Today I branched out and decided to Google “Native American
cartoons” to see what would pop up. Turns out, there was a pretty good mixture
of cartoons. Most of them tended to be positive towards Native American
culture. In fact, I didn’t find one that was overtly insensitive in any way.
Most were just ironic about mainstream culture and how it has affected the
Native Americans.
This was a similar theme among many of the cartoons I found.
There was always a white person (or people) complaining about needing to close
the borders, or take care of the “illegal’s” in the country. To counter this,
there was always a Native American pictured, who said something similar to what
is said in this cartoon-“I’ll help you pack.” At first glance, most people
would probably just chuckle because the clear message is we complain about
illegal immigrants coming across the border from Mexico, when we came over and
took control of America from the Native Americans. I thought it would be fun to
analyze this cartoon from my ever changing perspective on Native American
issues.
Like I said, first glance I understand what the cartoonist
was saying. Our country has declared we have an “illegal immigrant” problem. I
have heard talk on the news about people wanting to close our borders
completely to outsiders. How ridiculous this sounds to me. In order for people
to become U.S. citizens, it sounds like we want them to jump through hoops in
order to become legal. What hoops did we jump through when we came to America?
It seems like we just declared this land ours and didn’t care what anyone had
to say about it. Our society is very self-centered, we could care less about
the less fortunate situations others may have. If we want it one way, we are
going to get it even if it means fighting for it. I have started to see our
country as the bully of the world. If you don’t do what we want-then we will
come in and take over. Ok-mini rant over! Back to analyzing. Although the
cartoonists point is well taken, irony and all, I think they missed the mark
with the portrayal of the Native American. This is a stereotypical image of a
Native. The way he is dressed, the long hair, the feather in his hair. All of
those are part of the stereotype many Americans have of Native Americans.
Perhaps this is why the cartoonist had to stereotype, because if he didn’t make
the Native American stand out in a way mainstream culture would automatically
recognize who he was, they wouldn’t understand the point of the cartoon. I
guess if I created the cartoon, I wouldn’t know how to accurately portray a
Native American to the public without using some sort of stereotypical dress.
It makes me wonder, had this cartoon been in color what color would the cartoonist
of used for the skin? White skin coloring for the white man, but what about the
Native American and the Mexican family? Would he have used that kind of
red/brown color, like we have seen on team mascot faces? Although I have to
frown upon the stereotypical nature of the cartoonists drawing, I don’t know
how I would be able to change it to get the point across….
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