Imagining Indians

Today in my film class, the students, all of whom are white, criticized their Anglo forefathers for being racist fascist. It went on for an hour. After we watched the 1936 version of "The Last of the Mohicans", the professor asked us to cite examples of ways in which Indians were depicted. Everyone seemed to have found something rasist about the film. One girl noted proudly..."The relationship the indians had with the animals made the indians out to be animals themselves. Like when the beaver warned the indian that the british were coming". The professor became a bobble head doll, "yes, yes, good example." I was thinking, is this for real?

But what really got me is this: The teacher pounded his hand on the table....BOOM, Boom, Boom, Boom....BOOM, boom, boom, boom. "This drum beat is a sterotypical portrayal of sacred Indian music..." I have no doubt that it is, but i am also not sure what that last sentence even means. A bright kid up in the front chimed in with an epiphany. "whoa you know what? i think that same drum beat was used in the Lord of the Rings for the Cave Orc's battle song." A girl next to him sighed. Peter Jackson is a rascist they all agreed. I am not kidding.

I got to thinking...

This class is titled "Imagining Indians". I wonder: Is it still ok in the United States to say what you want and laugh about it? Is it ok to just watch a movie for the pure pleasure? Is there such a thing as objectivity? Is it necessary to take life so seriously? Sitting there in the tiny little desk, i took out a scrap of notebook paper and scribbled the title that I would have given the class... "Imagining Ourselves".