Let's consider some alternatives. Suppose the float showed a Chinese peasant in a coolie outfit. Or a half-naked Zulu warrior brandishing a spear? Both images were commonplace 150 years ago. What do you think the reaction would be to a huge half-naked African warrior (savage)?
We have a point of comparison here. The Chinese government entered a float to celebrate the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Here's what the float displayed:
Beijing Olympic Float in Los Angeles Rose Parade wins award
On the "Ethereal Color and Celestial Fragrance" showcase area, four performers played the martial male role, young male role, ladies' role and young girls' role respectively to showcase different traditional costumes and styles of the quintessence of the Chinese culture--the Peking Opera.
In the "Blossoms of colors" area, four acrobats dressed in flower pistil patterns performed the Soft Merit, indicating the longing for vigorous life. In the "Dancing Butterflies" area, two acrobats dressed in butterfly patterns played ballet with acrobatic skills, just like a pair of butterflies flying and dancing among the flowers.
Meanwhile, the Indian float had a stoic, grim-faced chief from a century and a half ago. He was accompanied by another chief (or a cowboy) and two bears--i.e. more old and endangered symbols. The message? The Chinese are a people with a future. Indians are a people with a past.
14 comments:
Writerfella here --
More apples and oranges, as the Chinese float was made and entered in the Rose Parade by the Chinese themselves, but the float that featured a Native figure was made and entered in the same parade by an insurance company and not by Natives themselves. Wow, 'media' on this blogsite just got upgraded and expanded to include parades! What next? Cloud formations?
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Who says "media"? The banner for this blog says "pop culture", and I can't see how that would not include a big nationally-famous parade... especially one that is on TV (media).
Writerfella here --
It is the Site Master, Rob Schmidt, who ceaselessly harps and pisses and moans about 'the media' BEING THE SOLE AND ONLY SOURCES OF STEREOTYPES, RACIAL HATREDS, BIASES, DISCRIMINATION, AND BIGOTRY, whereas writerfella maintains that the media are but a portion of the vast network of cultural communications that includes parents, homelife, peers, schools, churches, communities, and the so-called 'dominant society.' Rob insists that, since his own upbringing did not include discussion and/or communication of stereotypes about Native Americans, then nobody's upbringing anywhere included such. His thesis that only the media perform such a disservice then ostensibly is self-supporting and self-serving at one and the same time. What he fails to realize that he is casting his own stereotypes about the media and both the content and the intentions of the media...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Your assertions about the float are absurd, Russ. Farmers could've consulted with or hired Natives to produce a less stereotypical float. Instead, it chose to do the float itself. Therefore, it's responsible for the content.
I never said people don't convey stereotypes in person. I said stereotypes in the media predominate.
Repeat: The media is the primary means of conveying stereotypes from one segment of the population to another. Personal contacts are a distant second.
Let's look at the parade's effectiveness in conveying a stereotype:
1) It was an one-time event, thus limiting its impact.
2) The chief image was derived from thousands of previous media portrayals, even if people saw this particular portrayal in person.
3) According to one website, "It is estimated that at least 1 million people attend the parade each year, and several million people watch it on TV each year." In other words, perhaps five times as many people saw the chief on TV as in person. Once again, the media predominates.
The media isn't just "a portion of the vast network of cultural communications," it's the bulk of the vast network. For every personal contact you have each day, you probably have thousands of media contacts. Every glance at a book, TV, or computer is another such contact.
Researchers have estimated how many advertisements we see every day. For example, "A conservative estimate has the average American consumer exposed to more than 850 commercial messages a day." Unless you have an inordinate number of friends talking about Coke and McDonanld's, the media predominates.
As it is with advertising, so it is with almost any subject. Including stereotypes.
Writerfella here --
All of such past claims and statements quickly get shunted off into archive obscurity. But a couple of matters are self-evident: the archives lose the indicators that there ever were any comments attached to the posts AND they quite easily can be edited or even redacted by the Site Master at his discretion. writerfella of his own volition cannot and would not change any of his posts but that does not mean they remain safe from being so revised without his knowledge and/or consent. Revisionism and revisionist history can be forces unto themselves...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
I don't know what your response has to do with the Rose Parade float or stereotypes in general, Russ. Can you say "non sequitur"?
Pay no attention to Russ's idiotic inability to navigate the archives, everyone. Every comment ever posted to Newspaper Rock remains attached to the original item and is easily viewed.
As webmaster, I have no ability to edit the comments--not even my own comments. The only option I have is to delete them.
Writerfella here --
Nonsense, as writerfella's pinpointing of Rob's statement that "Leonard Peltier did not receive a fair TRAIL (emhasis writerfella's)..." was later corrected by Rob to read as Rob originally intended, "trial." In Rob's next post on that item, he states that writerfella had fastened on a typograpical error, BUT THE TYPOGRAPHICAL ERROR SINCE HAD BEEN CORRECTED!! Oops! Check it out, before it is plunged into archival obscurity...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Writerfella here --
POSTSCRIPTUM: the item indicated is called "BOOK EXPOSES AIM." Quick like a bunny, scroll down to it and read it for yourself! Else, it will vanish, guaranteed!
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
In your bickering you two distract from the original point…. . As a Native American person I was offended by the float because as the original article states, it just another typical stereotype of us as being in the past. Hello people, I AM NATIVE AMERICAN, I own a car, a house, a computer, a cell phone, I work full time; I have never, my people have never and will never wear a feather headdress. I am not on welfare and never have been, I am not a drunk, I do not get casino money or any type of government hand out, my family does not, my native friends do not. I am a modern, urban Indian. My beliefs are strong, my family is strong, my people are strong. The question is why an insurance company would build a float of a stereotypical 1860’s plains Indian that has nothing to do with the insurance industry or the selling of insurance. Do you think that float influenced anyone to rush out and buy a car policy or life insurance? Highly unlikely. This is just another pitiful example of white right or at least their preserved right to use and abuse other people’s ethnicity with complete disregard.
Writerfella here --
If all of the above in actuality were true, why then would the poster choose to be 'anonymous?' He as easily could have claimed to be 'eponymous' and it would have been as meaningful. By the bye, 'handout' is a single word form, 'Plains' is a capitalization, and 'never have' is the better usage because it does not split any infinitives. And 'perceived right' is a more proper designation than is 'preserved right.' In toto, the original item and its 'anonymous' protestational posting had nice beats and were easy to ghost dance to, so writerfella gives them a 75...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
As I said, Russ, I admit and correct my mistakes. Unlike you.
The "Book Exposes AIM" item is still available in the archives. As is every other item and comment from the last year and a half.
As the original poster, I hardly need to worry about distracting people from my own posting. It wouldn't have existed unless I created it, so any additional commentary is icing on the cake.
Nevertheless, thank you for addressing the subject, Anonymous. As you can see, Russ has problems sticking to the subject. He'd rather waste his time (and ours) on trivial matters of spelling and punctuation.
Anyway, your analysis is right on, Anonymous. I'm glad you agree with me that the float is stereotypical.
Writerfella here --
But for HOW much longer? Watch the Herrington item evaporate before the night is done. The BOOK EXPOSES AIM item will be gone before Friday is out. Let's see, you could review Boris Karloff's performance as Tishimingo in 1948's TAP ROOTS or something equally jejune, dredge up and milk that killing of a single whale yet another time, or start a campaign to force GM to cease making stereotypical Pontiac SUVs. There, that only can help!
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
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