Stereotypes In Peter Pan

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Recommended: Stereotypical Native American roles in media and literature

Native Americans have been mistreated and taken advantage of as time went on in United States history. I remember when I was a kid sitting down eating my Cheetos watching Peter Pan and Pocahontas singing along to all of the songs in the movie. Since taking diversity classes in high school, I rewatched those movies and realized how awful they make Native Americans look and act. It’s been throughout the whole United States history that we have treated them unfairly from the Dawes act, stealing their land, and the way we use them in movies. We have falsely portrayed their views for our entertainment, which is wrong. The Native population are an important part of United States history that has been misrepresented due to pop culture being shown …show more content…

Disney is a huge contributor to the misleading ideas and the way we view the Native population. In the movie Peter Pan with the scene showing the “Indians” they completely exaggerate their skin tone to make it a darkish red look. Not only is the skin tone altered, but they top it off with the iconic feather in the back of their hair. Another stereotype would be their actions during the movie when they put a hand over their mouth to make the whooping sound and dance around. I asked Sebastian Hunt, a member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, what he thought of the clip I showed him of Peter Pan with the “Indians”. He replied, “ Wow I think it’s funny and sad that that's how the producers thought of the Native population when making the movie showing kids that's how we act, dance and most importantly look when in reality it’s not true at all.” That's not the only movie that Disney came out with that falsely portrays Natives. In Pocahontas they show the Natives as savages and even have a chant/song in the movie stating they are savages, barely even humans and dirty freaking devils. This is only one way that Western pop culture has brainwashed Americans to believe in such …show more content…

I asked Sebastian about the big controversy about the Redskins logo and more importantly their name. “ I find their name very racist because if it would have been named the “Blackskins” everyone would immediately know that is wrong and it would get changed instantly. It sucks people don't see it the way I do and the fact that it's the nation's capital football team makes it ten times worse. Also, the word Redskins was put in newspapers for bounties against Native Americans, so how isn't it derogatory?”. Schools and sports teams just shouldn't be able to use Native Americans as a mascot to represent their community. Why is it that we place the name “Indians” in the same category as lions or bulls? It’s not right that we use them as a mascot. They are people just like everyone else. If schools and sports teams use them they should have to ask permission from the tribe to “honor” them. The Florida St. Seminoles are an example of that. They asked permission to honor the Seminoles by using their name and a Seminole Native American as a mascot. The mascot is actually a member of the Seminole tribe riding out on a horse named Renegade before

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