This Blog is a resource tool for the students taking the "FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES" elective at Westborough High School, Westborough, Massachusetts.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
PERIOD 3 - WHITE MAN'S IMAGE
We watched the film, In the White Man's Image - please post your thoughts about the film and make sure to comment on at least one other student's post.
44 comments:
Laura Hetherman
said...
This movie made me upset over the fact that "white people" are looked at as such good people in society but when you look into our past, we not. This movie reminded me of the Holocaust, killing people and torturing people just because of their race. The thing that made me really sad was that, unlike the Holocaust, this time in history was just looked over and is not taught in depth today like the Holocaust is.
After watching this movie, I don’t think it was fair for the "the white man" to take the Native Americans from their homes. The Native Americans felt inferior towards the "white people". I felt that it was unnecessary for the Native Americans had to learn a whole new life style just because of their race. The "white people" have no reason to act superior to the Native Americans. They were separated from their families and had a difficult life adjusting to the new life style.
I agree with what Laura said about the fact that "white people" are always seen as the superior in society. The other cultures are made inferior when compared to them. I also agree with her that this movie reminded me of the Holocaust. People were tortured and had to suffer a great deal. I am glad this movie is being shown because I think people need to be aware of what happens in our society and realize that "white people" are not always superior.
I agree with Jenna when she stated, "I felt that is was unnecessary for the Native Americans to learn a whole new life style just because of their race". Every human being is different and everyone believes in different things. These differences allow society to be diverse, the way it should be.
I was taken back by the fact that even before WWII we basically had a concentration camp for the natives of America. We changed their identity in a fort for soliders, who they were was gone without consent. The fact that the "white man's" greed of land overcame the rational that these people were here first and no diplomatic resolve or any peaceful reslove could be made. America is blind and seen as a flawless country because of the strong nationalism but we should be ashamed to shed a blind eye to essentially keep the reputation on the events that occured because they were bad.
I, too, agree with Jenna that "The "white people" have no reason to act superior to the Native Americans." Essentially the "white man" was the bully, (or to fit an earlier time frame) acting as the british trying to take the land of the colonists, the colonists being the natives. It was unfare and not justifiable.
The thing that bother me most was just about how white people just assumed it was their land. They came over to this new land and claimed it their own with these documents by how they used to do it England. the natives were basically forced out of their own land because we wanted it and that to me is extremely unfair. now granted if people hadn't done the screwed up things that they did we might be here today or we might live in a completely different world. It isn't right though that we forced the natives to assimilate to our culture. America prides itself on being the melting pot of the world, where we accept everyone for who they are, what their cultural beliefs are, so on so forth. But thats not true. And we saw proof of that today. Like laura said, this chapter in the american history book is just another page. and im sure there are plenty more meaniful events that needed to be taken more notice too.
The movie “White Man’s Image,” told a story that could also describe other events in history. Sadly, I think this is not just a problem where “white people” think that they are superior. Most people think that their opinion is the right one. Even though they may have thought it best, it was not what was best for the Native Americans.
This movie showed how unfair it was for the native americans during this time. No person or group of people should be striped of their culture by another group. Everyone should be able to look and act how they want without any conflict. I also find it some what disturbing that this "white man's image" was an experiment that took away peoples identity.
The movie “White Man’s Image,” was sad. Even though I did not have civic agency to it, I still felt bad for the Native Americans. I especially felt bad when the chief asked the man whether he would want to go across country and leave his family behind.
I agree with Jenna, the Native Americans should not have been treated as a inferior to the whites. They shouldnt have had to change their whole life style and shouldnt have been separated from their families. The way they were treated was unjust and was for and experiment, but what was the purpose of the experiment.
This movie "White Man's Image" really made me sad and upset. To me, this movie reminds the Japanese forced occupation the Korea 1910-1945, as a Korean. Coerce to cut men's hair, dressing the other clothes not their own traditional clothes, drafting into the army, killing the people. These are so similar with Native Americans' sad history. So I feel sympathy to their grief. The white people in that time, they gave torments to Native Americans just because of the race. So, that reminds me the Holocaust. During watching this movie, even I felt like cry. I didn't know deeply about the past history of Native Americans. However, this film has made me know the hidden Native Americans' sad history and I want to know more about their history. There is no superior race or inferior race in the world. All people are same.
I agree with what Brian said – “No person or group of people should be stripped of their culture by another group.” I also think that nobody should be forced to believe in something they do not believe in or act the way other people want them to act, unless their actions could actually hurt another person.
This film was terribly sad; just like every other film that I've seen about the Native Americans. It's horrible how we treated these people, and I think it's good that we never forget and that people make so many films on that topic. The whole idea of turning Native Americans into "white men" was a horrifying idea, but at least at this point some people actually acknowledged the Native Americans as people. Before watching that film I had only known the Native Americans as being referred to as savages no more compatible with the white man than apes, or lions. It was an awful idea, that they would totally change somebody's identity and mold it into their own image, but the slow progress towards the acceptance of Native American culture began rolling forward.
This movie relates to the hunting one in the way we try to make other people like oursleves. Steve's father wanted steve to hunt just like him. This case is a little more extreme by turning an entire culture into someone they can never really be. The native americans are supposed to become the image of a white man, but it goes against their entire lifestyle.
The way that the white men took away the Native Americans land shows the superiority that the Americans feel towards everybody else. They assume that the Native Americans are not as good as them because they are different. Its not right to make somebody change themselves because they are different and it is not right to force them to change. The Americans had no right in taking the Native Americans land because we don't have the right to claim land just because we feel that we are better then those people.
i agree with James that this movie was so sad because before the film i also thought of Native Americans like savages as well because of the stereotype that people have always put on them. It's horrible to see that us Americans would take over their land and try to change them to the "common white man."
My feelings after watching "White Man's Image" were twisted because, this is our history, the country that we live in, and we are supposed to embrace who we are. This makes me upset that, at will, Americans snatched up people from their homes and deemed their life style to be inferior to ours. I agree with Jenna that it was totally wrong for the white man to physically take the Native Americans from their land and their loved ones. It's hard to grasp how they learned to cope with the fact that their lives would never be the same.
When I watched "White Man's Image", I was sort of shocked. It was pretty much psychological manipulation to human beings that had no choice in the matter. I really sort of connected with the whole situation because I was pulled out of my home and shipped across the country and brainwashed for four months. I thought it was crazy to keep these people like this for so long, slowly changing their states of mind and completely ruining them, because no longer can they function as a normal American Indian but they will also never truly fit in with the white society.
I agree with brian when he said "the Native Americans should not have been treated as a inferior to the whites. They shouldnt have had to change their whole life style and shouldnt have been separated from their families. The way they were treated was unjust"
I thought the film was rather interesting in the way that it told of an event that I had no knowledge of at all before hand. I have never seen a film or any type of reading which portrayed moving the Native Americans out of their land from that view point before. I was also a little surprised that these white settlers could look at these Native American people and just see savages and not the people that they really are.
I agree with Brian when he says that no group or type of people should be striped of their culture like what happened to these Native Americans. There is nothing that makes any culture superior to others so they should all be equally respected.
I like you're point, Evan, about how they were basically brainwashing these people. They just pounded their ideas and morals into their heads, thinking that they were really helping them out by destroying their identities. It's strange how the white man always feels like he is helping out when he is destroying another culture.
I thought this film was sad because it showed an aspect of the American history that is often overlooked: the destruction of the Native Americans and their culture. In this particular film, the Americans were trying to force their ideas upon the Native Americans and make them forget their own way of life. The whites had no right to think their way of life was better and it was very unfair of them to do this to these Native Americans.
I thought the movie was powerful in its exposure of this assimilation experiment. Although horrific in its abuse of Native American culture, the experiment provided valuable experience and helped to demonstrate the disgusting nature of any attempt to strip a people of their identity and any effort to inject them with a new one. I agree with Nick Ferretti that watching the movie provoked almost a sense of shame or guilt at our ancestry and perhaps even a fear towards our capability to do such things again.
It was sad to watch as the Native Americans were stripped of their cutrual identity. It's not fair that these Natives were forced to assimilate the "white man's image" without any form of representation. The ignorance towards natives contradicts the foundation of the American country in that all men are created equal. Innocent lives were taken while others were morphed to fit the lifestlye of the "white men".
I agree with Evan in that it was completely unfair to force the natives to assimilate because even if they were changed to fit the criteria of the "white man's image", they would never really be accepted by the real white men in society.
Through my history courses, I was aware that Native Americans were severely discriminated against and forced to assimilate to the American culture. However, this movie really opened my eyes to how bad they had it. The "White People" come across as the bad guys here, and quite frankly, they were. It's sad to see that even in a country where every man is supposed to be equal, things like this have happened in their past. It shows how quietly the systematic and deliberate killing of people or their identities can occur.
I found Evan's point very interesting but also very true. The "White People" did try to brainwash the Native Americans and make them truly act like and believe that they are someone who they are not.
I felt that the native americans should have been left alone instead of forced to conform to our american lifestyle. In doing so we destroyed a culture that we could have learned a lot from. They were not doing anything wrong it was just that people in the US didn't want them around because they believed they (the white man) were superior to the native americans. Even when the native americans were americanized into the modern age, people still looked down upon them and felt superior.
I agree with Laura, this time was a terrible time and very little is taught about it in classes. I believe that she is right in saying it is similar to the Holocaust and I wish more of it was taught in our History classes. This is especially disheartening because this event took place on our land, therefor we should be taught a great deal about what the "white man" did to the native americans and the hardships the native americans had to endure.
After watching this video, I was very upset watching the white people take away the Native Americans from their homes. I felt that it was unfair for the white people to try and turn the Native Americans into what they felt would be more civilized people. By doing this, they were taking away the Native Americans' identities.
I also agree with Laura. I feel that this was a very important time in history that we should remember, but it is overlooked by society, unlike the Holocaust. But i think that this event is just as important as the Holocaust because we see the "white men" trying to take over another group of people and transform them so everyone will be how they feel a "civilized American" should be.
I found this movie to be shocking not just because of what the white man did to the Indian but the fact that I have never really heard of this happening. Everyone thinks of how bad the Nazi's were but we were doing horrible stuff to and we like to think of ourself as the world leader in justice and peace.
I thought this movie was very informative. I had no idea of the terror Americans put the Native Americans through. I think this was aweful what we did, especially the part about how the Native American parents were given false hope that they would get their children back when really, it was all a lie.
I completely agree with Tom Rafferty. We think that what the Nazi's did to the jews was absolutely horrific, yet we don't even think about what American's did to the Native Americans.
This movie that we watched made me very sad because of what the white man had done to the Native Americans, they pretty much took everything away from these Native Americans. The Native Americans didn't even have a chance to fight back they were stripped away everything from their culture, just because the "white people" wanted to be superior and the dominant race/people.
I agree with Tyler's points about how the "white man" should have just left the Native Americans alone. I also agree with his point about how the "white man" could have learned a lot from the Native American culture.
44 comments:
This movie made me upset over the fact that "white people" are looked at as such good people in society but when you look into our past, we not. This movie reminded me of the Holocaust, killing people and torturing people just because of their race. The thing that made me really sad was that, unlike the Holocaust, this time in history was just looked over and is not taught in depth today like the Holocaust is.
After watching this movie, I don’t think it was fair for the "the white man" to take the Native Americans from their homes. The Native Americans felt inferior towards the "white people". I felt that it was unnecessary for the Native Americans had to learn a whole new life style just because of their race. The "white people" have no reason to act superior to the Native Americans. They were separated from their families and had a difficult life adjusting to the new life style.
I agree with what Laura said about the fact that "white people" are always seen as the superior in society. The other cultures are made inferior when compared to them. I also agree with her that this movie reminded me of the Holocaust. People were tortured and had to suffer a great deal. I am glad this movie is being shown because I think people need to be aware of what happens in our society and realize that "white people" are not always superior.
I agree with Jenna when she stated, "I felt that is was unnecessary for the Native Americans to learn a whole new life style just because of their race". Every human being is different and everyone believes in different things. These differences allow society to be diverse, the way it should be.
I was taken back by the fact that even before WWII we basically had a concentration camp for the natives of America. We changed their identity in a fort for soliders, who they were was gone without consent. The fact that the "white man's" greed of land overcame the rational that these people were here first and no diplomatic resolve or any peaceful reslove could be made. America is blind and seen as a flawless country because of the strong nationalism but we should be ashamed to shed a blind eye to essentially keep the reputation on the events that occured because they were bad.
I, too, agree with Jenna that "The "white people" have no reason to act superior to the Native Americans." Essentially the "white man" was the bully, (or to fit an earlier time frame) acting as the british trying to take the land of the colonists, the colonists being the natives. It was unfare and not justifiable.
The thing that bother me most was just about how white people just assumed it was their land. They came over to this new land and claimed it their own with these documents by how they used to do it England. the natives were basically forced out of their own land because we wanted it and that to me is extremely unfair. now granted if people hadn't done the screwed up things that they did we might be here today or we might live in a completely different world. It isn't right though that we forced the natives to assimilate to our culture. America prides itself on being the melting pot of the world, where we accept everyone for who they are, what their cultural beliefs are, so on so forth. But thats not true. And we saw proof of that today. Like laura said, this chapter in the american history book is just another page. and im sure there are plenty more meaniful events that needed to be taken more notice too.
The movie “White Man’s Image,” told a story that could also describe other events in history. Sadly, I think this is not just a problem where “white people” think that they are superior. Most people think that their opinion is the right one. Even though they may have thought it best, it was not what was best for the Native Americans.
This movie showed how unfair it was for the native americans during this time. No person or group of people should be striped of their culture by another group. Everyone should be able to look and act how they want without any conflict. I also find it some what disturbing that this "white man's image" was an experiment that took away peoples identity.
The movie “White Man’s Image,” was sad. Even though I did not have civic agency to it, I still felt bad for the Native Americans. I especially felt bad when the chief asked the man whether he would want to go across country and leave his family behind.
I think Brendan made a good point. Even when people think that they are doing what is right, it is only through their eyes that they are seeing.
I agree with Jenna, the Native Americans should not have been treated as a inferior to the whites. They shouldnt have had to change their whole life style and shouldnt have been separated from their families. The way they were treated was unjust and was for and experiment, but what was the purpose of the experiment.
This movie "White Man's Image" really made me sad and upset. To me, this movie reminds the Japanese forced occupation the Korea 1910-1945, as a Korean. Coerce to cut men's hair, dressing the other clothes not their own traditional clothes, drafting into the army, killing the people. These are so similar with Native Americans' sad history. So I feel sympathy to their grief. The white people in that time, they gave torments to Native Americans just because of the race. So, that reminds me the Holocaust. During watching this movie, even I felt like cry. I didn't know deeply about the past history of Native Americans. However, this film has made me know the hidden Native Americans' sad history and I want to know more about their history. There is no superior race or inferior race in the world. All people are same.
I agree with what Brian said – “No person or group of people should be stripped of their culture by another group.” I also think that nobody should be forced to believe in something they do not believe in or act the way other people want them to act, unless their actions could actually hurt another person.
I was absent for this film on the day it was shown
This film was terribly sad; just like every other film that I've seen about the Native Americans. It's horrible how we treated these people, and I think it's good that we never forget and that people make so many films on that topic. The whole idea of turning Native Americans into "white men" was a horrifying idea, but at least at this point some people actually acknowledged the Native Americans as people. Before watching that film I had only known the Native Americans as being referred to as savages no more compatible with the white man than apes, or lions. It was an awful idea, that they would totally change somebody's identity and mold it into their own image, but the slow progress towards the acceptance of Native American culture began rolling forward.
This movie relates to the hunting one in the way we try to make other people like oursleves. Steve's father wanted steve to hunt just like him. This case is a little more extreme by turning an entire culture into someone they can never really be. The native americans are supposed to become the image of a white man, but it goes against their entire lifestyle.
I agree with Brian. The native americans had to leave their culture and become someone their not, and that's just wrong in my opinion
The way that the white men took away the Native Americans land shows the superiority that the Americans feel towards everybody else. They assume that the Native Americans are not as good as them because they are different. Its not right to make somebody change themselves because they are different and it is not right to force them to change. The Americans had no right in taking the Native Americans land because we don't have the right to claim land just because we feel that we are better then those people.
i agree with James that this movie was so sad because before the film i also thought of Native Americans like savages as well because of the stereotype that people have always put on them. It's horrible to see that us Americans would take over their land and try to change them to the "common white man."
My feelings after watching "White Man's Image" were twisted because, this is our history, the country that we live in, and we are supposed to embrace who we are. This makes me upset that, at will, Americans snatched up people from their homes and deemed their life style to be inferior to ours. I agree with Jenna that it was totally wrong for the white man to physically take the Native Americans from their land and their loved ones. It's hard to grasp how they learned to cope with the fact that their lives would never be the same.
When I watched "White Man's Image", I was sort of shocked. It was pretty much psychological manipulation to human beings that had no choice in the matter. I really sort of connected with the whole situation because I was pulled out of my home and shipped across the country and brainwashed for four months. I thought it was crazy to keep these people like this for so long, slowly changing their states of mind and completely ruining them, because no longer can they function as a normal American Indian but they will also never truly fit in with the white society.
I agree with brian when he said "the Native Americans should not have been treated as a inferior to the whites. They shouldnt have had to change their whole life style and shouldnt have been separated from their families. The way they were treated was unjust"
I thought the film was rather interesting in the way that it told of an event that I had no knowledge of at all before hand. I have never seen a film or any type of reading which portrayed moving the Native Americans out of their land from that view point before. I was also a little surprised that these white settlers could look at these Native American people and just see savages and not the people that they really are.
I agree with Brian when he says that no group or type of people should be striped of their culture like what happened to these Native Americans. There is nothing that makes any culture superior to others so they should all be equally respected.
I like you're point, Evan, about how they were basically brainwashing these people. They just pounded their ideas and morals into their heads, thinking that they were really helping them out by destroying their identities. It's strange how the white man always feels like he is helping out when he is destroying another culture.
I thought this film was sad because it showed an aspect of the American history that is often overlooked: the destruction of the Native Americans and their culture. In this particular film, the Americans were trying to force their ideas upon the Native Americans and make them forget their own way of life. The whites had no right to think their way of life was better and it was very unfair of them to do this to these Native Americans.
I thought the movie was powerful in its exposure of this assimilation experiment. Although horrific in its abuse of Native American culture, the experiment provided valuable experience and helped to demonstrate the disgusting nature of any attempt to strip a people of their identity and any effort to inject them with a new one. I agree with Nick Ferretti that watching the movie provoked almost a sense of shame or guilt at our ancestry and perhaps even a fear towards our capability to do such things again.
It was sad to watch as the Native Americans were stripped of their cutrual identity. It's not fair that these Natives were forced to assimilate the "white man's image" without any form of representation. The ignorance towards natives contradicts the foundation of the American country in that all men are created equal. Innocent lives were taken while others were morphed to fit the lifestlye of the "white men".
I agree with Evan in that it was completely unfair to force the natives to assimilate because even if they were changed to fit the criteria of the "white man's image", they would never really be accepted by the real white men in society.
Through my history courses, I was aware that Native Americans were severely discriminated against and forced to assimilate to the American culture. However, this movie really opened my eyes to how bad they had it. The "White People" come across as the bad guys here, and quite frankly, they were. It's sad to see that even in a country where every man is supposed to be equal, things like this have happened in their past. It shows how quietly the systematic and deliberate killing of people or their identities can occur.
I found Evan's point very interesting but also very true. The "White People" did try to brainwash the Native Americans and make them truly act like and believe that they are someone who they are not.
I was not present for this movie or the discussion
I felt that the native americans should have been left alone instead of forced to conform to our american lifestyle. In doing so we destroyed a culture that we could have learned a lot from. They were not doing anything wrong it was just that people in the US didn't want them around because they believed they (the white man) were superior to the native americans. Even when the native americans were americanized into the modern age, people still looked down upon them and felt superior.
I agree with Laura, this time was a terrible time and very little is taught about it in classes. I believe that she is right in saying it is similar to the Holocaust and I wish more of it was taught in our History classes. This is especially disheartening because this event took place on our land, therefor we should be taught a great deal about what the "white man" did to the native americans and the hardships the native americans had to endure.
After watching this video, I was very upset watching the white people take away the Native Americans from their homes. I felt that it was unfair for the white people to try and turn the Native Americans into what they felt would be more civilized people. By doing this, they were taking away the Native Americans' identities.
I also agree with Laura. I feel that this was a very important time in history that we should remember, but it is overlooked by society, unlike the Holocaust. But i think that this event is just as important as the Holocaust because we see the "white men" trying to take over another group of people and transform them so everyone will be how they feel a "civilized American" should be.
I found this movie to be shocking not just because of what the white man did to the Indian but the fact that I have never really heard of this happening. Everyone thinks of how bad the Nazi's were but we were doing horrible stuff to and we like to think of ourself as the world leader in justice and peace.
I thought this movie was very informative. I had no idea of the terror Americans put the Native Americans through. I think this was aweful what we did, especially the part about how the Native American parents were given false hope that they would get their children back when really, it was all a lie.
I completely agree with Tom Rafferty. We think that what the Nazi's did to the jews was absolutely horrific, yet we don't even think about what American's did to the Native Americans.
This movie that we watched made me very sad because of what the white man had done to the Native Americans, they pretty much took everything away from these Native Americans. The Native Americans didn't even have a chance to fight back they were stripped away everything from their culture, just because the "white people" wanted to be superior and the dominant race/people.
I agree with Tyler's points about how the "white man" should have just left the Native Americans alone. I also agree with his point about how the "white man" could have learned a lot from the Native American culture.
I was absent the day you guys went over this.
i was absent on a college tour to maryland for three days-with no internet because i stayed at a hotel and flew to the state :)
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