the portrayal of Native Americans in television

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP7JHo-pX28&feature=related

In this series of Mad TV skits, a black actor portrays a Native American character named Eddie Thundercloud. The skits depict Native Americans through countless racist stereotypes including the use of a bad accent, generic “Indian” clothing, and a teepee. The skits make reference to alcoholism and drug addictions among Native Americans, and to low-paying Casino jobs that many Native Americans have resorted to. In one particular instance, he mocks Native American languages, and the dialogue of the main character and his “supporters” implies that Native Americans are violent. The scenes where Thundercloud is naked reinforce the stereotype of Native Americans as savage. While these skits were presented as part of a comedy show, it is an example of stereotypical treatment of Native Americans which was described in Chapter 4 of Larson’s “Media and Minorities” as a technique that “…haphazardly combines different tribes’ dress, religious rituals, speech, and physical stature to create a hybrid Hollywood Indian” (46). Being specific to no tribe of Native Americans, it creates a single outsider’s perspective of the entire ethnicity of people disregarding the distinct cultural differences that exist between them. One of the main issues that Larson points out about the portrayal of Native Americans in film is that they typically use a white main character’s point of view to tell the story. In the case of these skits, the Native Americans are imitated based on the views that African Americans and whites have of them.