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Why is this film so important in its depiction of outdated and corrosive white conservative male values?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.
What a bigot! He deliberately left his green Native son and his blue Native daughter at home.
That's because liberal women hate penises and liberal men secretly covet other men's penises....so neither of them can present an argument with out introducing a penis.
Not all liberal men of course, a lot of them still fantasize marrying about mommy and resent daddy's penis.
Calling Freud, calling Freud.
I’m willing to bet that Tecumseh and his crew weren’t babbling pseudo-sophisticated drivel like this pansy.
I’m suppose to believe this guy was too stupid to know this was a conservative movie?
Yeah, right.
Liberals are unable to empathize with anyone who’s NOT liberal... so he should have done everyone a favor and stayed home. There’s plenty of liberal movies to see... this year that would be all of them EXCEPT this one. What a jerk.
And the problem with this is?
Personally, I think this is a necessary evil of war. If American leaders would have the guts to simply identify today's enemy, we would be better off. If we would dehumanize the enemy as a nation instead of buying into all the PC and religion of peace BS, I think our soldiers would have fewer psychological problems.
I had five uncles that saw battle in WWII. One of them suffered "shell shock" because he was literally under artillary fire for days and nights. The rest had no psychological problems. They all were in intense combat. They all killed the enemy. None talked about killing the enemy. But they did talk about the enemy in terms that were dehumanizing. It was a necessary psychological tool to deal with carnage of war - when we won wars.
And sit on your butt in a circle and smoke the peace pipe while the ragheads take over and sharpen their knives for, not your scalps....your heads!
. . . And that Dixon was part Indian!
I was born in Waterloo Iowa. I am as indigenous as any spewer named Matteo Romero. BTW, Matty, your name is that of a conquerer of the so-called indigenous peoples.
I'll give him credit though. At least he actually purchased two tickets and saw the film. Half the pissing and moaning I'm reading is coming from people who proudly declare they have no intentions of seeing this movie.
“Hey would he have been okay with the movie if Kyle was a native brown American?”
Carlos Hathcock did have native American blood.
No, they were firing flintlocks and arrows at my ancestor. No talk, all action.
Funny, I don’t remember this guy whining about Jude Law’s Enemy At the Gates as being dangerous.... What could possibly be the difference?? Hmmmm.
.........And that Dixon was part Indian!”
As was Carlos Hathcock.
Extrapolating his thinking, it is easy to see that his ultimate fantasy is shoving the white race into ovens.
Unrestrained, the left is truly that evil.
As opposed to Chief Blabbermouth that wrote the original post.
Good grief!
First of all, we “indigenous people” do NOT consider ourselves “Brown”. We are Red, and proud of it!
Second of all, many of us are VETERANS, love America, and Troop the Colors and salute the Flag before every Pow Wow or Tribal Council Meeting.
My little sister, who has gone tribal (Following Jesus on the “Red Road”) is more right wing than I am, and I’m slightly to the right of JenJis Khan!
Unfortunately, the vendor isles at our gatherings are clogged with these left-wing-new-age idjits who think that Native Culture includes crystals, wiccan spells, and Medieval Majick along with their incorrectly made dream-catchers!
Grrrr...they annoy me greatly!
In other words, he’s a Mexican.
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