Read the following advertisement reprinted in Newspaper Rock blog. The pool party organizers were doing their best to coax people to attend “Indian summer camp. ” It wasn’t a joke. The ad recently riled up a lot of Washington, D.C. folks who succeeded in getting the pool party organizers to change the theme of the get-together.
Check out an excerpt of the ad:
We want to see people breaking out the feather headdresses and moccasins. Or go the cowboy route and bring some water pistols to take down the savages.
btw, this guy was Italian, Native Americans don’t give a shit about the environment
If you roll up in a van with some sweet art on it, you get in free.
You can read all the comments and the rationalization of the organizers for being out of touch with reality. But, they argue, it makes sense to them.
I’ve said it once, but it’s worth repeating: We need more Native voices on the Internet and in the media to create a much stronger Native presence and awareness in American society. Only then will Indian-themed pool parties become a relic of the past. Unfortunately, discrimination continues to thrive in the workplace, in our communities and in the nation’s capital.
Jodi Rave
Bob
There are times I cannot resist making a comment. The usual result of what I consider a reasonable polite comment is a total assault Comments like why are you commenting, didn’t you get enough welfare?? The ignorance or unwillingness to understand, or accept, is something I will never understand. Shame on American History Books. The real facts of the American existance has been omitted. The B Western movies of the 40s and 50s omitted the culture and truth. The worst part for me is the misconception that we are getting something for nothing, or we are getting something they are not.
Michael Woestehoff
If you didn’t see it already, the website has been updated to “Its Hot in August†or something. After your calls, emails and comments (Kevin Gover, NMAI Executive Director!), this has been changed. Unfortunately, the comment box below remains, and the explanation by “Cale†who posted the event, has his head up his… well, you know.
The people who run the Brightest Young Things called our NIEA office and apologized (kind of) and offered that we can make this a positive message, but I really didn’t see how a pool party attended by Hill staffers, hipsters, and the DC social scene wearing headdresses and “warpaint†provides any positive message. And the hotel also sent out many apologies to the people who wrote in.
Thank you to all the people from the National Congress of American Indians, as well as, Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, National Indian Health Board, National Museum of the American Indian, Indian Health Service, American Indian Higher Education Consortium, National Register of Historic Places/National Historic Landmarks that wrote and forwarded this information along to other people.
Living in a town where the Capitol of the United States’ football mascot is a “Redskin,†I may not be surprised, but I take personal offense as a person who is in PR and Communications for the Native population, for a group like this to tear away at that. I’ve worked my ass off to make sure people do not use these images, or view the Native population as nothing more than a “role,†“character,†or “mascot.â€
Thank you for sharing this on your Blog.
Jackie
I think as long as the uneducated believe its cool to be a racist, there will be dumb actions with no remorse. They learned it and continue to learn it from TV and movies that perpetuate racism toward Native Americans to this very day.
We as Natives were forced to learn and are still legally required to learn “white” American culture through every subject taught in school from K-Phd and when we attempt to teach non-Natives, they just don’t compute……
Perhaps we need to think how we would teach a child …. with pictures: coloring books, TV, Video’s, Theater and any age appropriate medium to make a point like cartoons.
Think: hear it, see it, feel it and maybe they will learn to think it …….. positive attitudes and words.
Thanks Jodi for keeping us informed.