April 30, 2010

"Tardicaca Indians" in South Park

Tardicaca Indians
Episode 1407:  Crippled Summer
Original Air Date:  Apr. 28, 2010

Season 14:  The Red Team's scavenger hunt doesn't go as planned.
Comment:  The stereotyping and racism in this clip are obvious. The insulting tribal name...the tipis and burial ground...and the Plains-style warriors on horseback with bows and arrows.

Even worse is the presumption that Indians would kill anyone who trespasses on their reservation. This is false; only a few tribes don't allow visitors, and they'd merely escort you off the reservation if you trespassed. And worst of all is the Indians acting on this presumption by shooting an intruder on sight. Showing Indians as vicious savages from 150 years ago is pure racism without any redeeming quality.

And don't bother telling me South Park is an equal-opportunity offender who insults every political, racial, and religious group equally. Unless you've done a study in which you tallied all the insults and compared them to US and world demographics, you're just guessing that South Park is evenhanded. Guesses don't interest me; facts do.

Besides, who cares if South Park is racist or bigoted toward every group? Do two, 20, or 200 wrongs make a right? Unless you can demonstrate that this clip isn't racist, it doesn't matter what else South Park's creators have done. Racism toward one group doesn't excuse racism toward another.

I'd say the evidence from Cannibal! The Musical and Red Man's Greed is more or less conclusive. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are prejudiced against Indians. If you disagree, show me something they've said or created that isn't prejudiced against Indians. Until then, my claim stands.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Guesses don't interest me; facts do."

Bullshit. Hardly a post goes by without guesses and assumptions on your part about the people you criticize. Now, I don't expect you to do a thorough content analysis of 201 episodes of South Park, but most of the time about 30 seconds of googling would make your articles more factual and thus, more impactful.

How many times do I have to tell you that you hurt your good points when you try to make bad ones?

Anonymous said...

Rob,

Respectfully:
If you've ever watched South Park it's not even that they're "equal opportunity haters", and they're not really racist. The show is not about them seeing how racist they can be. It's about pushing the boundaries of what the viewer will find funny, and thereby exposing the prejudices hidden in all our cores, whether we admit them or not. Think about it, to truly live without ANY prejudices towards another race/gender/religion/etc. would require a very high level of enlightenment of some sorts, and most humans aren't there. If one tells themselves otherwise, no matter who they are, they are a liar.

That, and they point out how stupid we can all be sometimes; how we falsely and naively assign value to things that don't deserve any value in our short lives on this planet (pop icons, TV, Facebook, etc). They constantly show how we all spend too much time on the little stuff of no worth when we let the things that really matter in our lives pass by.

Maybe this is too much of an explanation, or too deep. But either way, even if you don't buy any of this and you stick to your view and insist that they are simply plain old, mean spirited racists/sexists/bigots, then how is that ONE LINE the only offensive thing worthy of comment? The entire episode, in your view, would have completely ridiculed and denigrated children with handicaps! The entire episode revolved around handicapped children! Wouldn't nearly 30 minutes of THAT be more worthy of your time to include in your comment, much less be the focus of it? Before you say anything, I know what you're blog is about. But you said it yourself, "it doesn't matter what else South Park's creators have done. Racism toward one group doesn't excuse racism toward another,".

Anonymous said...

South Park, at its very best, is supposed to make you squirm and it is intended to be facetious, in-your-face, and to contain massive stereotyping.

TARDI-caca, for heaven's sake? Most of the "retarded" kids shown are either Hanna-Barbera or Looney Tunes characters. The "evil" plotting kid acts impaired around camp counselors but is quite cunning when he is alone with his "duh, gee boss" sidekick.

It was absolutely hilarious. I say that having a special needs person and several Indian descendants in the family. :)

Anonymous said...

Why are namefags morally rigid and why is Anonymous flexible? But Anonymous has names too...

Anonymous said...

Seems like the cat's got Rob's tongue on this one. Guess some people just don't like to admit it when they're plain wrong...

Anonymous said...

Everyone gets made fun of in South Park even Indians aren't safe, the only bad thing about it was people like me living in Australia don't know much about native Americans, and i assumed they would attack you if you trespassed, guess i was wrong.

Anonymous said...

My name is David by the way, forgot to add that on to the last post at 12:49 AM

Anonymous said...

So, let me guess, you only get pissed off when they make fun of a group that YOU like... When they make fun of EVERY OTHER group you don't write a long ass blog explaining junk... Did you write a huge drawn out thing about Barbara Streisand? Saying how she cant be made of metal, nor be a robot?

I didn't think so. Jump off your high horse (yes, pun was intended with that).

Oh, and if you don't support them, then why are you linking their videos off their site... You complain about it, but use their servers to stream your crap... Real nice...

A.S.P. said...

Rob is putting up multiple new posts - so either:

1) He's not man enough to admit he was wrong.

2) He doesn't give a crap about "racism" unless it targets what he cares about, meaning he has no respect for most of his fellow man.

3) He's not smart enough to come up with a rebuttal.

4) All of the above.

I'm guessing it's #4.

If you're going to bash the South Park creators, why only on this issue? What about when they poke fun at Catholics, Muslims, Jews, the handicapped, redheads, Scientology, Mexicans, Canadians, etc etc etc.???

People have presented plenty of counterarguments. Either speak up, or you'll continue to come across as a BIGOT.

Anonymous said...

Wah?

Seriously, this is pretty ridiculous at this point. They do pick on almost every group/organization out there.

Apparently, you missed the entire point of the two episodes that were aired previous to this one. Completely over your head.

Regardless, I don't care enough about Native American feelings as purported by someone's blog to spend another character responding.

Calvin said...

This isn't about racism. If you have enough brains to comprehend the satirical nature of South Park, they insult plenty of groups. None of the humor should honestly be taken as offensive. If you do take offense, you are merely just like those Muslims who are offended by the appearance of Mohamed in a teddy bear suit. In short, my esteemed blogger, you need to grow up.

Anonymous said...

This episode is not racist or whatsoever. Maybe stereotypical but don't get so butthurt about it. And if you're so interested in facts, here's one: Many South American Indian tribes are rather savage so it is still fine to portray Injuns in that light. It's all in good humor.

Here's another FACT for you, the writers of South Park poke fun equally at Christians, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Scientologists, Gays, Homophobes, Blacks, Asians, White Trash, Rich people etc. I'd highly advise that you get YOUR facts right before going on a pointless rant.

If this show offends you that much don't watch it. No one is holding you down forcing you watch the hilarity of South Park.

Anonymous said...

South Park is intentionally racist and stereotypical as a dig a Capitalistic society. South Park is being "racist" towards Native American Indians in order to make people think that they don't like them. It's to highlight racism and equality issues that exist within our society

Anonymous said...

Seriously, the author of this needs to get a life. Waaaaaahhh waaaaaaahhh racism waaaaaaah.

Rob said...

Here are the answers you sought, crybabies. Enjoy!

Stereotyping explained to South Park apologists