Diane Glancy Without Title Analysis

When most people think of "Indians," they think of the common stereotyped of the wild, yelling, half-naked "savages" seen on the television movies. With more modern movies like Dances with Wolves and some of the documentaries like How the West was Lost, some of these attitudes have changed. But the American public as a whole is still very ignorant of what it means to be a Native American-today, or historically.

I’m not the Indian you had in mind; a video that was written and directed by Thomas King challenges the stereotypical image that America has towards Native Americans. King is also the author of a short novel “A seat in the Garden”. This short story also challenges the established perspective that American society has towards the Native Americans. There are various stereotypes and perspectives that a majority of the public has toward a particular group. For example some of the common stereo types that are seen throughout the media are that all Asians are good at math, women are primarily sex objects, All Africans like fried chicken, and all Mexicans are gangsters. These stereo types are not completely true for an entire group, yet they

Racism towards Native American tribes and individuals have been found throughout mainstream media. From nationally broadcasted sports games to popular Hollywood movies, Native Americans people have been stereotyped and/or culturally appropriated. Many examples of these stereotypes are blatant and have been portrayed for in the media for decades.

The lack of accurate representation of Native Americans in our everyday lives has left members of society without more than a stereotype to draw from when thinking about characteristics of Native Americans. Native Americans have “relative invisibility” in mainstream media and this lets the few inaccurate portrayals, such as a sports team’s mascot, have an overwhelming amount of power in forming stereotypes (Fryberg, Markus, Oyserman, Stone, 2008, pg. 208). Many members of society have a very narrow view of what they understand a Native American to look, dress, and act. These ideas mostly come from what they see in media through the caricatures used as mascots, childhood cartoons, and similar

Stereotypes have been around since the start of humankind. They have crossed all people and all time frames, but appear to target and negatively impact the minority. In the history of America, Native Americans have been stereotyped into a few images. These images to the majority of the public, give a glimpse of what a Native American is. The reality is; however, that those images do not represent all tribes and all aspects of the Native American culture. Instead, society has mashed together what they believe Native Americans should be and who they are. This problem of stereotyping has not gone away, and will not go away until people choose to be educated on the matter. The fact is that there are many individuals who believe these stereotypes and do not know any differently. There has been many common stereotypes over the years. Hollywood has a played a major role in influencing these thoughts about Natives. There are stereotypes that have withstood time and are still found in today’s world. Lastly, Natives are still dealing with effects of being seen as something they are not. Throughout history, Native Americans have been negatively impacted by stereotyping and prejudice, and are still impacted by this today.

Associated with wearing skins, living in teepees, and riding horses Native Americans are viewed as ‘country’ and lack of knowledge. Shown as dumb and have a lack of formal education, most of them live in poverty invested areas. Because of this, they feel that “one representation is better than no representation.” When a group feels underrepresented their psychological relevance and has a toil on the overall ethnic group and can make a difference in lives. Inaccurate and negative representations of Native Americans can be detrimental to the overall perception to the race in general.

Another de-humanizing example of Native Americans is the way they are depicted in movies and films, especially old Westerns. The way they are portrayed in these movies is the same way many people unaware of Native culture still view them. Their dress is one inaccurate portrayal of Native Americans. Every Native American in a movie is either wearing a full tribal headdress, or some other sort of feather attire. Basically it all amounts to all tribes being considered to dress the same, when they actually had different attire and forms of dress including forms of presentation, and different types of jewelry. Another stereotype used in these movies is the assumption that all Native Americans live in teepees. This again points to the fact that all Native cultures were grouped together and viewed as the same. Yet another example of

I believe that there are still a lot of stereotypes out there about Native Americans. I think that many people get these stereotypes from what they hear and see on TV. People tend to hear something that is negative to a certain group off people and run with that information even if they aren't 100% sure if it is true or not. Many people will often bash Native Americans for the various things that they get and we don't as Americans such as

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Unfortunately, that day is not today. People are still being judged by the colour of their skin. Victims of stereotyping and discrimination are everywhere, as shown by Lisa Bird-Wilson and Steven Keewatin Sanderson. Stereotypes can be emotionally damaging, especially to Natives. Not only this, but they can also be physically harmful throughout the duration of one’s entire life. “Deedee” by Lisa Bird-Wilson and “Rising Above” by Steven Keewatin Sanderson both illustrate that Native stereotypes can be emotionally and physically harmful

What we see at first glance and our stereotypes only scratches the surface of who people truly are and the depth of their culture. Beneath the surface lies what most would define as the most significant attributes of an individual: their values, perspectives, and experiences. While stereotyping can be useful, we must always remember its detriments; by judging based off of only preconceived notions that may or may not be true, we overgeneralize a diverse group of people, therefore forfeiting our understanding of that group. Moreover, stereotyping can be immensely upsetting to a person. Seeing stereotypes based upon who I am has opened my eyes to the unfair judgement I may cast upon others on a day to day basis. Think about it: how would you feel if came to you and said, “You’re an American. All Americans are stupid, so you must be stupid too, right?” As someone who wants to go into a research based field, I can only imagine the embarrassment I would feel if a European colleague disregarded my findings based upon the fact that I am American; although this seems like an extreme example, unfortunately, things like this happen every day. Misunderstanding or not completely understanding a person’s culture has consequences, whether it be as small as offending them with a hand gesture or as big as ostracizing a skilled and competent person based on mere

Before I joined this class I didn’t know much of anything about Native Americans except the stereotypes that were shown on television whether they were positive or negative like all Native Americans live on a reservation, all Native Americans are drunks, and all Native Americans are spiritual.

A situation where I was stereotyped negatively was when people found out that I was Native American. Once they hear that I am, they automatically assume that I get a check from my tribe. Unfortunately, this stereotype is not true. Although, some tribes receive money but since my tribe is the biggest one, I get no funding. Meaning that most people that are Native American do not get funding. People just assume that because I am Native American, that I get money. From what I have learned, I can cause more flexible stereotyping by helping others not just automatically assume something about an individual. Although, I know it is hard to not automatically make judgements about someone whether it is good or bad. A situation where I negatively stereotyped

Until fairly recently the popular culture of American literature and film did not attempt to study the true representations of Indians in North America. Instead they chose to concentrate on the romanticized/savage version of Native people: which is an idealistic view of a Native with long, beautiful flowing hair riding on a horse obsessed with chanting and praying to the savageness of a rowdy, wild Native causing unnecessary mayhem to the white people. This portrayal of Native people in mass media had led to the stereotyping of Natives, which in turn had ricocheted into real life. Not only do non-natives succumb to these ideals, but Natives do as well.

The Western genre tended to portray Native Americans stereotypically; males were often shown as barbaric and the antagonist to the masculine Western cowboy. This links back to the savage stereotype, and how Westerners are often shown in a positive and heroic light whereas other ethnicities are demoralized and shown as negative characters. There are a select few stereotypical representations of Native Americans which are highly common in film, for example Native Americans typically speak “with a broken dialect of ‘baby’ English. They are not able to fully understand or express thoughts in the English language” (“The role of Native Americans in film, n.d.). This representation has changed in recent years with the

Although prejudice and stereotype seem similar, they actually have two different meanings. While stereotyping involves the generalization of a group of people, prejudice involves negative feelings when “they” are in the presence of or even think about members of the group. “Prejudice comes from direct intergroup conflict, social learning, social categorization and other cognitive sources” (Ferguson). Not all stereotypes are negative; there are also positive and neutral stereotypes. Some stereotypes do not slander a race, culture, gender, or religion, but nonetheless generalize a group of people that may or may not be true. For example, some people say that all Asians are smart or good at math. Though people of Asian descent may often be more studious, not all Asians do equally well in school (Floyd, 62). Another common example of a positive stereotype is that all black people are good athletes, dancers, and singers. Though these are positive stereotypes, when people believe them, they don’t take into account that every person is an individual and different. A neutral stereotype