So I Googled "Racist Mayor..."

...to try to find the article we read in class. Weirdly enough (but that surprisingly) that phrase had a lot of hits. And I mean a LOT of HITS. Many of them were articles about a mayor in Connecticut who said he would help the Hispanic population of his town by having tacos for dinner. And then, of course, there was the one we read in class, about the "rain dance" joke. I found another one concerning a debate over casinos in which a mayor in Michigan referred to a local tribal leader as "Chief Chicken Little" and said that he was being targeted with "bows and arrows."

Objectively, these jokes aren't really even funny. I mean, "bows and arrows?" Even I could think of something better than that. And there are far too many of them--too many instances of jokes gone awry. Clearly, people are not thinking before they speak. And I really don't care how old you are, or where you grew up, or when you grew up, or the fact that you've never grown up. A slur is a slur is a slur.

But aside from that, I'm not really sure what to think. I mean, I definitely oppose the use of racial slurs or racially-derived jokes. But I'm beginning to wonder if the immense amount of outcry in response to some of these comments are more helpful or more hurtful. Honestly, it kind of reminds me of PETA. PETA does great work--that's obvious. But sometimes their methods can be a bit questionable, such as using sex to push animal rights (the two are connected how?). These methods (and the fact that so few people actually understand the importance of the animal rights movement) can work to give PETA and all animal rights activists bad names. However, on the whole, I support the work they do and think anyone working for animal rights should support them as well. They have political power and they use it for the greater good. In the same way, activist groups who call out politicians, celebrities, etc, for using racially charged language or making racist jokes are doing a good thing. They are trying to end prejudice and using their power to call attention to comments that are just unacceptable. However, like PETA, I sometimes wonder if their methods are the best. They can make the rest of us working for social justice look crazy or as if we're just looking for a reason to pounce on someone.

On the other hand, there are always going to be people who believe that working for racial equality, or animal rights, or gender equality, are nuts and should focus their energies on a worthwhile cause. There are always going to be people who believe that racism is dead, so what's the point of activist groups? So maybe there's nothing wrong with being incensed. I know I am.

Watch your Language!

For today's class reading, two articles were assigned that covered Native language survival. One was by a Native Hawaiian woman trying to preserve her native language by setting up a language school. She talked much about the importance of language survival. The other was by an Arapaho man, also trying to preserve his tribe's native language by forming language schools. Both schools were relatively successful, if I remember correctly.

On the surface, the issue of preservation of language can seem a little arbitrary, at least less important than preserving religious rituals and other aspects of culture. But language is a cultural practice just like any religion, ritual, or work of literature, art, or music is. Often, language defines aspects of a culture. Certain words only have meaning in a particular language. Tenses and ways of referring to objects can be different. For example, there is a group of people (no clue what their name is or where they're from) who refer to inanimate objects as having 'life' of some sort, some kind of activity or spirit. In English, an object is just an object; if we forced these people to learn English, they would lose an important aspect of their culture. 

I don't think the circumstances are different for the language of any Native tribe. Sharing a language and being able to communicate in a particular way with others is one of the most important parts of a peoples' ability to be connected. In some ways, language is a defense mechanism. If English speakers can't understand what Natives are saying, the Natives have the ability to say whatever they want without repercussions. It's the reason my mom and I want to be able to speak French better--so we can talk about people without them knowing. We saw this in Reel Injun. In the movie, Native actors would say offensive things to the white actors in their native languages. Of course, the white actors could not understand them. This connected the Native actors and gave them strength.

I understand now that language is just as important as an aspect of culture to be preserved as religion, the arts, and traditions are.