Darlene M Caban, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen!
Blogs by Darlene M Caban
Is it only racism when someone else does it? 6/14/2005 4:01:49 PM
Plenty of 'historical inaccuracy' at Foxwoods We have heard how Native Americans are offended by the use of Indian names for sports teams, products, and place names... but a few things at Foxwoods Casino would qualify as racist if they were done by whites.
1. The 'Wampum' card
This is a reward card that gives the casino players points each time they use their card in a casino game. 'Wampum' is a word that engenders hostility when used 'incorrectly' by whites to refer to any kind of money... but is apparently ok when used by the casino owners to refer to a plastic card.
2. 'Indian' costumes for casino waitresses
The waitresses wore a vaguely 'Indian' dress with fringe, and feathers in small green caps. The general effect was that you were being served drinks by a female Peter Pan. Between the indecent length of the dresses and the feathers worn in caps, I don't know what is more 'inaccurate'-- or insulting.
My point is that if a white person had done these things, it would be on the news as yet another example of the anti-Native racism of white America... but apparently if it is used to bring more money into the casino, there's nothing racist about it.
If white people are to stop using racial sterotypes, they need to be educated by example: Find another name for the reward cards, and dress the waitresses in replicas of the things the women actually wore in that part of the state. The 'historial accuracy' needs to be out on the casino floor, not just in the museum.
