlement near Mendota, Virginia. Using his axe. Benge killed several whites, among them a woman named Sarah Livingston. With several captives including Elizabeth and Susanna Livingston, the party fled west.
Susan Harms (c7dded) — 11/23/2014 @ 4:30 amA short time later, they were attacked by militia led by Lieutenant Vicent Hobbs and Benge was one of first killed.
The Indians were not peaceful hunters and gatherers. Their story is the story of conquered people throughout history. The bleeding hearts need to get over themselves.
It was the Indians who ran the bison to near extinction; blaming the white man is simply another myth.
Seriously?
nk (dbc370) — 11/23/2014 @ 5:50 ambison skull pile, dodge city, kansas
happyfeet (831175) — 11/23/2014 @ 5:56 amThere was some wrong information given to us in fifth grade history. Very few of the buffalo hides were for lap robes for ladies riding their carriages in Central Park. They went to make the leather belts that drove the machines in the factories. Industrial Revolution. A steam engine, or sometimes a water wheel, drove a large shaft the whole length of the factory. Power was taken from it with belts to smaller “sub”-shafts and from those to the lathes, drills, mills, spinning wheels, looms, sewing machines, etc. Any kind of machine. It was a system that persisted well past WWII because it obviated the need for the expensive electrical wiring and expensive electric-motor self-powered machines. Our olive oil processing plant worked that way in the ’60s but the belts were made from rubberized canvas by that time. Between 80 and 100 million buffalo were killed between 1868 and 1875 to provide the hides for these belts, with the added benefit of starving the Plains Indians into submission and/or near extinction.
nk (dbc370) — 11/23/2014 @ 6:14 amre #65: yepp, seriously.
seeRpea (ff2cfe) — 11/23/2014 @ 8:30 amThe first Europeans didn’t mention bisons in the plain because there were not that many around to see. A shift in American Indian populations (not caused by Europeans) moved the bison hunters out and new tribes didn’t arrive for a bit. That was when the bison population exploded. The new tribes didn’t know all the advantages bison offered at first but eventually they learned and winnowed the bison population down, with help from the Europeans. But it was mostly the tribes.
#64, Susan, I’m somewhat familiar with Benge’s famous raid on the Livingston homestead, there’s a marker (X-22) on US-23 between Norton, VA and Big Stone Gap marking Bengie’s Gap. It commemorates the raid. Benge (or Bengie, or Captian Bench) was a red-headed, English speaking, half-blood – his father was a Scots-Irish trader living among the Overhill Cherokee. Likely, Benge was half-brother to Sequoyah who invented the Cherokee written language.
After Benge was tracked down and killed, Elizabeth and Susanna were rescued along with several Negro slaves (one of Benge’s specialties was selling captured slaves), Benge was scalped to prove he was dead and his topknot sent to Virginia Governor Henry Lee III who subsequently forwarded it to President George Washington.
In a uniquely American twist of fate, in 1838 Benge’s son, Captain John Benge, was officer-in-charge of the 4th column of Alabama Cherokee on the Trail of Tears.
Incidentally, Dragging Canoe died two years prior to the Livingston Raid after a night of drinking and exuberant celebration.
ropelight (93ab94) — 11/23/2014 @ 9:30 amWhy is that so hard to believe? When the first paleoindians atarted colonizing the interior of North America they systematically wiped out native American megafauna. The only relatively large, native plains-adapted species left in North America is the Pronghorn Antelope. Because they aren’t that large; a typical buck only weighs about 120 pounds. The bigger, more profitable species were wiped out, to be replaced like the Indians themselves by immigrants from Asia. Including the modern bison.
The idea that Indians lived in complete harmony with nature is a Hollywood fiction. Pre-Columbian skeletons showed clear signs of starvation; they were short and asymmetric. Also archeological study shows further evidence of their hunger. They’d crush and boil bones to extract the last bits of fat from the carcass. Apparently modern Indians confirm they only do this when they’re starving. Agriculture provided relief for those cultures that developed it; their skeletons show they were taller and better developed. The hunter gatherers did poorly not because they were bad hunters. The problem was they were very skilled hunters, and they were hard on the animals.
There were clearly boom and bust cycles in animal populations. The Indians played a big role in this. When the animal populations rose they would hunt them into extinction or close to it. When the animals became scarce, their scarcity was a brake on the Indian populations. The remaining animals would rebound. The “Dances With Wolves” image of the Great Plains teeming with wildlife such that bison herds would take days to pass a single point was how it would have looked during a boom period.
They were people. They could be wise. But they could also be just as stupid and cruel and shortsighted as any other people. If it wasn’t for the latter fact a handful of Conquistadors wouldn’t have had such an easy time toppling empires. If you want to read about cruelty, read about how the Maori of New Zealand’s North Island enslaved and brutalized (and cannibalized) the Moriori of the nearby Chatham Islands. They were far worse masters than Southern plantation owners.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moriori_people#Invasion_by_Taranaki_M.C4.81ori
It’s pretty obvious that American Indians interfere with archeological studies of their people because the story it tells isn’t as pretty and neat as the facade they want the world to believe. Not in terms of their relations to their environment. And not in terms of their relations to other people. And no, they weren’t alone. What if the world were to learn their were other immigrants here, too? That those other immigrants were possibly Caucasoid? And that they wiped them out?
I’m not saying that’s what happened. Just that there are some clues. And it’s suspicious the way tribes will claim skeletons as their ancestors and demand they be reburied as quickly as possible, when examination has proven that not all those skeletons have any relationship whatsoever to the people who survived to become Indians.
Go Redskins!
Steve57 (c4b0b3) — 11/23/2014 @ 10:32 amDr. Napoleon Chagnon learned the hard way that archeologists and anthropologists are supposed to be advocates of the people they study. Not scientists who follow the facts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/magazine/napoleon-chagnon-americas-most-controversial-anthropologist.html?pagewanted%3Dall&_r=0
That’s how he saw them. Really, that’s more in line with how they saw themselves. But later activist anthropologists/archeologists decided if they talked about them that way modern humans wouldn’t think they were worth saving. So they romanticized them. The became the blue people in Avatar.
Point being, once again, they’re just people. There’s no such thing as the “noble savage.” Get over it. Some of these particular Indians were and indeed still are noble. Just like people anywhere else. Some of them were and are complete a$$holes.
And some cultures are more warlike than others. Again, look at the Maori vs. the closely related Moriori.
Steve57 (c4b0b3) — 11/23/2014 @ 10:47 amSteve, these are good examples; thank you. My brother insisted I read James Cook’s notebooks when I was a boy. Fascinating stuff. So I kept reading about his exploits.
My favorite part nowadays is how folks in Europe went all Rousseau and claimed that Tahiti was the Ideal of the Noble Savage.
Cook tried to point out that he had been there, and slavery, infanticide, genocide, and great cruelty existed there, in contrast to the beauty of the islands.
He was told that European culture had already “infected” the native Polynesians.
Some things don’t change. It’s just more oikophobia.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 11/23/2014 @ 10:56 amSimon, we don’t study other cultures in this culture. The entire purpose of anything that passes for “ethnic studies” or cultural studies is to teach white Europeans that they are uniquely evil. As you point out, the tendency goes back a long way. But I’d suggest it’s accelerated over the past 100 years due to the efforts of the cultural Marxists of the Frankfurt School. They deliberately seized on that impulse to turn all other peoples into the world proletariat oppressed by the evil white militaristic, imperialistic, and capitalistic white European bourgeoisie.
Any honest study of other cultures would destroy that myth. I lived in Japan for several years, and I love the country. But it’s not without flaws. One is the racism. A sign of a racist society is that there’s nothing wrong with being racist. It’s just part of the culture, like a fish doesn’t know it’s wet. Japan has a thriving publishing industry and even today a large chunk of the books published are devoted to proving the superiority of the Japanese race. And proving that no way, no how, did the imperial family descend from those Koreans.
But just like honest anthropology and archeology, we can’t be having any of that, can we? No, racism is a product of white European capitalism.
I was struck by this upside down and backward bit of idiocy from the New Yorker cover “artist.” Artist in scare quotes because I don’t think a Marxist propagandist qualifies.
Clearly, he’s been dumbed down by his indoctrination exactly as intended. Because, wherein lies the arrogance? I’d say it lies with the 21st century morons who constantly attack people who lived in past centuries for not being blessed with their superior modern sensibilities. I don’t often listen to Michael Medved but he had some arrogant little pissant from Seattle on his show who had apparently written a book and was leading a campaign to change the name of the state from Washington to something else. Because George Washington was a product (gasp!) of the 18th century. So since he was a slave owner he couldn’t be a great man like guess who? Yeah, you could practically see the guy patting himself on the back over the radio. He was the liberal type who doesn’t need to actually do anything to be a great person. He just has to compare his superior a$$ to his historical moral inferiors, who didn’t have it all figured out like he does.
And one of the ways these 21st century towering pillars of like that Seattle pr**k and this “artist” Bruce McCall know they’re superior beings? They’re not “culturally arrogant” like all the a$$holes who lived before them. They can’t quit preening about how their humility makes them so great.
Steve57 (c4b0b3) — 11/23/2014 @ 11:34 am*…towering pillars of morality like…
Steve57 (c4b0b3) — 11/23/2014 @ 11:36 amThe Kenyan – even our insults for opposition pols, highlights and reinforces our cultural superiority.
One of the few African country that speaks English as the official language, whose leadership doesn’t think of elections as an easy way to identify and imprison the socialist in power’s domestic enemies, and doesn’t consider civil war as a preferred method for changing heads of state.
IOW they adopted our culture, and are demonstrably the better for it. (Some might say that’s the British system the Kenyans adopted. They’re wrong.)
papertiger (c2d6da) — 11/24/2014 @ 3:23 am