tags: genocide

2002

October

2002 Oct 28

The Way of the Gun

Don’t shoot, shoot, shoot that thing at me.

· Read more…

2006

November

2006 Nov 23

in memory of indigenous peoples

Much like Columbus Day, Thanksgiving Day has the taint of Western Imperialism on it. It’s just the sad fact of history, and I do try my best not to make too much of it. Just like black people can reclaim the word “nigger,” and gay and lesbian people can reclaim the word “queer,” perhaps we people of color can simply re-appropriate Thanksgiving Day and recreate it so that it doesn’t underscore nor elide the destruction of indigenous culture, and perhaps still be a meaningful day of thanksgiving.

· Read more…

2011

March

2011 Mar 5

why did don quixote cross the road?

The Western genre as treated by Hollywood is itself like a cultural palimpsest. Long before Hollywood was even a metonymic signifier for the entertainment industry, the westward expansion and the genocidal Indian Wars driven by Manifest Destiny were already the equivalent of America's Dark Ages, at the very least in the sense that mythology and legend could be easily inserted into that period without running too much afoul of history. (Like how Europe's Dark Ages are ornamented by King Arthur, and Roland and the paladins of Charlemagne, and the lost Ninth Roman Legion beyond Hadrian's Wall, to name a few that come easily to mind.)

· Read more…

2016

April

2016 Apr 18

Getting Rid of Andrew Jackson

It's kind of hilarious that the popularity of "Hamilton" seems to have ensured that Alexander Hamilton will stay on the $10 bill.

· Read more…