where have all the injuns gone?
When I was but a pubeless sapling in the 1960s, TV was filled with depictions of American Injuns, most of them proud, benign souls such as Tonto. Injuns were the other race, the ones against whom the dominant cowboy culture defined itself. Back then, you saw nary a Negro in prime time.
Nowadays, with all expressions of whiteness having been outlawed, American popular culture is black culture, and yet the Injuns have faded into the sagebrush. You hardly EVER see them on the tube, and when you do, it's some nauseating PBS documentary made by some self-hating paleface about honky-industry-contaminated corn meal on The Reservation.
And before you all plot yet ANOTHER boring hate crime against me for using words such as "Negro" and "Injun," I'm not sure what other words are more appropriate. Most blacks in the early 1960s were Negroes, with all the deferential politeness, nice sweaters, and Murray's Pomade that implies. And to call Injuns "Indians" is inaccurate, since they aren't from the land of curry, Bengal tigers, and one billion dotheads. Labeling them "Native Americans" is unfair to the 250+ million people such as me who were born in America, too. I guess "Indigenous Americans" is more on the mark, but it's just so faggy-sounding, I want to retch up the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts I ate last night. So "Injuns" they remain.
I know this isn't something that blacks want to hear, but Injuns are BY FAR the most beat-down, oppressed, demoralized, and nearly dang-genocided race in American history. Ever been to a reservation? They're sad, rusted, dead-end places, far worse than the gnarliest black-American slum (which also compare favorably to most places in Africa, but hoo-doggie, that's another can of worms, isn't it?).
Even so, there's no other race who remain so cruelly stereotyped. Atlanta Braves? Washington Redskins? The Cleveland Indians, with an insanely grinning mascot? There are no teams named the Detroit Darkies or Houston Hillbillies or New York Jews! What gives?
Back in the '70s, there were some radical Injuns, bustin' caps on federal agents in nationally televised standoffs. Now they're quiet ... almost invisible.
I don't get it.
