"Skin" uncomfortable in his skin

6.0:  I’m so insecurr

By Gyasi RossIn the city, however, it was much more passive aggressive--almost to the point where I thought the teasing was harmless, because there was no real physical aggression. I called this the non-Skin, “backstabbers” approach to teasing. See, I was much bigger by this time, and so my “friends” would tease me and sing songs (“♪Sing a song with meeeee, ♫Gyasi’s Ugleeeeee♫”) in a very friendly, smiling way. They’d make fun of my long and bushy hair, and tease me about my nose, which they said looked “broken,” as well as my big lips. I always laughed it off because, well, it was funny, right? Not everyone is born handsome or beautiful. I was just one of the unfortunate people.

Unlike the times when my older Skin friends beat me up on the rez, I never fell to the ground or cried. My only reaction was an uncomfortable smile and me wondering why I didn’t look like everyone else.

I remember--in reaction to the teasing in the city--I concluded that I wanted to look like one of my white friends; I wanted to appear exactly like the majority of the kids that went to my school. I asked my dad to cut my hair short. Thereafter, I’d put tons and tons of Aqua Net into my wavy/frizzy hair to try to make it go straight so I could have the cool, lil’ sexy “one-banged” look like Sonny Crockett on “Miami Vice” (which still might be the best show of all time, FYI). I remembered how even my amazing older sister was self-conscious about her “Blackfeet-nose” before me; I now empathized with her and tried to avoid girls seeing my profile. I learned to suck in my bottom lip as well, to draw attention away from it. I tried to change my accent. I paid attention to my vocabulary so that I didn’t “ho” or “ayes.”Comment:  This is a good example of how stereotyping thinking--Indians look funny--can harm children. The potential results are obvious: lower self-esteem, self-destructive behavior, social pathology.

Too bad Ross didn't connect this problem with his previous essay on Disney's Pocahontas. What happens when children use taunts from the movie? When girls see Pocahontas as a standard to emulate? Nothing good, I bet.

The kids teasing Ross were the immediate source of his angst. But they got their ideas from the world around them as seen through the media. Cartoons, mascots, and products all convey the idea of Indians as big-nosed, dark-skinned oddities. Even noble images of chiefs portray Indians as outdated, out of fashion, and irrelevant.

For more on the subject, see The Harm of Native Stereotyping:  Facts and Evidence.

Below:  Gee, I wonder where kids get the idea that Indians have big noses and look funny?