Indian Comics Irregular #60

For those who think racial prejudice isn't deeply ingrained in our
society, here's a sobering news item. From the LA Times, 4/25/01:

After a U.S. spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet along
the coast of southeast China earlier this month, a rash of talk
show hosts and radio personalities called for the internment of
people of Chinese ancestry. Some even urged a boycott of Chinese
restaurants and made fun of Asian accents.

As the article reports, a Chinese-American survey turned up some
startling results:

Asians Americans were second only to African Americans as
undesirable marriage partners. A third of respondents said they
disapproved of marrying blacks, compared to 24% for Asians, 21%
for Latinos and 16% for Jews.

As for housing, Americans preferred to be neighbors of Asians
rather than blacks and Latinos. Seventeen percent of the
respondents said they would be upset if an Asian moved into their
neighborhood, compared to 21% for Latinos, 19% for blacks and 9%
for Jews.

The statistics on America's marriage preferences are especially
revealing. It's relatively easy to tolerate "those people" when they
live in another town or neighborhood. It's harder if you're
intimately involved with them, sharing the same house and bed. If a
third of Americans say they wouldn't marry certain people because of
their skin color, then a third of Americans are racist.

No need to tell minorities that white America still views blacks as
criminals, Latinos as menial workers, Asians as geeks, Indians as
savages, Jews as money-grubbers, and Arabs as terrorists. They live
with these stereotypical attitudes every day. The question is when
whites will realize the myopia of their beliefs--and change them.

For more on the subject of racism, go to
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/racerpt.htm. The evidence of
stereotyping's harm is documented at
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/stharm.htm.

The Source of Racism

Where does this racism come from? It couldn't possibly come from
media stereotypes, could it? Look at this month's Native American
examples:

In the new TV show "Kristin," a Native man has sex on a construction
beam 600 feet above the ground, then predicts his wife will "tom-tom"
his butt.

In the new novel "Code of the West," a Comanche character apologizes
to the plant he's plucking, saying, "You no hurt, I no hurt--I no
take all leaves."

In the new comic book WEIRD WESTERN TALES #4, one story shows a
modern-day Indian thwacking a modern-day cowboy, then telling his
wife via cellphone that he's through letting a "squaw" push him
around. In another story, "Cree" Indians (all wearing loincloths,
one with a feather headdress) attack and burn a covered wagon. The
"lead brave" rapes the white woman and scalps the white man. The
woman apparently enjoys being raped and becomes "Redstick's woman."
The man, still scalpless, becomes "Dogman"--"kept naked on a leash,
in front of my squaw's teepee, fed scraps if I did the washin'."

Gosh, I can't imagine why people think Indians were (are?) savages
after that. As you can see in our online contest
(http://www.bluecorncomics.com/stertype.htm), 5-10 stereotypes like
these show up in public every month. Consider the cumulative effect
of all those images.

El Ojo Rides Again

I've finally put the conclusion of the Latino Lone Ranger's story
online. Death comes for El Ojo...but why? To find out, visit
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/elojo.htm.

Rob Schmidt
Blue Corn Comics