This Blog is a resource tool for the students taking the "FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES" elective at Westborough High School, Westborough, Massachusetts.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
PERIOD 6 - WHITE MAN'S IMAGE
Over the past two days, we watched and discussed the documentary, In the White Man's Image. Please post your thoughts about the film.
46 comments:
Ryan Reed-Edwards
said...
I thought that the documentary was disturbing because of the USA's complete disregard of the Native American's culture. The USA tried to shape the Native Americans into what they though was "successful" or "good," but that wasn't what the Native Americans wanted since their culture was different and their definitions of "success" and what is "good" are different.
Ryan is right - there is no such thing as a universal definition of the word "success". What you think is successful probably isn't to someone else because not everyone's goals are the same. Honestly, it's stupid to think that there is only one way to be successful.
I think that the white settlers were completely ignorant and unfair to the Native American's previously established ways of life. They were intrusive on their land and their customs, and the documentary, from what we saw, opened my eyes to some of the extreme lengths that settlers went to, just to get their way.
I agree with Ryan when he says that the white settler's way wasn't necessarily "successful". I feel that that word has a different meaning to everybody. Very interesting way to look at it.
This video was able to really emphasize the cruelties that the white settlers performed on the Native American tribes. It was heartbreaking to see the Native American culture destroyed by the settlers. I also didn't like how the whites had a certain image and standard that they wanted everyone to live by. It took away from the Native American culture and even separated families.
I think it was unbelievable that people could be so narrow minded to take others from everything they know and keep them as prisoners to make almost robots of themselves. It was a very unintelligent decision for the white settlers to make and think that people need to all be the same as them to be normal and/or successful.
I agree with Meghan that it stripped Native American's of their culture and forced them to be taken away from their families, especially the young children that later died.
I think that the video portrayed how they tried to get the Native Americans to change their identity. The Americans wanted to civilize Native Americans by forcing them to go to school. The Native Americans wanted to keep their culture and traditions.
The documentary showed how disgustingly closed minded some people can be. A white American of the time classified as the Native Americans as something less than human and agreed that their culture did not deserve to be respected. That is just terrible. You would think the land known as the "melting pot" would be a little more accepting.
Jackie and Ryan created an interesting discussion about success. How could they label the Native Americans--civilizations that had survived and prospered on American land for centuries before any settler set foot here-- unsuccessful?
It seems like there are two cultures that each think they are "in the right" so to speak, and that the other is wrong. Whites held the power over Native Americans, and therefore had the power to decide the Native Americans' future in the US. More or less, they chose to force them to assimilate or die. This demonstrates that when a group sincerely believes that they are "in the right", they feel the need to change everyone else who is not the same as them.
I agree with Stephanie's comment. The Native Americans are just another group of people that are different in the US. It seems like there is always a group that is hated, but once that group is preceded by another, the previous one is forgotten as the new one is despised. It doesn't seem like there is any justification for the hatred against Native Americans other than the fact that they are "outside the group" and are fair game.
This video is upsetting to watch as the Americans try to completely crush the native America culture. It is disturbing to see that the settlers tore families apart and killed native Americans in order to spread their culture. It my opinion, no culture should be so dominant as to destroy others beliefs. The Americans truly believed that they were the "normal" and the superior which explains why they acted as they did but it does not make it right.
I agree with Meghan that it is heart breaking to watch a culture be destroyed. Also that the whites wanted the N.A. to live by certain standards which was something I also did not agree with.
The video showed how terribly the white settler's treated the Native Americans. They thought that by trying to make the Native Americans adopt white culture, they could "normalize" them. It was shocking to see how the white settlers thought so little of the Native Americans just because they had a different culture.
I agree with Stephanie that it's terrible that the Native Americans were treated as less than human and that their culture wasn't respected. Everyone deserves respect, regardless of their culture.
The Americans acted beyond selfish and inconsiderate towards the Native Americans. It amazes me that they tried to "americanize" the natives and strip them from their culture, beliefs, family, etc. It was so wrong of the Americans to completely change the lives of those people and I think they should have left them alone, especially because they had that land so long before the Americans came.
I agree with Erin on believing that no culture should feel powerful enough to destroy other cultures. I think there's always a way to compromise between cultures and avoid the mess that the N.A. and Americans went through.
I think the portrayal of the Native Americans was almost disgusting. It was disappointing how the Native Americans didn't stand up for themselves and they went along with the Americans. I think the use of force against the Native Americans was completely unnecessary. There was no way the Natives could have won a fight against the Americans so the should have been more peaceful to get want they wanted.
I agree with Erin. I don't think that there should be a "national" culture or heritage. Everyone should be able to be expressed equally without feeling like an outcast
I think that it is a part of the US history that is overlooked very much in modern society to a point where its never even really talked about in school except for this class. It's a true atrocity that we need to face and this film perfectly demonstrates the events very well.
Watching the movie made me very angry at the whites who felt that they were superior to the Natives and therefore needed to changed them into white men. They felt that they were so much better than the Native "savages" that they neede to completely stip them from their identities, including changing their names, to make them more like the rest of the white society. Although I had already learned about this in history, it was still equally as disturbing to hear it a second time.
I thought the film was very informative and important to understanding the American culture. It revealed how corrupt our past morals and perspectives were and highlighted the important events that are evidence to these corrupt ways. I think the most corrupt ideal that most (white)Americans had was the strong feeling of superiority. The "white man's burden" and "chosen people" views that our nation were partly built upon carried throughout our nations upbringing which justified the white's actions in their own minds, but whites were too ignorant to understand the concepts of humanity, equality, and tolerance.
I agree with Ryan, I thought it was disturbing how the Americans didn't even try to put themselves in the place of the Native Americans. They had the mindset that they were right and assimilating Native Americans into the American culture could only be seen as a good thing. The Native Americans lived a completely different lifestyle than the Americans and it wasn't fair to take that away from them especially because we took over THEIR land!
I think what Meghan pointed out about how the video was unable to really capture the true treatment of the whites to the Native Americans is very important, and something I didn't consider on first thought. I feel like the Native American woman in the video didn't express great passion for her ancestors the way I'd expect. She seemed to be simply retelling the story, rather than engaging herself through her background.
I thought the ways in which the whites treated the natives was incredibly offensive. The nation was built on freedoms, but as a group slightly outside of that freedom, the natives were taken and had their identity stripped from them because the US wanted to take away their lands and their culture and make them "white". The actions taken towards natives in this movie is completely inhumane.
I agree with Ryan. The USA tried to define good and success in terms of what they wanted it to be without realizing what it was in different cultures and societies, like those of the native american tribes.
I thought the film showed us how people can be perceived in different ways based on their perspective of the situation. During the film it would seem as if the Americans thought they were doing the right thing by converting Native Americans into "civilization" while the Native Americans thought that the whites were rude and cheep. If I were the whites I would have taught them the ways of the society while keeping them connected with their own society. That way they can actually makes connections between the tribes and the outside world.
I agree with what Olivia Colby. I do think the whites were ignorant about the whole situation. Rather than taking their children away why can't they just teach them something new in their environment. That way the whites can get their point across as well as not upsetting the Native Americans by not allowing their children to know their heritage.
I think this video highlighted how distrusting people are of anyone else who is not like them. Since Native Americans were not part of the white culture, they were not accepted and were instead looked at as savages. Had the Native Americans been of the White Anglo Saxton background then they would have been accepted without question. But since they looked different, acted different, dressed different, and could talk in a different language, people immediatley set out to change them and try to mold them so that they fit into the "American Culture".
I agree with Sam's comment, that both groups of people, the white settlers and the Native Americans, thought they were right. Americans thought they were superior to the Natives and so therefore they thought they could do whatever they wanted to them and they saw nothing wrong with this.
I thought that it was completely ignorant of the white people to believe that they could just get rid of someonelse's culture completely. Especially after taking their land away from them.
I agree with Ani. To the white people the natives were savages but to the natives the whites where materialistic and ignorant. Who is to say which way of life is better or worse?
I thought that the view the white settlers had of the native americsns was ridicoulous because they really didnt know them at all. And it was even more ridiculous because they ended up liking the native americans and accepting them into the community until some other natives killed some americams and they switched right back to not trusting them.
I felt it was very eye opening to how the Americans truly viewed the native american settlers. The disregard for another person's culture and life is terrible and should not be taken lightly. Just because they are different, does not mean they are wrong.
I agree with Ryan that success can be very perspective based. Just because the Americans didn't shape the Native Americans into their image doesn't mean they are a failure.
I found it to be very ignorant of white men to think that their culture was so superior to the culture of the indians. Thinking that the indian culture needed to be "fixed" and made more like the culture of the white man was simply wrong and disturbing. In my opinion it was an awful mistake on the white man's part to force innocent people to change who they were. I think we should look back and be ashamed of the Great Experiment.
To add to my origninal point, I agree with Jordan that it was also unfair of the white men to automatically distrust the indians because of their differences. They had done nothing to deserve punishement or forced change from the white men.
I agree with what Tom said, we really should have given the Native Americans and their culture a lot more respect, especially after we took a lot of their land from them and even made reservations specifically to preserve their culture.
46 comments:
I thought that the documentary was disturbing because of the USA's complete disregard of the Native American's culture. The USA tried to shape the Native Americans into what they though was "successful" or "good," but that wasn't what the Native Americans wanted since their culture was different and their definitions of "success" and what is "good" are different.
Ryan is right - there is no such thing as a universal definition of the word "success". What you think is successful probably isn't to someone else because not everyone's goals are the same. Honestly, it's stupid to think that there is only one way to be successful.
I think that the white settlers were completely ignorant and unfair to the Native American's previously established ways of life. They were intrusive on their land and their customs, and the documentary, from what we saw, opened my eyes to some of the extreme lengths that settlers went to, just to get their way.
I agree with Ryan when he says that the white settler's way wasn't necessarily "successful". I feel that that word has a different meaning to everybody. Very interesting way to look at it.
This video was able to really emphasize the cruelties that the white settlers performed on the Native American tribes. It was heartbreaking to see the Native American culture destroyed by the settlers. I also didn't like how the whites had a certain image and standard that they wanted everyone to live by. It took away from the Native American culture and even separated families.
I agree with Olivia's comment on how the White settlers would do anything just to get their way even if it meant taking lives and ruining families.
I think it was unbelievable that people could be so narrow minded to take others from everything they know and keep them as prisoners to make almost robots of themselves. It was a very unintelligent decision for the white settlers to make and think that people need to all be the same as them to be normal and/or successful.
I agree with Meghan that it stripped Native American's of their culture and forced them to be taken away from their families, especially the young children that later died.
james
i agree that white settler did not treat the native american nicely and they were rude to them.
I think that the video portrayed how they tried to get the Native Americans to change their identity. The Americans wanted to civilize Native Americans by forcing them to go to school. The Native Americans wanted to keep their culture and traditions.
The documentary showed how disgustingly closed minded some people can be. A white American of the time classified as the Native Americans as something less than human and agreed that their culture did not deserve to be respected. That is just terrible. You would think the land known as the "melting pot" would be a little more accepting.
james yi
i agree with abbey that some people can be narrow minded and they do not think of other people
Jackie and Ryan created an interesting discussion about success. How could they label the Native Americans--civilizations that had survived and prospered on American land for centuries before any settler set foot here-- unsuccessful?
i agree with Jackie's comment on how they wanted to make the Native Americans into a "normal" American by thinking they could "train" them.
It seems like there are two cultures that each think they are "in the right" so to speak, and that the other is wrong. Whites held the power over Native Americans, and therefore had the power to decide the Native Americans' future in the US. More or less, they chose to force them to assimilate or die. This demonstrates that when a group sincerely believes that they are "in the right", they feel the need to change everyone else who is not the same as them.
I agree with Stephanie's comment. The Native Americans are just another group of people that are different in the US. It seems like there is always a group that is hated, but once that group is preceded by another, the previous one is forgotten as the new one is despised. It doesn't seem like there is any justification for the hatred against Native Americans other than the fact that they are "outside the group" and are fair game.
This video is upsetting to watch as the Americans try to completely crush the native America culture. It is disturbing to see that the settlers tore families apart and killed native Americans in order to spread their culture. It my opinion, no culture should be so dominant as to destroy others beliefs. The Americans truly believed that they were the "normal" and the superior which explains why they acted as they did but it does not make it right.
I agree with Meghan that it is heart breaking to watch a culture be destroyed. Also that the whites wanted the N.A. to live by certain standards which was something I also did not agree with.
The video showed how terribly the white settler's treated the Native Americans. They thought that by trying to make the Native Americans adopt white culture, they could "normalize" them. It was shocking to see how the white settlers thought so little of the Native Americans just because they had a different culture.
I agree with Stephanie that it's terrible that the Native Americans were treated as less than human and that their culture wasn't respected. Everyone deserves respect, regardless of their culture.
I agree with James yi that white settler did not treat the native American nicely and they were rude to them.
The Americans acted beyond selfish and inconsiderate towards the Native Americans. It amazes me that they tried to "americanize" the natives and strip them from their culture, beliefs, family, etc. It was so wrong of the Americans to completely change the lives of those people and I think they should have left them alone, especially because they had that land so long before the Americans came.
I agree with Erin on believing that no culture should feel powerful enough to destroy other cultures. I think there's always a way to compromise between cultures and avoid the mess that the N.A. and Americans went through.
I think the portrayal of the Native Americans was almost disgusting. It was disappointing how the Native Americans didn't stand up for themselves and they went along with the Americans. I think the use of force against the Native Americans was completely unnecessary. There was no way the Natives could have won a fight against the Americans so the should have been more peaceful to get want they wanted.
I agree with Erin. I don't think that there should be a "national" culture or heritage. Everyone should be able to be expressed equally without feeling like an outcast
I think that it is a part of the US history that is overlooked very much in modern society to a point where its never even really talked about in school except for this class. It's a true atrocity that we need to face and this film perfectly demonstrates the events very well.
Watching the movie made me very angry at the whites who felt that they were superior to the Natives and therefore needed to changed them into white men. They felt that they were so much better than the Native "savages" that they neede to completely stip them from their identities, including changing their names, to make them more like the rest of the white society. Although I had already learned about this in history, it was still equally as disturbing to hear it a second time.
I completely agree with Alex that Americans need to be more aware of the past so that something as terrinle as this does not occur again.
I thought the film was very informative and important to understanding the American culture. It revealed how corrupt our past morals and perspectives were and highlighted the important events that are evidence to these corrupt ways. I think the most corrupt ideal that most (white)Americans had was the strong feeling of superiority. The "white man's burden" and "chosen people" views that our nation were partly built upon carried throughout our nations upbringing which justified the white's actions in their own minds, but whites were too ignorant to understand the concepts of humanity, equality, and tolerance.
I agree with Ryan, I thought it was disturbing how the Americans didn't even try to put themselves in the place of the Native Americans. They had the mindset that they were right and assimilating Native Americans into the American culture could only be seen as a good thing. The Native Americans lived a completely different lifestyle than the Americans and it wasn't fair to take that away from them especially because we took over THEIR land!
I think what Meghan pointed out about how the video was unable to really capture the true treatment of the whites to the Native Americans is very important, and something I didn't consider on first thought. I feel like the Native American woman in the video didn't express great passion for her ancestors the way I'd expect. She seemed to be simply retelling the story, rather than engaging herself through her background.
I thought the ways in which the whites treated the natives was incredibly offensive. The nation was built on freedoms, but as a group slightly outside of that freedom, the natives were taken and had their identity stripped from them because the US wanted to take away their lands and their culture and make them "white". The actions taken towards natives in this movie is completely inhumane.
I agree with Ryan. The USA tried to define good and success in terms of what they wanted it to be without realizing what it was in different cultures and societies, like those of the native american tribes.
I thought the film showed us how people can be perceived in different ways based on their perspective of the situation. During the film it would seem as if the Americans thought they were doing the right thing by converting Native Americans into "civilization" while the Native Americans thought that the whites were rude and cheep. If I were the whites I would have taught them the ways of the society while keeping them connected with their own society. That way they can actually makes connections between the tribes and the outside world.
I agree with what Olivia Colby. I do think the whites were ignorant about the whole situation. Rather than taking their children away why can't they just teach them something new in their environment. That way the whites can get their point across as well as not upsetting the Native Americans by not allowing their children to know their heritage.
I think this video highlighted how distrusting people are of anyone else who is not like them. Since Native Americans were not part of the white culture, they were not accepted and were instead looked at as savages. Had the Native Americans been of the White Anglo Saxton background then they would have been accepted without question. But since they looked different, acted different, dressed different, and could talk in a different language, people immediatley set out to change them and try to mold them so that they fit into the "American Culture".
I agree with Sam's comment, that both groups of people, the white settlers and the Native Americans, thought they were right. Americans thought they were superior to the Natives and so therefore they thought they could do whatever they wanted to them and they saw nothing wrong with this.
I thought that it was completely ignorant of the white people to believe that they could just get rid of someonelse's culture completely. Especially after taking their land away from them.
I agree with Ani. To the white people the natives were savages but to the natives the whites where materialistic and ignorant. Who is to say which way of life is better or worse?
I like what Ryan said in that our form of successful does not apply to everyone such as the Natives
I thought that the view the white settlers had of the native americsns was ridicoulous because they really didnt know them at all. And it was even more ridiculous because they ended up liking the native americans and accepting them into the community until some other natives killed some americams and they switched right back to not trusting them.
I felt it was very eye opening to how the Americans truly viewed the native american settlers. The disregard for another person's culture and life is terrible and should not be taken lightly. Just because they are different, does not mean they are wrong.
I agree with Ryan that success can be very perspective based. Just because the Americans didn't shape the Native Americans into their image doesn't mean they are a failure.
I found it to be very ignorant of white men to think that their culture was so superior to the culture of the indians. Thinking that the indian culture needed to be "fixed" and made more like the culture of the white man was simply wrong and disturbing. In my opinion it was an awful mistake on the white man's part to force innocent people to change who they were. I think we should look back and be ashamed of the Great Experiment.
To add to my origninal point, I agree with Jordan that it was also unfair of the white men to automatically distrust the indians because of their differences. They had done nothing to deserve punishement or forced change from the white men.
I agree with what Tom said, we really should have given the Native Americans and their culture a lot more respect, especially after we took a lot of their land from them and even made reservations specifically to preserve their culture.
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