To think racist stereotypes shouldn't feature in a school play?

[LadyFuckrington]

Went to see dd in her play last night and was pretty horrified by the 'Indians' dressed in feathered headgear and talking like um how.

I sat there with my mouth open because it had shades of 'blacking up' and just didn't sit well with me.

Am I being ridiculous? Dd was a cowboy in the play, which was set in the Wild West and they all did terrible American accents, but the whole pidgin English representation of the native Americans speech made me wince. That and the fact they were listed in the flyer as Indians.

Aibu? I feel like complaining to the school really but I'm not well at the moment and can't tell if I'm overreacting.

Literature e.g. Shakespeare is a window into the time that it was written, which makes it valuable even beyond its literary appeal.

Modern productions with outdated terms like "Indian" are just silly; how are these kids going to understand the major historical implications of the Native American if they're taught to use an incorrect term coined by colonists?

In Canada the term First Nations is often used.

Oh, I love that!

Ghosty I swear I am ready to murder my PC - not very PC of me I know.

The description of the speech sounds like stereotyping to me

I agree. Re terminology the radical AIM movement use the term "Indian" .
Russell Means , who played Chingachook in The Daniel Day-Lewis version of the Last of the Mohicans was a prominent member. Some indigenous people find "Native American " insulting.
www.aimovement.org/

Re the language many of the native people during the colonisation of their land will of course had to learn English or French.

Downdawnagain I was very interested in American Indian/ Native American culture about 20 years' ago.

I'm very surprised you found no debate about this issue. I certainly found plenty of comments from North American Indian activists who hated the term Native American.

The Canadian "First People " sounds good.

For the avoidance of doubt this play sounds crass however.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation

Cultural appropriation is a thing, and not a cool one. Which is why dressing as Native Indians is not the done thing any more!

Lazy on the part of the school.

I live in Canada and work with a lot of First Nations people and Metis, mixed heritage people. Indian is a word I never use. It is still used in some official ways here. Indian Act and INAC and similar.

I have spoken to the First Nations people I know about the weirdness of this and most agree that 'Indian' is offensive, doubly so when used by white people, triply so when married, as in the OP with stereotypes. Some people use Indian to refer to themselves, sometimes ironically, sometimes angrily; when referring to policy or racism.

The words here that seem to cause the least offence are Aboriginal people and/or First Nations. Or, if you know, Songhess, Pauquachin, Coast Salish or whatever is the land where you live.

We have a lot of family and have spent some time in Canada, and so the term First Nations is very familiar, and I have much respect for it.

Right at the other end of the scale, the loathsome 'PC brigade' and the associated mind numbing terms (PC Gone Mad), scream nothing but bloody ignorance to me.

I too agree, First Nations Peoples is great.

I just think it's rubbish. Ds school play this year contained loads of gender stereotypes - it was about Robin Hood and maid Marion's ladies actually did a song about wearing petty dresses and brushing her hair.

Schools should be better than this. Plays like this aren't compulsory - it's lazy teaching to not simply pick something better.

YANBU.

American Indian is actually preferred over Native American by many American Indians, but either term is generally fine. American Indian is the only ethnicity we name with "American" first in the name, which is as it should be. All the rest of us have our origin named first as in Scottish-American, Anglo-American, Irish-American, Italian-American, African American, etc.

OP YANBU.

It's incredibly ignorant of the school....don't they read the papers!? Don't they watch the news!?

But generally speaking, it is better to refer to the specific tribe, if possible.

The play does not sound like an appropriate representation.

Thanks Seneca.

From what I recall of reading about people like Russell Means and Dennis Banks and AIM they saw "Native American " as a sop to white people's consciences ; we're being polite but ignoring the prejudices and difficulties American Indians face.

Yes, Lass, in fact, Russell Means was one of the activists who emphasized the American first aspect of American Indian.

www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/bismarck_200504A16.html

Poor bloody school, even if they have managed not to offend anyone directly there's always one.....to get upset on behalf of someone who probably couldn't give a damn.

It's actually fairly easy not to offend anyone; avoiding racial (and gender) stereotypes usually works.

Oh ffs. Black man is suggested the role of a 1950s English male in the civil service who would almost certainly have been white (eg Idris Elba). We all correctly clap and say how wonderful it is that we've come this far.

But if a white child in a school play portrays someone of a different ethnicity in a historically accurate way we're all raaaaaaacists.

Because if Idris Elba became Bond that would be dreadfully racist right? He would be perpetuating stereotypes of people working for MI5 wearing suits, working near Whitehall or on the south bank opposite Millbank. Hell, he would probably even have a flat in Holland Park. The racist stereotyping evil bastard. Doesn't he realise that these days spies all live in poor areas of Liverpool and have no GCSES?

Can I ask what play it was? By any chance Peter Pan? Just out of curiosity. I' m firmly in the 'sounds racist and innapropriate' camp.

yanbu
didn't get it until I realised my ds would rip dawndonna's dd a new one for assuming spaz was ok...(Both her dd and his d sister live in the same world)

DearLeader You are missing the point.

I'm sure it is perfectly possible for a US school which has no American Indian/Native American pupils to put on play about say the origins of Thanksgiving in a manner which is not crass, simplistic and offensive.

I am assuming the OP however is in the UK, in which case a play about the Wild West seems an odd choice, especially given the way it was apparently done.

I'm outraged by the Robin Hood gender stereotypes. How dare a play portray 13th century England as being a bigoted gender stereotyped land when in fact it was a sensitive LBGT supporting utopia.

It's disgusting. Everybody knows that merry = gay and Robin and his men were, in fact, an early version of Pride.

Why? My school put on West Side Story despite the fact we had no Puerto Ricans, and Bugsy Malone despite the lack of Italians. I've seen productions of Don Quioxite with no Spaniards, productions of Tenessee Williams and Arthur Miller plays with no Americans. Shakespeare plays with no English people.

Are you suggesting that we should ban anybody from playing a role which is not that of their own ethnic background? So therefore ban most plays?

If you want to ban plays which contain 'racial stereotypes' you will ban most Greek classics, most Roman classics and an awful lot of Shakespeare for starters.

I tell you what. Why don't you find all these awful stereotyping plays and make a big pile of them and set them on fire?