Saturday, February 21, 2004
Alien Americans
Native Americans groups have protested that Andre 3000's performance at the Grammy's was full of demeaning stereotypes.. I am hard put to see it. Was his performance full of negative Native American stereotypes? Did anyone pantomime scalping somebody? Did anyone walk around pretending to be stumbling drunk? These are the traditional stereotypes that I recognize that are used to demean Native Americans. What I saw was a dynamic performer with the most energized performance of the night, and it was fun. And it had a stylized Native American motif that I think everyone could see was not based in any type of historical accuracy. I mean, the teepee was made of metal and descended from the sky like a space capsule!
Looking at the full message from the originator of the boycott, I think we can see the main motivation for this action. After stating he found the number racist, it was also "very tacky". IMO, his negative opinion is more based on his opinion of the musical style and performance, and tacked on a declaration of the performance as being racist as a flashpoint to drive his opinion home to those who otherwise wouldn't have thought twice about it.
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