August 19, 2013

"Native spiritual adviser" warns Rob

I received the following phone message August 11:Robert,

I am a Native American spiritual adviser. What are you doing writing a comic book about us Native Americans? This is wrong...spiritually wrong. You do not need to do this. You are making fun of us Indians--making us look like a bunch of hoodlums, thugs. I don't like this, and us Native Americans do not like this. This is wrong...spiritually wrong. We are not like this.

There is going to be problems with this. We will all gather up and protest this. Go as far as we can with it. This is wrong.

My name is Linda Haddaway. My number is (xxx) xxx-xxxx if you have comments on this. Thank you.
Comment:  I ignored this message, since Haddaway obviously hasn't read my comics and is some sort of crackpot.

The phrase "hoodlums, thugs" suggests she might have read my Scalped page. And assumed that someone was criticizing my stories rather my criticizing Jason Aaron's.

Hoodlums and thugs, lady? Not in the first two issues of Peace Party, which you almost certainly haven't read. If you're not a liar or an idiot, tell us which page of which issue shows an Indian as a hoodlum or a thug. Go ahead, we'll wait.

Who is Haddaway?

The woman spoke in a halting and slightly slurred fashion, as if she were old or drunk or reading off a script she wasn't sure of. Her area code suggested a southern Texas location, where there are few if any Indians.

Indeed, I have only her message to assure us she's Native. She could easily be a wannabe or an "Indian" with a tiny amount of Native blood.

I Googled her and found a Linda Hadaway who's a romance writer in Washington state. She might be the person who called, but I'd guess not.

I think Sherman Alexie's recent tweet about the spiritually minded applies here:When a person identifies him/herself as "a spiritual seeker," I seek a quick exit from his/her company.Get a clue, lady

Here's what else I might say to Haddaway if we spoke:

One, you're more than two decades too late. Maybe you could use a time machine to go back to 1990 and undo everything I've done.

Two, I suggest you focus on Scalped, which has about a thousand times the readership and clout of Peace Party. It actually portrays Natives negatively, unlike my comics.

For more on Scalped, see Aaron on Ending Scalped and Aaron Looks Back at Scalped.

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