But let me back up. I think it is important to note that there are still plenty of racist depictions of Native Americans in 2014 America. I would say the worst perpetrator of this cultural appropriation is Sports. You have the Cleveland Indians, the Washington Redskins, the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Kansas City Chiefs, and probably any number of smaller teams with similar names. The reason I believe sports are the most guilty is because it seems the most institutionalized. I'm unaware of any restaurant chains, or company names, or chocolate bars, or major brands that borrow (read: steal) from Native American culture. Which isn't to say those things don't exist, I'm sure you can find them, but none are more well known and vigorously defended as American sports teams. Which got me thinking about why Peter Pan hasn't changed over the years. Our sports teams cite reasons like tradition, and branding, and endearment toward a culture (all of which are terrible arguments, I'll get to that later), but what reason does Peter Pan have for not editing its racist content, especially since it is specifically designed for children. Put simply; why do we think it is O.K. to keep depicting these stereotypes when it is clear we have the capacity to change them?
But let me back up even further. I need to reiterate that this is not O.K.Cultural appropriation is hurtful. I think this is a hard thing for people to grasp because their culture is not as painfully distributed as that of the Native Americans. Redskin, for example. After the trauma (read: genocide) the Native American people have suffered throughout history, for white people to tell them that they have changed the meaning of the word redskin to simply a benign nickname is outrageous. We should not get to decide how a certain word, a word with historically painful connotations to a group of people, should come across to those people. But isn't it enough that Native Americans are saying they don't want to be depicted like this any more? This should be enough to make you stop dressing like them for Halloween, it should make you not want to get Native American Tattoos, or Native American themed clothing, and it should certainly make mainstream brands change their image. Why not? I've never understood why we should just go on offending people, especially people who have endured unfathomable offenses for many, many years. I'm not asking for laws that force the name change or organizational oversight, though that would be nice, I'm asking why the team doesn't change it when it is clearly hurtful to a group of people. I'm asking why fans don't feel the need to pressure their team to change the brand. I'm genuinely curious if it is because the pride and money and brand behind the word Redskin is, and Americans will admit this, more important than the pride and feelings and brand behind actual people. We are telling Native Americans that our symbol for them is more important to us than they are.
Back to Peter Pan. If you know the movie you know the brilliantly racist song "Why is the Red Man Red". The Musical has a song called "Ugg - A - Wugg", which has Native Americans singing utter gibberish in what can only be described as a parody of their language. Not to mention the Native Americans are prancing around in red face, doing stereotypical and, in all probability inaccurate, Native American things. However you can't just take them out altogether, they provide key plot points! I wanted to see how the NBC production would handle this dilemma and I truly believe they did not receive enough credit for what they did; they went over the top in an effort to make this less offensive. For one, they cast the actress who plays Tiger Lilly (the fictional tribes matriarch, which is actually pretty cool) with a girl who has distant ties to the Cherokee nation. This to me always seems like a cop out, like the "I'm not racist I have a black friend" argument. Yet it wasn't the only thing; they changed the lyrics in "Ugg - A - Wugg" to include actual Native American phrases, so it is less of an outright joke. The characters are not dressed like stereotypical Native Americans, they are referred to as islanders or simply Natives, and they aren't caricatured (saying things like, "me like Peter"). They seem to belong to no specific culture, if anything they might even be considered pacific islander. Which, don't get me wrong, is still far from perfect. The point I'm trying to make is every one was so busy bashing Christopher Walken's acting and talking about how boring it was, that they didn't give credit to the production for really trying.
Notice the sea shells? Eh?
That isn't entirely true. The New York Times had made mention of it, so did some other major arts and entertainment commentators. They pointed out that NBC tried to make Peter Pan less racist, but kind of as an after thought. No one though, at least in my opinion, has given them enough credit. The production team at NBC responsible for putting this together acknowledged that the cultural appropriation was offensive and they made a concerted effort to change it. They changed the establishment of Peter Pan. They changed Peter Pan because it was the right thing to do. Not because hundreds of Native Americans would be tuning in, not because they would make money on the deal, but because they found a reason to change it. There is no way to know why for sure, it could have been disingenuous, they may have just feared the backlash from the PC crowd. Even then, that means this major network felt accountable. I believe that is more than you can say for sports teams. They may never change their branding. While I agree that a team brand is different than a depiction of real people in fiction, it stands that both these depictions have real world pain associated with them. As passive fans and consumers, we have not created the backlash that NBC would have gotten for running a racist production. We are too afraid that allowing the Politically Correct movement to make significant changes in sports branding we are allowing our masculinity to be be challenged. Well I'm here to assure you that there is nothing weak about asking a brand to reconsider its approach, there is value in standing up for those being made fun of. Native Americans have truly endured, they are still here, we shouldn't be treating them like they aren't. It's time to grow up...
Just like you I am also a huge fan of peter pan. I have seen his movies numerous times. I have read the book too! I also agree that there are historical stories behind Peter Pan comic stories. Again, thanks for this great article!
ReplyDelete