Monday, September 26, 2005
The Last Indian in the World
The Last Indian in the World
When all is
said and done,
there are no hearts left
in the world
but white heart beads,
fragments of broken glass,
china cups
chipped and worn in places where teeth
stain the delicate
turquoise rims.
We need the cups,
she says,
to remember the land,
to remember the place
where from before you came,
a distant memory
alive in the mines that
shine silver,
or some other precious
metal. Skin color,
perhaps,
named for the place
buried in the heart
of your mother,
where ashes now reside
bones picked clean by the
insistent digging of things
not claimed, but stolen,
and you will walk these streets
knowing your claim
will never be
acquiesced.
You speak
for the nation,
she said,
but how can I speak
when the words
cut from my mouth,
lost on a tongue
for whom language
has been lost?
the last Indian in the world
cannot speak for shit.
When she opens her mouth,
blood comes forth
and nothing
can ever replace
what has been lost,
broken,
mined for shine
that never will
be found.
9/24/05
Los Angeles
© Carolyn Dunn 2005
When all is
said and done,
there are no hearts left
in the world
but white heart beads,
fragments of broken glass,
china cups
chipped and worn in places where teeth
stain the delicate
turquoise rims.
We need the cups,
she says,
to remember the land,
to remember the place
where from before you came,
a distant memory
alive in the mines that
shine silver,
or some other precious
metal. Skin color,
perhaps,
named for the place
buried in the heart
of your mother,
where ashes now reside
bones picked clean by the
insistent digging of things
not claimed, but stolen,
and you will walk these streets
knowing your claim
will never be
acquiesced.
You speak
for the nation,
she said,
but how can I speak
when the words
cut from my mouth,
lost on a tongue
for whom language
has been lost?
the last Indian in the world
cannot speak for shit.
When she opens her mouth,
blood comes forth
and nothing
can ever replace
what has been lost,
broken,
mined for shine
that never will
be found.
9/24/05
Los Angeles
© Carolyn Dunn 2005
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Responsibility and the media
From my friends and colleagues Wendy and Michelle... (wendycheng.com)---
______________________________
Katrina and the Media
By Wendy Cheng and Michelle Commander
What is the ethical responsibility of the media when a natural disaster strikes? In the wake of Katrina, print and television media filled almost immediately with images of “looting,” “disorder,” “lawlessness” and “urban warfare.”
Especially in post-Rodney King Los Angeles, we cannot escape the fact that these words evoke a class- and racially coded vision of urban “race riots.” Defaulting to the language of this vision justifies government negligence and seriously compromises the ability of the general public to empathize with all victims.
The depiction of New Orleans as a “menacing landscape of disorder and fear” (AP) overshadows the conditions of poverty and segregation which trapped Katrina refugees in a flooding city in the first place.
Similarly, comparisons of the situation in New Orleans to Haiti and “other Third-World trouble spots” (Reuters) evoke fears of violent rebellion and so-called primitivism, suggesting that the rights and values of Katrina “refugees” are somehow alien to those of other Americans.
Language choices are not just matters of political correctness (if, in fact, political correctness is ever “just” political correctness), nor are they arbitrary. They are drawn from specific histories of racial conflict and have real consequences.
Certainly covering a disaster of such proportions involves tremendous difficulties and urgencies. Responsible reportage alone cannot correct a long history of systemic inequalities.
However, all members of the media must be cognizant of the potential racial and historical implications of their depictions. Refraining from evoking and thereby perpetuating harmful racial stereotypes would be a start.
# # #
more later...
______________________________
Katrina and the Media
By Wendy Cheng and Michelle Commander
What is the ethical responsibility of the media when a natural disaster strikes? In the wake of Katrina, print and television media filled almost immediately with images of “looting,” “disorder,” “lawlessness” and “urban warfare.”
Especially in post-Rodney King Los Angeles, we cannot escape the fact that these words evoke a class- and racially coded vision of urban “race riots.” Defaulting to the language of this vision justifies government negligence and seriously compromises the ability of the general public to empathize with all victims.
The depiction of New Orleans as a “menacing landscape of disorder and fear” (AP) overshadows the conditions of poverty and segregation which trapped Katrina refugees in a flooding city in the first place.
Similarly, comparisons of the situation in New Orleans to Haiti and “other Third-World trouble spots” (Reuters) evoke fears of violent rebellion and so-called primitivism, suggesting that the rights and values of Katrina “refugees” are somehow alien to those of other Americans.
Language choices are not just matters of political correctness (if, in fact, political correctness is ever “just” political correctness), nor are they arbitrary. They are drawn from specific histories of racial conflict and have real consequences.
Certainly covering a disaster of such proportions involves tremendous difficulties and urgencies. Responsible reportage alone cannot correct a long history of systemic inequalities.
However, all members of the media must be cognizant of the potential racial and historical implications of their depictions. Refraining from evoking and thereby perpetuating harmful racial stereotypes would be a start.
# # #
more later...
