Indian Comics Irregular #111

Children Now, an Oakland-based child research and action organization,
recently issued its fourth report on the depiction of minorities on
television. As the Associated Press explained, 4/21/04:

Hispanics have gained visibility on television series while
Asians have lost ground and Middle Eastern characters suffer from
typecasting, according to a study.

The article continued:

Women also suffer a visibility problem, according to the study
released Wednesday, "Fall Colors 2003-04: Prime Time Diversity
Report." Male characters outnumber female characters nearly two to
one, the study said.

The research offered mixed results on Hispanic depictions. The
presence of Hispanic characters rose from 4 percent in the 2001-02
season to more than 6 percent in 2003-04, and more than half of all
prime-time shows now include at least one Hispanic character, the
report found.

But television still fails to reflect the U.S. population which,
according to Census figures, is more than 13 percent Hispanic.

One unfortunate finding: "There were no Native American characters in
any episode in the study's sample." That's not hard to believe. I've
seen only a handful of Indians on TV this year.

For more on Children Now's annual studies of TV diversity, see
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/natv.htm .

Lowlights of the Year (So Far)

The lack of indigenous portrayals on TV doesn't tell the whole story.
Several shows that didn't show Native people did mention them. Alas,
these representations were mostly stereotypical.

The beginning of 2004 was a particularly bad time for Natives on
TV. Let's look at some of the lowlights:

"The Simpsons" periodically does parodies featuring Homer, Marge,
Lisa, and Bart in historical settings. In the latest (Feb. 8),
"Chief" Homer gave "Sacagawea" Lisa to Lewis and Clark. That isn't
how it happened in reality, and it reinforces the "big chief" and
"Indian princess" stereotypes.

"Charmed" included a pseudo-Native (also Feb. 8), at least. One of
the show's witches followed a wolf that turned into a female shaman.
Shamans are usually old men, but this shaman (shamaness? shamanette?)
was the usual TV beauty. She sat stoically, boiling tea over a fire,
with pottery, flute music, and paintings of feather-clad Indians in
the background.

On "Gilmore Girls" (Feb. 10), Lorelai woke up to a freezing-cold
house. How cold was it? Cold enough for her to exclaim: "What the
hell are the Eskimos thinking? I mean, yes, the hoods are cute, but
it's always cold--always." That's what you call cultural
insensitivity.

And perhaps the worst: On "Joan of Arcadia" (Jan. 16), Joan's mother
and father were visiting a spa. The mother offered to sign them up
for the "Native American treatment." The father responded:

What's that? They gently drag us through the sand by our hair
until our skin is flayed? And then later we're gently reassigned
to gambling casinos in Arizona.

Wow. Talk about your politically incorrect dialog. Here we see the
yin and yang of Native stereotyping: Indians as bloodthirsty savages
and Indians as greedy casino owners.

Thomas Jefferson called them "merciless Indian Savages" in 1776. Rush
Limbaugh said "they were out there conquering and killing each other,
scalping people" in 1995. Some things never change, apparently.

For extended analyses of these shows, visit the Stereotype of the
Month contest at http://www.bluecorncomics.com/stertype.htm .

Rob Schmidt
Blue Corn Comics