It is amazing how the American Society portrays Thanksgiving as one happy reunion between the white man and the Native Man. It is very evident that the Native people are viewed as inferior because they are often sketched and seen away from the white man or portrayed in a disrespectful manner. Like the picture if the dog, this picture tells me that who ever did this has no sense of respect toward the native community or are naïve on what this photo implies. The picture with the little Native girl playing with the pilgrim child is something that is really not very credible to the educated American, some might think that it is true but were Europeans really going to let their kids play with someone who is “inferior” to them, someone who is thought as another being or creature. Thanksgiving is not what everyone wants us to think, it was not a big happy celebration and portraying it in a certain way in the media is not going to erase the fact that Natives were raped, tortured, enslaved and slaughtered as if they were some non-human being.
1 comment:
Another thing I noticed in the last picture in the line is the juxtiposition of the Natives and the pilgrims. Look closely at the differences between the qualities of the tables that the two groups are eating separately at. Also look at the manner in which they seem to be consuming their meal. The Pilgrims appear to be polished, clean, and docile. The Natives are at the lesser table, mowing down on their food life starving animals. One mus ponder, why are they protrayed like this? Is this portrayal intentional on the part of the artist? Or are we so steeped in American culture that we subconsciously make these assumptions about how this situation would have been arranged and experienced by the parties. I am reminded of what my grandmother used to say when my sisters and I wouldn't settle down at dinner time, "Quit running around the dinner table like wild indians and sit down like ladies and eat your supper."
Post a Comment