Obviously the Fox network is not reading my blog either. Perhaps my Thursday Thirteen post about Native Americans was unclear. Here's what I said:
Despite what you have learned from really stupid horror movies, building your home on an old Indian burying ground will NOT cause poltergeists in your house. Although I don't follow any Native religions, I am QUITE certain that the afterlife of Native peoples does NOT involve sucking little blond wasicus (that means white people, for all you white people) into TV's. But don't mess with burying grounds - it's rude and you wouldn't want us to do it to you. Plus the NAGPRA folks will get you. Furthermore, despite what Mr. King would have us believe, burying your pet in an old Native burying ground will not cause the pet to come back to life and kill your family.I suppose I should not have limited this complaint to the horror genre. Fox premiered a new show last night called, "New Amsterdam." I didn't watch it, but caught a little flash on a commercial that led me to do further research. Here's what I found on Wikipedia:
The main character is John Amsterdam (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a New York homicide detective who is immortal. Amsterdam was a Dutch soldier in the year 1642 when he stepped in front of a sword to save the life of a Native American girl during a massacre of her indigenous tribe. The girl in turn rescued Amsterdam by weaving an ancient spell that conferred immortality upon him.Ok. We don't really do that. By all means - if you see someone attacking a Native girl with a sword, please jump in front of it to save her life. Lots of people will be really happy if you do this. But we're not really going to make you immortal by weaving a spell. In fact, even if we could do that, isn't it kind of mean??? "Oh thanks for saving me from the sword-wielding madman. I am now giving you immortality so that you can outlive all your friends and watch everyone you care about get old and die while you remain freakishly young." That seems more like a punishment than a reward.
So, to all movie-makers, authors, TV executives, etc. Please do not use Native mojo to explain your weak-ass plot line or story arc. While we're at it, please do not use any ethnic mojo (see Karate Kid, The Matrix, etc) to explain these things. Either come up with a reasonable story that isn't insulting and sophomoric or just leave it to those that can. kthxbai.
10 comments:
Ugh, I missed the premiere last night...but it sounds like I didn't miss much. I couldn't agree more with the writers using ethnic smokescreens for weak storylines. Very sad.
I only read the synopsis and decided to skip it. If someone could cast a latte spell on me so that my mug refilled with every sip, I'd be interested in that storyline even with ethnic mojo, but otherwise I agree that it's pretty cheesy. Now, Karate Kid is a whole separate thing (we actually just watched it last month...).
If we told them they couldn't use Indians, Hispanics, Asians, Italians or Russians..to name a couple groups..there wouldn't be ANYTHING on TV except for Games and Reality shows.
OR you go to make believe, like the Klingon's...they have a temper and the Vulcan's..who are very cold..see we stereotype the make believe too.
I'd rather see a show about a make believe Indian curse than a drunk Indian w/ a gambling problem..you know what I mean?
I didn't watch the show though.
I never really thought of it being offensive like that. But if someone made my religion a reason for a weak plot yea...I would probably find that offensive! Good for you for saying something!
Sandy - yeah it gets old.
Maggie - oooh latte spell
MP - I'm not saying they can't have characters of different ethnic backgrounds...but to stop with the "magical Indian curses" or other such stereotypes. Would you watch an entire movie or show about racist white people from St. Louis oppressing minorities every chance they get and completely misunderstanding where other people come from especially if it was the billionth show to use such a storyline??? Probably not.
Teachin' - it just gets a little old after sooooo many of the same thing. Thanks for stopping by.
You made me laugh twice -- the comment on my blog about being distracted by cheese, and this one. I have a book that is about a guy who is immortal as long as he stays on the island of Manhattan, but it is so extra extra descripty that I have only made it as far as his mom about to get killed. He hasn't even left Ireland yet. So I don't know if there's some sort of Native reason for his immortality.
I don't think that the concept of not insulting and being sophomoric is one the tv peoples have an understanding of yet.
Julie...perhaps reading the book makes you immortal...you need that much time to finish it
Hey, I was talking to the kids about this show's immortality thing, and Thor wanted to know why they didn't use it on themselves. We also had a long discussion about immortality and what it means, Zachary leaning heavily toward "The Highlander" version, where you are immortal, but can be killed by beheading...
Ugh, I meant to DVR it last night but forgot. Guess I didnt' miss much.
Oh come on, Tasina. Magical Indian voodoo is a documented fact - they wouldn't put it in so many movies otherwise! :P
Well, damn. I TiVoed, because I really wanted to believe it would be a good show, but I keep hearing such crappy things about it that I don't know if I should waste my time.
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