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Why is this film so important in its depiction of outdated and corrosive white conservative male values?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.
isles=Aisles.
Yes Indeed.
Ward Churchill is another one.
He's got a point. I only get reminded of this about 10x a day.
We need a reminder every hour on the hour...
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!”
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.
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.
LOL...more redneck than redskin! that would be me! hahaha!
I thought LSD went out of style decades ago.
Brown?
I thought they were all Redskins.
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!
Amen. A gift from the Almighty.
Clint Eastwood is a national treasure.
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.
Yep, that's me. Fightin' Whitey ... When we get all worked up, whole CONTINENTS burn. Don't forget it, jackass.
LOL!!! Bump!!!
{^)
I’m still working on brown native part of the guys rant
That poor boy. He doesn’t stand a chance.
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