To gain a true understanding of Native Americans and their culture, historians must not only examine the trials and tribulations Indians endured in the past, but also the contemporary issues the group faces. Currently, physical illnesses, psychological disorders, economic instability, and negative stereotypes continue to plague Native American communities. Popular sayings, like “Indians will be Indians” and “noble savages,” continue to haunt the culture. The use of the stereotypical Indian or “uncivilized savage” in toys, books, cars, foods, and sports teams, demonstrates how the American society is unfortunately accustomed to the prevalent stereotypes against Native Americans. The
“Passport Photos” by Amitava Kumar is an excerpt combining poetry and photography, and making it into a cultural analysis over immigrant conditions. The author explains complicated situations that immigrants have had to deal with when they step towards the U.S. and one of the main conflicts will be language. This piece has described historical moments, such as mentioning “Alfred Arteaga” and the irony of deportation and printing, cultural critiques, and the reality when it comes to the Hispanic cultures. Kumar reflects his book based on a significant image saying “Caution” in English and “Prohibido” in Spanish. In other words, the sign is telling citizens, “Caution”: be careful by avoiding danger, but then it is telling immigrant’s “Prohibido”,
Part One: This summer I read six chapters in Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann. Three chapters that stood out to me the most were chapters 1,2 and 6. Although these chapters are different from each other each one of them showed me a different focus. Each of these chapters had a different level of importance and stood out to me. Chapter five is most important to me. During this chapter we learn about fourteen year old Fernando’s real passion. Although he works in his step fathers barber shop, that is not what he really wants to do. His real passion is taking photos of the graffiti art found in the tunnels of the New York subways. He loves the underground tags most because it is more brave to do it in the tunnels than the wall above
The first television series on the NBC network starred a Native American as a law enforcer of white law and order. Now, Native Americans were viewed as civilized men. More films were made that promoted Native Americans. Though the positive stereotypes were introduced, it still didn’t warrant problems. In the 1971 Advertising Council’s Keep America Beautiful public service announcement is sincere, it still confines the Native American chief to the past, as he is representing a by-gone era and a by-gone people. As with other stereotypes with other cultures, the Native American stereotype needs to be addressed by the
Once European men stepped foot onto what is now known as North America, the lives of the Native Americans were forever changed. The Indians suffered centuries of torment and ridicule from the settlers in America. Despite the reservations made for the Natives, there are still cultural issues occurring within America. In Sherman Alexie’s, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, the tragic lives of Native Americans in modern society are depicted in a collection of short stories taking place in the Spokane Reservation in Washington state. Throughout the collection, a prominent and reoccurring melancholic theme of racism against Native Americans and their struggle to cope with such behavior from their counterpart in this modern day and age is shown.
In the Chicano movement art was used through murals and poems to combat racism. The poem “I am Joaquin” was used to “exemplify the Chicano faith and strength of their community” (Quest for a Home Land). This was a tool to combat racism through the use of creative writing, thus showing the peaceful manner of the Chicano movement. The murals created by Chicano community exemplified their struggle in an Anglo American society and peaceful beauty of their culture that was once thought to be “savage and violent” (Mann, 15). In history our ancestor’s artistic expression was similar to the Chicano art to show our strength and pride of who we are, but early historians showed it as something “violent and uncultured” (Jackson, 10/20/15). A great example of the murals created was the development of Chicano park in San Diego, California. The Chicano turned the negatives of the area into something with hope, similar to how they took the term Chicano and turned it
Chicano art possesses a true aesthetic, mirroring a diverse and ever-changing Chicago reality. Today's Chicano art is multipurpose and multifaceted, social and psychological, American in character and universal in spirit. Chicago is considered as people's art movement, outside of museums and hierarchy, so it continues to establish radical or protest art. Since most Chicano artist continue to be rejected for the creative works due to cultural bias therefore, Chicano art does not appear in museums, alternatively motivating the tension between artists and art authority. Chicano art can be expressed as the experiences Chicanos went through by deciphering codes in images, signs, and symbols. Although Chicano artists continue to address social justice
In the 21st century, Native American culture is largely represented by mascots. Issues of isolation, education, and alcoholism continue to plague Native American reservations, but these issues are largely ignored by the general public. Instead, much of the battleground relating to Native American rights has centered on where they are most visible--sports. In “Racism American Style…,” Elizabeth Delacruz presents the problems with the mainstream portrayal of Native Americans. She uses four examples of problematic mascots to support her claim that racist imagery depicting Native Americans continues to be prevalent in American society. She then focuses on what she believes should be done about it, ending her piece by calling on art educators to emphasize historically accurate representations of Native Americans.
Support: Art is a way to express emotion and pain. It is better than self harm and taking anger out on others in the form of assault.
Brent Staples in his article “Black men and Public Space” used an effective amount of rhetorical devices and strategies to develop his claim. The message of the article is to vocialize how Black men are overrepresented as thugs and gangsters and when they’re in public spaces they are treated as such. In the article, Staples pulled from his own experiences and give examples of other peoples instances with this issue. However he did it in such a way using rhetorical devices that strengthen his point and gave the reader something to think about. At some points of the article the reader may have even gotten offended or maybe felt guilty about doing some of the things that he brings up.
Alcatraz Island has had a long history of being a place of Incarceration, a place where all American outcasts (Indian and non-Indian) where sent to be put away, far from society. Yet, Natives managed to make Alcatraz a symbol of unity within the Indian community and also a symbol of resistance against Anglo colonist. Indians have managed to change a symbol of isolation into a symbol of brotherhood and peoplehood. With the occupations of Alcatraz Island Indigenous people raised awareness amongst themselves to stand together in achieving sovereignty, while also raising awareness amongst non-Indian communities about Indian discrimination. It is worth nothing that the movements “changed the
“wow!” I thought as I stood amazed trying to analyze the significance through each piece of art. Art has always been a form of expression. Although art has been seen as a way of freedom of speech; it did not begin to show up until the 1960’s when their art made by minorities started to be appreciated. MOLAA museum shows an important aspect of U.S. history. These exhibits exclusively made by chicano artists from Southern California, show freedom of speech and social problems such as immigration that the artists believe are present in the United States. These art pieces are aided by its use of objects, how it curates those objects, and use of space to create a relationship between viewer create many historical arguments about the significance
In August 2011, when Jack Shakely’s article “Indian mascots — you're out” first appeared on the op-ed page of the LA Times in August 2011, I was attending college in China as a member of a minority nationality. On campus, the majority students, which are the Han nationality, often laughed at the customs of ethnic minorities. It is so similar to the status of the Native American that I support Shakely’s assertions that we should leave the logos of minority out of school. In his article, Shakely elaborated that the first lesson he learned from his mother about the Indians portrayed as sports team mascots left an indelible impression on him; likewise, he mentioned about the controversy between the tribe and some universities about the use of Native
In chapter three of Guisela LaTorre’s book Walls of Empowerment, she discusses the problems with graffiti and mural art and compares graffiti to mural art. She also discusses the gender inequality within graffiti artists and muralists, the influences of graffiti on LA, and east coast influences on muralists in the 1980s. Finally, she concludes that although mural art gains more approval than graffiti, both art forms serve to reclaim space in which the government and society traditionally denied to disfranchised
Artist Andy Warhol once declared, “Art is anything you can get away with.” Street art has had a rough history with lots of controversy over the topic of being considered an art in the art world. Most people think graffiti is just silly and has little meaning. The style graffiti portrays makes it stick out from the rest of the art styles because it has creative lettering and abstract images that are painted on walls around the globe. Graffiti should be considered art because it has lots of popularity, it has a message, and it is very creative.