September 24, 2006

History lesson or guilt trip?

Bury My Guilt at Wounded Knee (Hollywood “Discovers” the Indians. Again.)Yes, some progress has been made. Real Natives are making movies with real Native actors about real Native lives. Meanwhile, the real Natives making movies with real Native actors about real Native lives; well, they don’t have the power and money to reach the kids from Laguna Beach. Their influence, while growing, is still pretty much relegated to screenings at festivals and atta-boys from indie-film fans.

Hollywood, on the other hand, does have loads of power and money to reach the kids from Laguna Beach. So, what do they do with this clout? After all, this is the “We are the World” crowd that just luuuvs Indians. These are the folks that think Natives are just so…cool.

They do what self-respecting mega-wealthy, do-as-I say-not-as-I-do liberals in the entertainment industry can always be counted on doing. To assuage their white guilt, they toss a couple o’ bones to the aggrieved minority while actually perpetuating the very stereotypes they profess to abhor.

Case in point: HBO is filming a miniseries based on Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee to be aired next year. Hiring the crème de la crème of the Native acting world, HBO is putting ‘em in buckskin breeches and slapping on the war paint one more time.

2 comments:

Rob said...

Readers of this blog should always follow the links to other blogs such as NativeVue.org. You never know when you might find a provocative comment by me or Russ or whoever.

Anonymous said...

Who is that idiot who wrote that blog anyhow? She must be a humorless dunderhead.

...By the way, why didn't they fund tornado research instead of making Helen Hunt look so glam' in the middle of a storm?