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Caution! 'American Sniper' Is a Dangerous Movie (Lefty "Indigenous Person" is concerned)
Indian Country ^ | 1/25/15 | Mateo Romero

Posted on 01/26/2015 5:07:08 PM PST by Drew68

I was looking forward to seeing American Sniper. I took my brown Native high school-aged son to see it. I’m a fan of Clint Eastwood’s acting and directing, and his Sniper is a beautifully shot and directed action packed flick. But after his film, I spent the hour’s drive home explaining to my son why I thought the movie was dangerous and corrosive to the American people.

This is a tense war movie that looks great. But just underneath the film’s sexy veneer is a shockingly racist ideology of hate and death that is advanced by the white male sniper Chris Kyle.

Kyle is the ideological descendant of Custer and the Seventh Cavalry. He belongs to an elite white male cadre of swinging dick meat eaters who will solve the problems of invaded brown people with a bullet. Iraqi and Syrian combatants are called “fuckin’ savages.” Direct statements of racism and death may or may not reflect the realities of the modern U.S. military. But they do give rise to false dichotomies that dehumanize the enemy and make it kinda fun, cool and necessary to kill them.

For the moment, Sniper is the fave mascot of the reactionary right wing of white America. Its visual beauty softens the harsh fact that the movie glorifies death, racism, hatred, religious prejudice, sexism, colonialism and moral corrosion. It presents some great ideas about caring for and protecting the people of your tribe. If you’re a white Christian American, that is. Women, minorities, kids, Muslims need not apply. They’re part of the bullet-to-the-head fix.

Why is this film so important in its depiction of outdated and corrosive white conservative male values? Because it is a time of great change and social movement in the world. The time of white American male rule and hegemony is coming to an end. And American wingnuts don’t like it one bit.

A classic function of horror and sci-fi movies is to code racially and socially taboo stories in the guise of fantasy. Sniper follows this formula. It’s a snapshot into the psyche of a retrograde white conservative male patriarchy. It lets us glimpse its fears and desires (loss of power and male potency) as well as its hopes and desires (white men will kill their way back to the top).

Americans as a whole are too ignorant of the country’s past colonial violence against Native and African Americans and current world affairs to really question uncomplicated black, brown and white narratives of war. The audience largely clapped at the end of the movie.

This is potentially a time for great social change and growth in America and the world. Dated stories of white male privilege and uber violence are divisive and corrosive to this positive change.

It’s up to us as Indigenous Peoples and as Americans to question simplified stories glorifying violence and racism and sexism. It’s time to educate ourselves about the violence of this country’s past, and to come together as a people to build a stronger, inclusive and more unified America.

Mateo Romero is an enrolled tribal member at Cochiti Pueblo. Born in the Bay Area, he completed his BA at Dartmouth College and his MFA in painting at UNM. He is an award -winning artist who has exhibited both nationally and internationally. A former SAR Dubin Fellow, Romero lives in Pojoaque Pueblo with his potter wife Melissa Talachy, and their sons Rain and River. He shows his paintings at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: americansniper; chriskyle; clinteastwood; warnerbrothers
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To: left that other site

isles=Aisles.


61 posted on 01/26/2015 6:07:05 PM PST by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: left that other site
First of all, we “indigenous people” do NOT consider ourselves “Brown”. We are Red, and proud of it!

Given that his last name is Romero, I'm guessing he has some significant Mexican heritage, and his worldview is more informed by that than his AmIndian heritage, to whatever extent he has that. As with Warren, far too many people claim AmIndian heritage for political purposes.
62 posted on 01/26/2015 6:08:47 PM PST by fr_freak
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To: Drew68
"Americans as a whole are too ignorant of the country’s past colonial violence against Native and African Americans"

Slavery existed in the South? Jim Crow laws existed nationwide? We fought wars against the Indians, broke treaties, and put them on reservations? Really? Never heard about it.
63 posted on 01/26/2015 6:10:05 PM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: fr_freak

Yes Indeed.

Ward Churchill is another one.


64 posted on 01/26/2015 6:12:05 PM PST by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: Drew68
Americans as a whole are too ignorant of the country’s past colonial violence against Native and African Americans and current world affairs...

He's got a point. I only get reminded of this about 10x a day.

We need a reminder every hour on the hour...

65 posted on 01/26/2015 6:15:57 PM PST by Ken H (What happens on the internet, stays on the internet.)
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To: fr_freak
"Women, minorities, kids, Muslims need not apply."

What drivel. When the "minority" enemy is evil enough to put women and children in the role of human bombs or assassins, they give us no choice but to respond. But it's moronic to suggest that killing individuals in these extraordinary circumstances can somehow be equated with a general hatred of women, children, or minorities.
66 posted on 01/26/2015 6:19:24 PM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: left that other site

The late great Commanche author David Yeagley once pointed out that the typical Indian’s love for his guns, hunting, pickup truck and freedom, made him “more redneck than redskin”.

This Romero must have been raised on “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” while admiring Sasheen Littlefeather from afar & declaring “You call it corn, WE call it MAIZE!”


67 posted on 01/26/2015 6:20:58 PM PST by elcid1970 ("I: am a radicalized infidel.")
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To: Drew68

This author is a piece of work. An Indian “artist”, he is a member of a tiny New Mexican pueblo tribe; but he, personally was born in Berkeley. Then he went to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

I know a lot of Indians from the Navajo, Apache, and other warrior tribes. Their comments about American Sniper could be expressed as the following:

1) I want a rifle like that.
2) (various exploits of relatives who fought over there.)
3) The fighting is better in Afghanistan.


68 posted on 01/26/2015 6:23:11 PM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: Drew68
"swinging dick meat eaters"

I'm proud to be a swinging dick     meat eater. I suppose this guy is proud to be a swinging dick meat     eater.

We're all the same. It just depends on where you pause.

69 posted on 01/26/2015 6:26:06 PM PST by tinyowl (A equals A)
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To: elcid1970

LOL...more redneck than redskin! that would be me! hahaha!


70 posted on 01/26/2015 6:27:35 PM PST by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
"He belongs to an elite white male cadre of swinging dick meat eaters . . . "

Kind of strange for a Native to use "meat eater" as an epithet. There may have been a vegetarian Native tribe somewhere, but I never heard of one. Or maybe he's using "meat eater" in some other context. Who knows what this idiot thinks.
71 posted on 01/26/2015 6:28:27 PM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: Steve_Seattle

72 posted on 01/26/2015 6:29:29 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: Drew68

I thought LSD went out of style decades ago.


73 posted on 01/26/2015 6:32:28 PM PST by Cementjungle
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To: Drew68
I took my brown Native high school-aged son to see it.

Brown?

I thought they were all Redskins.

74 posted on 01/26/2015 6:32:33 PM PST by P-Marlowe (Saying that ISIL is not Islamic is like saying Obama is not an Idiot.)
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To: Drew68

Megyn Kelly just had some fatazz from the Arab Defamation league on who wanted Eastwood and Cooper to come out and denounce violence against Muslims because of the movie.

The fatazz said there were violent sounding internet posts who cited this movie as why.

Yeah right, it was probably muzzies who posted them so they could pull this stunt.

I am soooooooooooo sick of this muzzie crap!


75 posted on 01/26/2015 6:35:02 PM PST by dforest
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To: John S Mosby
And Eastwood is a genius.

Amen. A gift from the Almighty.

Clint Eastwood is a national treasure.

76 posted on 01/26/2015 6:35:08 PM PST by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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To: John S Mosby

They were able to do a great job of splitting off the black male with ADC. So well that young AA males are now compensating, hypersensitive about being ‘dissed’ and fighting to protect their manhood by shooting each other.


77 posted on 01/26/2015 6:36:04 PM PST by expat2
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To: NorthMountain
"He belongs to an elite white male cadre of swinging dick meat eaters ..."

Yep, that's me. Fightin' Whitey ... When we get all worked up, whole CONTINENTS burn. Don't forget it, jackass.

LOL!!! Bump!!!

{^)

78 posted on 01/26/2015 6:37:03 PM PST by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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To: CrazyIvan

I’m still working on brown native part of the guys rant


79 posted on 01/26/2015 7:06:15 PM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: Drew68

That poor boy. He doesn’t stand a chance.


80 posted on 01/26/2015 7:25:47 PM PST by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Still bitterly clinging to rational thought despite it's unfashionability)
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