Blog Post 8

"In the White Mans Image" there is a lot of information that relates to the characters in ceremony.  In ceremony Rocky is a Native American kid who has no problem blending in at school.  As a socializer and an athlete rocky was quite popular.  "was there in the college game scores on the sports page of the Albuquerque journal."(Silko 25)  This relate to "In the White Mans Image" through the assimilation viewpoint.  There was a lot of though to "kill the Indian" and "save the man".  However, Rocky's interest in things like sports shows how he is accepting of the white culture and this is the desired effect of assimilation of Native Americans.

While Rocky was raised rather well and enjoyed his situation Tayo was not so lucky.  Tayo felt lonely and spent all his life growing up in the shadow of Rocky.  Because of this Tayo felt lonely and a sense of abandonment.  This only worked to an advantage for what Prat desired.  Because with a kid who has nothing left with the other Indians will better assimilate to white culture.  As shown in the movie students were forced to "choose their new names".(Pbs)  This was to create a similar atmosphere to that of which Tayo was raised in.  This way they tore them away from their culture and could easier force them to assimilate.

Stereotypes

There are a lot of stereotypes out there that effect many peoples daily lives.  There are tons of positive as well as negative stereotypes.  Both can be very harmful to people and can damage a persons view of themselves and their culture.  Throughout Neil Diamond's Reel Injun, many stereotypes that affect Native Americans constantly are exposed.  One of the most common stereotypes imposed on Native Americans is the classic thought that all of them wear feathers and really big headdresses.  This is completely false and of the many tribes one of the few known to wear feathers and headdresses were the plains Indians.  However, due to Hollywood's misrepresentation of this everyone thinks all Indians ride horses shouting a battle cry with giant feathery headdresses on.

A comparison to this would be like the stereotype that all women need to be skinny and petite with big boobs and a big butt.  However, the models and stars who set these trends do not even appear like they are portrayed.  Most of their "perfection" comes from people who edit the images of them. It is also unrealistic for women to look like that because it is unnatural and definitely not healthy.  Everyday all types of people deal with a battle against harmful stereotypes. These things can cause people to feel really badly about many things in their life they should be happy about.  On top of that they alter peoples perceptions about how certain people should act based on something like their culture or race not based on the individuals ideas and how they would like to act and portray themselves.

Ultimately, stereotypes effect almost everybody in some way, shape or form.  Stereotypes are much more difficult to reverse than they are to create as well.  They create issues for many people and are based off the way that a few people act.  Taking a small minorities actions and applying them to a whole race or culture is extremely harmful as well as very ignorant.  To overcome stereotypes people need to be willing to give everybody a chance and not assume they are gonna act a specific way because of some of their characteristics.