General Response to Blog Comments

 “Wait, Turok and the GEICO Caveman are slams against native Americans?”

 This was one of the comments I received recently to my blogs. I may have given the impression that I thought Turok and the Cavemen were racist depictions, but I assure you, that was not my intent.

 In my discussion of Turok, I didn’t directly say how I felt about Turok, only that I was for anything that presented Native American culture in a positive light. Turok is, indeed, an innovative American icon which originated in the late 1940’s and came to life in the comics in the early 1950’s. In any form of media, his creation pre-dated Jay Silverheels as Tonto by only a couple of years. If it takes characters like Turok and Tonto to make inroads into mainstream culture and to provide positive role-models for Native youth, that’s a good thing in my book.

 There may be aspects of the stories that surround Turok and Tonto that I don’t particularly find appealing but fictional characters are what they are. I can’t change how the majority population has viewed these characters for the last 50+ years.

 What I may have some success in changing is how the majority may perceive these characters and other Native-themed characters in the future. If you haven’t caught on by now, that’s largely the point of writing a blog of this nature. :^)   Awareness is a good thing for all of us. The more we are aware of what other people, or for that matter, what other kinds of people may think, the better understanding we have of ourselves as a whole. Getting along in society isn’t something we all do naturally, it takes work, a sense of self, and a sense of kinship with our fellow man, whatever their ethnicity.

 That kinship may mean you identify with white, Irish catholics, black muslims, Hasidic jews, or in the case of Lou Diamond Phillips, Filipinos. From Wikipedia:

 

“Lou Diamond Phillips (born Louis Upchurch on February 17, 1962, at Subic Bay Naval Station, Philippines). He adopted his surname Phillips from his stepfather. He is of Spanish, Scottish/Irish, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, and American Indian ancestry.”

 

 Somebody else remarked about Lou and I had always thought he was Filipino. I heard later, when he started doing westerns, that he had some American Indian heritage. I’ve never seen a quote from him to see how he self-identifies. That would be interesting.

 It’s sort of like Tiger Woods, how does he self-identify? I don’t know what he says, but the rest of the world thinks he’s Black. I may have missed that one, did everyone think Lou was Indian?

 Some of us have a choice, others don’t. Myself? You’d laugh, but when I was younger and thinner, I looked remarkedly like Lou Diamond Phillips. I’m a little heavier now and in my line of work, I get mistaken for being Mexican all the time and people speak Spanish to me without thinking; but when I walk the clay roads of my reservation, I’m secure in the fact I look like everyone else there.

 

 As for the Cavemen, what I tried to do, and apparently unsuccessfully did so, was try to draw a corollary between how the Cavemen are treated in their fictional commercial world and how Natives are treated in the actual modern-day society. I can tell you that Natives frequently find themselves insulted by sports and media. When Natives complain, it seems to always be met with the same disdain and indifference. This, of course, extends beyond sports and media to other issues: Indians as victims of crime, the Resolution Trust Fund, the land into trust issue and land claims in general, and the latest controversial issue, gaming. These all may be topics of future blogs, but we’re talking Cavemen here, they’re not as complicated.

 What they are though, is an example. An example how a distinct race can be dismissed and belittled. An example of however simple or eloquent one of their spokesmen may be, his message is ignored and his objections denied as baseless and without merit.

 Let’s just say I’m self-identifying with the Cavemen.