Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Indigenous people and animals: same thing.

You know these albums with figurines that are always going around. There's one about animals very popular this year. I puts a picture of a "weird" or "cute" animal with some short information about it.

It also has several pictures like this:

And yes, I can't turn the picture around.


Nice, huh? The objectification of oppressed people is nothing new. Nor is it new that they are presented as
absolute idiots. (Notice smart expression of the man).                                                                                 
My sister showed me the figurine saying: "Look! I got the idiot one! This one's rare!"        
I did point out it was racist, but I doubt the point got across.


                           An animal.

1 comment:

  1. It goes to show that nothing ever changes in the education arena. They still think that minorities are black people in traditional garb who do war dances (and the Haka (pronounced: Har-khar) is a dance of war; designed to put fear and dread into its enemy. But then, there's over 300 types of Hakas for all kinds of things and reasons). I've been to New Zealand seen its beauty... and it's not a minority country.
    But then, I've been to Vanuatu - which isn't a rich country - and yet their Vanuatuans are lovely people who come from one of the poorest areas in the world.

    What they teach you in school isn't what's really out there. Take it all with a grain of salt and make sure you travel a lot when you have the time and money to do so. It's a wonderful experience.

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