October 17, 2008

Karen Kay's conservatism

More information on Karen Kay, the "authentic Indian" romance writer:

Remember how I said racism is often linked to conservatism? Well, Kay bolsters the point by linking to America: Freedom to Fascism. Among the claims on this site are:
  • Are you aware by May of 2008 the law will require you to carry a national identification card?

  • Are you aware that there are plans being developed to have all Americans embedded with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) computer chip under their skin so they can be tracked wherever they go?

  • Are you aware the Supreme Court has ruled that the government has no authority to impose a direct unapportioned tax on the labor of the American people, and the 16th Amendment does not give the government that power?

  • Are you aware that computer voting machines can be rigged and there is no way to ensure that vote is counted?
  • Alas, this site was stupidly wrong about a national ID card and is stupidly wrong about there being no legal basis for the income tax. Nor is there any chance of our government's requiring RFID chips in us. In short, this is a typical conservative/libertarian scare site.

    Naturally, there's not one mention of Bush or Cheney on this site, although they've dismantled more of our constitutional rights than anybody since Nixon. No doubt this site and Kay blame our loss of rights on "liberals." Republicans have held the reins of power for most of the last 28 years, but liberals are responsible for everything bad in America.

    Now you know a little about Karen Kay and what she believes. Armed with this information, you can make your book-buying decisions accordingly.

    For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Books.

    Below: "Look at my abs, my creamy skin, and my boyish good looks! Maybe Johnny Depp can play me in the movie version of this book!"

    6 comments:

    dmarks said...

    "Nor is there any chance of our government's requiring RFID chips in us. In short, this is a typical conservative/libertarian scare site."

    I'm not sure I've ever encountered libertarians with these views. And the conservatives with these views are of the paranoid militia wing... the types that call Rush Limbaugh and George W. Bush socialists.

    Anonymous said...

    Have you seen the movie Zeitgeist?
    Same claims, but directly links the problem to people like Prescott Bush and the Federal Reserve.
    Extreme conservatives hate that movie for it's "Christian-bashing"

    dmarks said...

    Whacky banker conspiracies, Federal Reserve paranoia, and other such kookery are laughed at by just about everyone, not just Christians. Usually such fakey conspiracy claims like "Zeitgeist" blame everything on Jews, instead of Christians, so at leas that is different. I suppose the people who made this stuff up decided to bash Christians instead of Jews. Antisemitism doesn't get as far usually.

    Anonymous said...

    As a Native person, I feel that the most prominent racist aspect of these "Indian/White Woman" romance novels (besides the deporable context of "forbidden" trans-racial sex) is the cover artwork for nearly 100% of these pulpish, laughable works. Almost ALL of the Native men depicted on these covers do not look like Native men, at least facially. These bedroom (or wherever the steamy action takes place) heroes look like Caucasian males with '80s Stallone physiques. Why can't the bitches who churn out this trash at least get the physical accuracy of their male protagonists more in line with reality? I worked in Native print media for ten years and not once did I ever encounter any Native males who could pose as models for this artwork. That is not, of course, to say that there aren't any Native men who could do so, it's just that they never appear on these book covers. Racism in America is indeed complex and social psychologists uncover something new regarding racial attitudes and beliefs almost weekly. Why aren't there any African Warrior/White Woman romance novels or even something singularly American, the Black Slave Plantation Worker/White Woman romance novel? Food for thought!

    dmarks said...

    "Why aren't there any African Warrior/White Woman romance novels or even something singularly American, the Black Slave Plantation Worker/White Woman romance novel? Food for thought!"

    I've seen those, actually. There is also a small sub-genre of movies like that. Think "Mandingo".

    But yes you raise good points.

    Anonymous said...

    Hmmm...,

    Mandingo is a novel written in 1957 by Kyle Onstott. The book is set in the 1830s in the antebellum South primarily around Falconhurst, a fictional plantation in Alabama owned by the planter Warren Maxwell. The narrative centers on Maxwell, his son Hammond, and the Mandingo (or Mandinka) slave Ganymede, or Mede. It is a tale of cruelty toward the blacks of that time, containing vicious fights, poisoning, and violent death.

    The book inspired the 1975 film Mandingo (though the movie strayed away in a number of places from the book) and a series of books over the next three decades, some of which were co-written by Lance Horner and in later years written by Ashley Carter.

    I saw the movie years ago at a drive-in in Long Beach, CA, but those were the days when I'd order a monster-sized bucket of popcorn that I'd dump out to use as a urinal to out-process the case of beer I liked to drink on those nights - hence, I do not recall any black-white jungle fever inspired love scenes.

    That the books were at some point serialized is indicative of a fairly popular "licentious' interest* then that I was unaware of.

    *But certainly not to the extent of the popularity of the Indian/White Woman sleaze works. A major hat tip to your update, though.