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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Genocide, A Casino... What's the Difference? |
Current rating: 0 |
by Mike Lehman & FAIR via Dale Wertz
(No verified email address) |
17 Feb 2001
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"...gaudy new Indian casino will go up on the western edge of
Paxton alongside Interstate 57. They say an injustice is about to be
committed on them that will equal those inflicted on American Indians
throughout the 19th century." |
The Saturday News-Gazette has a front page article with picture and a screaming headline \"Plan Thwarts Tribe\'s Land Claims.\" The picture shows US Cingress Rep Tim Johnson and a rather green-around-the-gills House Speaker Dennis Hastert comisserating with a white landowner about Native American\'s prior claim to the land.
Although Hastert acknowledges that the claim is the federal government\'s responsibility, he and Johnson are not at the farm to talk about introducing a federal bill to compensate the the just claim off the Native American landwoners, but to introduce a bill that would further restrict the First American\'s rights under white man\'s law. After 500+ years of genocide, I guess the natives ought to be glad that it is only more legislative hot air that is being directed their way, rather than a formation of US Cavalry.
The Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting folks have an alert out about an even more disturbing piece of racially-slanted reporting that appeared in the Washington Post on Feb. 13. Their alert follows:
ACTION ALERT:
GENOCIDE, A CASINO... WHAT\'S THE DIFFERENCE?
Washington Post piece on \"greedy Indians\" exhibits ignorance of history
February 16, 2001
A Washington Post report on a lawsuit by the Miami Indian tribe to
regain ancestral lands in Illinois (2/13/01) severely trivialized the genocide
and ethnic cleansing faced by Native Americans. Post reporter William
Claiborne, attempting to put the dispute in context, wrote:
\"As in similar Indian property claims that have been growing in number
across the country, the historic roles of white men and Indians have
been reversed. White landowners are complaining that they are the victims of
a ruthless land grab by greedy Indians backed by a complicit federal
government.\"
When ethnic communities are in conflict, people involved often use
stereotypes to explain their situation. Reporters covering such
controversies no doubt often hear ethnic groups described as \"greedy,\"
\"lazy\" or in other pejorative terms. But responsible reporters don\'t
simply pass on such slurs, without comment, to their readers.
While an editor might eliminate a reporter\'s off-hand reference to
\"greedy Jews,\" \"greedy Koreans\" or the like, for some reason \"greedy Indians\"
seems not to have set off any warning bells at the Post.
After suggesting that the Miami tribe might settle its claims in
exchange for a relatively small amount of land and the right to build a casino,
Claiborne wrote:
\"Many of the 4,700 residents of this 150-year-old farming community of
ornate Victorian homes and leafy neighborhoods say they are fearful that
a gaudy new Indian casino will go up on the western edge of Paxton
alongside Interstate 57. They say an injustice is about to be committed on them
that will equal those inflicted on American Indians throughout the 19th century.\"
Is it really necessary to point out that having a casino in your
neighborhood-- even a \"gaudy new Indian casino,\" in Claiborne\'s
racialized phrase-- is in no way comparable to the mass killing and forced
displacement faced by Native Americans, not only in the 19th Century but for the last
several centuries? Yet this attitude is not only unquestioned, it
dominates the Washington Post\'s article, with no Indians or supporters of Indian
claims quoted until the 22nd paragraph of a 27-paragraph article.
With so little balance, the article comes across not only as a slanted
attack on tribal claims, but as a racist attack on Native Americans as
an ethnicity.
ACTION: Please contact Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler, and ask
him to review the February 13 report on the Miami Indian lawsuit. Ask him
to clarify that it is not the Post\'s policy to republish ethnic slurs without
context, or to equate casino-building with genocidal crimes against
Native Americans.
CONTACT:
Michael Getler, Ombudsman
mailto:ombudsman (at) washpost.com
The Washington Post
150 15th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20071.
William Claiborne, Staff writer
mailto:claiborneb (at) washpost.com
As always, please remember that your comments will be more effective if
you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair (at) fair.org with your
correspondence. |
See also:
http://www.fair.org
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