This Blog is a resource tool for the students taking the "FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES" elective at Westborough High School, Westborough, Massachusetts.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
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.
My thoughts on the film, “In the White Man’s Image” were that the white men were ignorant and had too much power. They took Native Americans, human beings, and use them to test an experiment. They had no care in what the Native Americans beliefs were, their morals, or how they lived their life they were only concerned with taking the Native American away leaving only a person they could mold into whatever they wanted which was, “The White Man’s Image”. The Native Americans were put into schools even some where fascinated with their studies it was against their will. Before the Natives knew it their hair was cut and clothes were changed along with their identity.
I thought that the film hit on the major idea of how we percieve ourselves and others. We all have perceptions of ourselves and the way the world should be to mirror ourselves, so that we are in a confortable environment. In this case, the white men had a perception of themselves and they way people should be. To them the Native Americans weren't different but wrong in the way they lived their lives. The Native seemingly percieve the natives in a similar way. The big difference was that the white men had the means to try to do something about what they identitfied as wrong in the natives.
I thought that the film represents how even though we live in America and someone can and should be able to live they want to, that people are often forced into being something they do not want. The Americans made it seem like the way that the Native Americans lived their lives was wrong, when in fact it was just different. Even though the intentions of the Indian school to try and transform the Natives into “average Americans” were good, they still should not have been doing what they were doing because it was just morally wrong.
It's just another example of the ignorance of whites and culture. We were too absorbed in becoming a dominant power that we thought that the only way it was possible was to reform everyone else, when in reality, those who are the strongest are those who gain positive influence and learn from what they may not have previously known.
Sam....I agree with your idea. Along with what I was saying is that when a people sees reflections of themselves, they become more comfortable with each other, and therefore feel bound together as a stronger power. This is seen in gangs, bullies bounding together, and also here where whites felt they were above the Natives.
In the film when the white men took the Natives prisoner for murdering that was a fair punishment. But then when they were stripped of their identity and culture, that's where the line should be drawn. It's a cruel act that shouldn't have been followed through with. These men are Americans, they have just as much a right to their own thoughts and beliefs as the next white person in line. Going off on what Sam said about how people perceive the world and themselves, I agree that the white men were just trying to have the natives mimic their ways and try to integrate them into society, which isn't always a bad thing. The way that the whites followed through with it was incorrect in my opinion. They tried to integrate them and in that process, kill their personality.
This film showed the white man's eagerness to assimilate the Native Americans into their society through cruel means. The white civilians and officials wanted to destroy the Native Americans' sense of identity by forcing their own beliefs and ways of life onto them. We could probably go as far as describing the whites as "power-hungry" and selfish. After all, part of the reason they did that was for personal gain – civilians desired to obtain the land that the Indians lived on. They also wanted to be able to control the Indians' fates and change their identity. However, the Indians often resisted any attempts at being assimilated into the American culture and "maintain[ed] their sense of Indian identity," as the article said. Those who couldn't stand up to the pressure to change their way of living were swept up in the American culture. Often, these were sent back to their old villages and were asked to convert more Indians. This film is an example of how people's identities are altered when they're forced to stand up by themselves (or in groups) against entire societies, when their own people are advising them to change their way of life, and when young minds are opened to new cultures (because they're more susceptible).
I agree with Meredith entirely. Whites were really ignorant of the cultures of others and were just interested in the things that would benefit them - and only them. They thought they could get power from intimidation of others, but that isn't true.
After viewing the film "In White Man's Image" it was clear to me that the Americans thought that their culture and way of life was the only way. WHile trying to intergrate the Natives they stripped them of their original culture and lifestyle. In my mind it is okay to be different while in the film the AMericans saw it as a threat and tried to destroy it.
After viewing the film "In White Man's Image" it was clear to me that the Americans thought that their culture and way of life was the only way. WHile trying to intergrate the Natives they stripped them of their original culture and lifestyle. In my mind it is okay to be different while in the film the AMericans saw it as a threat and tried to destroy it.
I liked Connor's point that with the indian school they thought they were doing a good thing because they were unable to realize that the Native Americans have their own culture and beliefs that may seem strange, but that doesn't make them wrong.
After watching the film "In the White Man's Image” I noticed that the Americans were so determined to do whatever it took to change the way the Native Americans lived. The Americans made the Native Americans destroy their natural ways of life and completely transform to meet to the requirements of a true "American". I believe that the Americans made a bad decision in destroying the Native American culture because if the tables had turned we would not want to be treated poorly like the Native Americans were.
I agree with Meredith that the white culture is very ignorant and that all we want to do is become the dominant power in a society. This was shown in the film as the American completely destroyed the lives the Native Americans that were captured.
I think this movie showed how evil assimilation really is. You shouldn't try to converge two drastically different cultures by trying to force one of them to become the other. People should be allowed to live any way they as long it doesn't negatively affect someone else. The white Americans believed they were superior to the Natives and believed their culture had no right to survive. They took away their identity and gave them new ones. This wasn't right at all and this movie showed the extent they went to assimilate the natives.
The Film showed how the group can try to influence the individual into becoming what the group wants. In giving into this peer pressure the film shows what happens on a nationwide scale what would happen to a minority group if the majority wanted them to change and become the majority instead of the minority that the Native Americans were to the white population at the time.
I am going to take a different view on this than the others.. Even though it is obvious that the Native Americans were mistreated and should have been asked before just taken as basically prisoners, Americans could have essentially saved their race in a way. By teaching them the American ways to the young this could have turned into a whole new generation of Natives that could have coexisted with Americans. This could have maybe saved the rare race. I just thought it would be interesting to throw out a different perspective but I completely agree with Pat. They are just as American, if not more, than the rest and they deserve the same rights as the rest. This was all stripped away from them and they were literally treated as savages.
The film, In the White Man's Image shows the ignorance of the white Americans at the time. They thought they were the dominant power and thought everyone else should be just like them. It was wrong for the Americans to treat the Indians the way they did trying to integrate them. By doing this, they completely altered their culture and identity, when the white people had no right to force this upon another culture.
I agree with Conner. The Americans thought they had the right to just change a whole culture when in fact they didn't. The way the Natives lived wasn't necessarily wrong, just different. The Americans didn't have the right to force them to change.
The title "In the White Man's Image" is perfect for the film, in how the white's believed that the way the looked and their culture was superior to everybody else. The white men superiority complex gave them the right to strip the Indians of there identity and customs. They were ignorant in the fact they believed they were doing the natives good and they should be thankful. I agree with Sam about how he believes that people have a personal bias that the rest of the world should be mirrored by the way they live. Its human nature to fight against anything different and be drawn toward comfortable familiar things.
After watching the film, "In the White Man's Image", I was amazed by atrocities committed by the white men. They saw a culture that was different from theirs and felt the need to get rid of it. The act of assimilating and killing the Native Americans is comperable to the works of Nazi Germany. Even more upsetting was the fact that some of the Native Americans felt cleansed of their culture after their schooling was complete. It shows just how powerful the propaganda they were fed truly is.
I agree with Tucker that the reasons the Americans felt the need to assimilate the Native Americans were they were different and the whites felt threatened.
I think that this film was directed towards how large groups of people feel the need to change the indentities of those who are below them. The white men out numbered the indians greatly and believed that they were savages, the felt the need to take control of the situation and change them to there standards. When the white men felt threatened by the attack n General Custer they responded by putting more limitations on the indians so that they could have that sense of power.
"In the White Man's Image" really shows how people tend to think their way of living is the right way. In the film, the white men believed that everything they did was the way things should be done and they also believed it was the correct way. The Native Americans were drawn away from their own culture by the white men and were perceived as less important individuals. This shows how the Whites were power hungry and didn't realize the Natives have rights too.
I agree with Andrew on how he said the White men were being ignorant to the Natives by thinking they were doing them a favor. They were taking away what was special to the Native Americans in their culture and trying to convert them to the American way of living.
"In the white man's image" is simply another example of people in the position of power being ignorant and forcing powerless people to do something with the misguided belief that they are doing the right thing. At no point did the Americans ask the native americans whether they wanted to assimilate or not, they just assumed that they were doing what was best and "saving" them. If a group of Americans were abducted by native americans and forced into their culture and language there would have been outrage. This film is just reinforcing the idea that Americans are an arrogant race if people ignorant to other cultures and peoples.
I completely agree with meredith's post. My view of the film and the events that take place are very similar to hers, especially concerning the ignorance of Americans and the imbalance of power.
My feelings on the film is that white men in that time were very, very ignorant. They felt as though they could conduct an expriment on human beings. They had no issue in chaining the Native Americans up like animals and transporting them like animals to be decultured. No man should try and take away another mans culture, to make that man something he is not. Because different cultures is what makes us diverse.
Throughout this film my perspective on how much of the land and things that were originally owned by indians, were eventually taken over by the americans not because of trade and exchange, but because of force and power. To me the indians were very smart in a way to not fight back because if they did so, the americans would have ran them out of every village they built because of their dominance over the indians. But also the indians inability to fight back is what caused them to lose everything they had, even there own children which to me seems something worth fighting for, even if they would have lost.
On sams thought... I completely agree when you say that our images of other people or solely based on the images we have for ourselves and the groups we put ourselves into. Both groups thought negative things about eachother because of one, there own identities and lives, and two, the constant battle for land and cultural dominance.
I don't think that all cultures are equal. However to try to force someone to convert someone from one culture to the next shows a lack of understanding of the role culture plays. If a smaller culture is truly inferior to another dominate one, the dominate one has a responsibility to help the people in the inferior culture. However that can't be done with bribery, trickery, or force. If your culture is better it most be proven to be better. What's more it is never necessary to eliminate another culture entirely. It helps to give a people a sense of identity and can provide a healthy alternative point of view. This isn't to say that in this instance the Indians culture actually was inferior, but to say that even if it was the whites were very misguided in their efforts.
I disagree with the person who said it was like Nazi Germany. It was misguided not malicious, and based on cultural bias, not racial bias. The idea was to help improve a people, even thought they didn't want to be improved, not wipe them out Although both were bigoted the White men of America weren't truly evil, just very ignorant.
I thought that it was very intresting how all of the americans just assumed that the native americans were savage and crazy. so in response to this, they all thought that they should reform them and ultimately wipe out their way of life. This to me is completely ignorant, and i feel bad for the native americans that should have been able to believe what they wanted given that this country is supposedly the land of oppertunity...
In response to shady's post, i dont think that the americans had any intention of coexisting with the natives, in the film it said that they took all the kids and intended to make them american, and wipe out the native in them so that they would not return to their tribe after learning the american way.
I found this film upsetting because the Native Americans where stipped of all their culture. When they completly went against their spiritual beliefs and made them vut their hair i felt for them. In the end when some of the Native Americans conformed to be what they where told it showed that you can minipulate people in bad ways with power.
33 comments:
My thoughts on the film, “In the White Man’s Image” were that the white men were ignorant and had too much power. They took Native Americans, human beings, and use them to test an experiment. They had no care in what the Native Americans beliefs were, their morals, or how they lived their life they were only concerned with taking the Native American away leaving only a person they could mold into whatever they wanted which was, “The White Man’s Image”. The Native Americans were put into schools even some where fascinated with their studies it was against their will. Before the Natives knew it their hair was cut and clothes were changed along with their identity.
I thought that the film hit on the major idea of how we percieve ourselves and others. We all have perceptions of ourselves and the way the world should be to mirror ourselves, so that we are in a confortable environment. In this case, the white men had a perception of themselves and they way people should be. To them the Native Americans weren't different but wrong in the way they lived their lives. The Native seemingly percieve the natives in a similar way. The big difference was that the white men had the means to try to do something about what they identitfied as wrong in the natives.
I thought that the film represents how even though we live in America and someone can and should be able to live they want to, that people are often forced into being something they do not want. The Americans made it seem like the way that the Native Americans lived their lives was wrong, when in fact it was just different. Even though the intentions of the Indian school to try and transform the Natives into “average Americans” were good, they still should not have been doing what they were doing because it was just morally wrong.
It's just another example of the ignorance of whites and culture. We were too absorbed in becoming a dominant power that we thought that the only way it was possible was to reform everyone else, when in reality, those who are the strongest are those who gain positive influence and learn from what they may not have previously known.
Sam....I agree with your idea. Along with what I was saying is that when a people sees reflections of themselves, they become more comfortable with each other, and therefore feel bound together as a stronger power. This is seen in gangs, bullies bounding together, and also here where whites felt they were above the Natives.
In the film when the white men took the Natives prisoner for murdering that was a fair punishment. But then when they were stripped of their identity and culture, that's where the line should be drawn. It's a cruel act that shouldn't have been followed through with. These men are Americans, they have just as much a right to their own thoughts and beliefs as the next white person in line. Going off on what Sam said about how people perceive the world and themselves, I agree that the white men were just trying to have the natives mimic their ways and try to integrate them into society, which isn't always a bad thing. The way that the whites followed through with it was incorrect in my opinion. They tried to integrate them and in that process, kill their personality.
This film showed the white man's eagerness to assimilate the Native Americans into their society through cruel means. The white civilians and officials wanted to destroy the Native Americans' sense of identity by forcing their own beliefs and ways of life onto them. We could probably go as far as describing the whites as "power-hungry" and selfish. After all, part of the reason they did that was for personal gain – civilians desired to obtain the land that the Indians lived on. They also wanted to be able to control the Indians' fates and change their identity. However, the Indians often resisted any attempts at being assimilated into the American culture and "maintain[ed] their sense of Indian identity," as the article said. Those who couldn't stand up to the pressure to change their way of living were swept up in the American culture. Often, these were sent back to their old villages and were asked to convert more Indians. This film is an example of how people's identities are altered when they're forced to stand up by themselves (or in groups) against entire societies, when their own people are advising them to change their way of life, and when young minds are opened to new cultures (because they're more susceptible).
I agree with Meredith entirely. Whites were really ignorant of the cultures of others and were just interested in the things that would benefit them - and only them. They thought they could get power from intimidation of others, but that isn't true.
After viewing the film "In White Man's Image" it was clear to me that the Americans thought that their culture and way of life was the only way. WHile trying to intergrate the Natives they stripped them of their original culture and lifestyle. In my mind it is okay to be different while in the film the AMericans saw it as a threat and tried to destroy it.
After viewing the film "In White Man's Image" it was clear to me that the Americans thought that their culture and way of life was the only way. WHile trying to intergrate the Natives they stripped them of their original culture and lifestyle. In my mind it is okay to be different while in the film the AMericans saw it as a threat and tried to destroy it.
I liked Connor's point that with the indian school they thought they were doing a good thing because they were unable to realize that the Native Americans have their own culture and beliefs that may seem strange, but that doesn't make them wrong.
After watching the film "In the White Man's Image” I noticed that the Americans were so determined to do whatever it took to change the way the Native Americans lived. The Americans made the Native Americans destroy their natural ways of life and completely transform to meet to the requirements of a true "American". I believe that the Americans made a bad decision in destroying the Native American culture because if the tables had turned we would not want to be treated poorly like the Native Americans were.
I agree with Meredith that the white culture is very ignorant and that all we want to do is become the dominant power in a society. This was shown in the film as the American completely destroyed the lives the Native Americans that were captured.
I think this movie showed how evil assimilation really is. You shouldn't try to converge two drastically different cultures by trying to force one of them to become the other. People should be allowed to live any way they as long it doesn't negatively affect someone else. The white Americans believed they were superior to the Natives and believed their culture had no right to survive. They took away their identity and gave them new ones. This wasn't right at all and this movie showed the extent they went to assimilate the natives.
The Film showed how the group can try to influence the individual into becoming what the group wants. In giving into this peer pressure the film shows what happens on a nationwide scale what would happen to a minority group if the majority wanted them to change and become the majority instead of the minority that the Native Americans were to the white population at the time.
I am going to take a different view on this than the others.. Even though it is obvious that the Native Americans were mistreated and should have been asked before just taken as basically prisoners, Americans could have essentially saved their race in a way. By teaching them the American ways to the young this could have turned into a whole new generation of Natives that could have coexisted with Americans. This could have maybe saved the rare race. I just thought it would be interesting to throw out a different perspective but I completely agree with Pat. They are just as American, if not more, than the rest and they deserve the same rights as the rest. This was all stripped away from them and they were literally treated as savages.
The film, In the White Man's Image shows the ignorance of the white Americans at the time. They thought they were the dominant power and thought everyone else should be just like them. It was wrong for the Americans to treat the Indians the way they did trying to integrate them. By doing this, they completely altered their culture and identity, when the white people had no right to force this upon another culture.
I agree with Conner. The Americans thought they had the right to just change a whole culture when in fact they didn't. The way the Natives lived wasn't necessarily wrong, just different. The Americans didn't have the right to force them to change.
The title "In the White Man's Image" is perfect for the film, in how the white's believed that the way the looked and their culture was superior to everybody else. The white men superiority complex gave them the right to strip the Indians of there identity and customs. They were ignorant in the fact they believed they were doing the natives good and they should be thankful.
I agree with Sam about how he believes that people have a personal bias that the rest of the world should be mirrored by the way they live. Its human nature to fight against anything different and be drawn toward comfortable familiar things.
After watching the film, "In the White Man's Image", I was amazed by atrocities committed by the white men. They saw a culture that was different from theirs and felt the need to get rid of it. The act of assimilating and killing the Native Americans is comperable to the works of Nazi Germany. Even more upsetting was the fact that some of the Native Americans felt cleansed of their culture after their schooling was complete. It shows just how powerful the propaganda they were fed truly is.
I agree with Tucker that the reasons the Americans felt the need to assimilate the Native Americans were they were different and the whites felt threatened.
I think that this film was directed towards how large groups of people feel the need to change the indentities of those who are below them. The white men out numbered the indians greatly and believed that they were savages, the felt the need to take control of the situation and change them to there standards. When the white men felt threatened by the attack n General Custer they responded by putting more limitations on the indians so that they could have that sense of power.
"In the White Man's Image" really shows how people tend to think their way of living is the right way. In the film, the white men believed that everything they did was the way things should be done and they also believed it was the correct way. The Native Americans were drawn away from their own culture by the white men and were perceived as less important individuals. This shows how the Whites were power hungry and didn't realize the Natives have rights too.
I agree with Andrew on how he said the White men were being ignorant to the Natives by thinking they were doing them a favor. They were taking away what was special to the Native Americans in their culture and trying to convert them to the American way of living.
"In the white man's image" is simply another example of people in the position of power being ignorant and forcing powerless people to do something with the misguided belief that they are doing the right thing. At no point did the Americans ask the native americans whether they wanted to assimilate or not, they just assumed that they were doing what was best and "saving" them. If a group of Americans were abducted by native americans and forced into their culture and language there would have been outrage. This film is just reinforcing the idea that Americans are an arrogant race if people ignorant to other cultures and peoples.
I completely agree with meredith's post. My view of the film and the events that take place are very similar to hers, especially concerning the ignorance of Americans and the imbalance of power.
My feelings on the film is that white men in that time were very, very ignorant. They felt as though they could conduct an expriment on human beings. They had no issue in chaining the Native Americans up like animals and transporting them like animals to be decultured. No man should try and take away another mans culture, to make that man something he is not. Because different cultures is what makes us diverse.
Throughout this film my perspective on how much of the land and things that were originally owned by indians, were eventually taken over by the americans not because of trade and exchange, but because of force and power. To me the indians were very smart in a way to not fight back because if they did so, the americans would have ran them out of every village they built because of their dominance over the indians. But also the indians inability to fight back is what caused them to lose everything they had, even there own children which to me seems something worth fighting for, even if they would have lost.
On sams thought... I completely agree when you say that our images of other people or solely based on the images we have for ourselves and the groups we put ourselves into. Both groups thought negative things about eachother because of one, there own identities and lives, and two, the constant battle for land and cultural dominance.
I agree with Meredith in that the ignorance of the White Men towards other cultures explains why they did what they did to the Native Americans.
I don't think that all cultures are equal. However to try to force someone to convert someone from one culture to the next shows a lack of understanding of the role culture plays. If a smaller culture is truly inferior to another dominate one, the dominate one has a responsibility to help the people in the inferior culture. However that can't be done with bribery, trickery, or force. If your culture is better it most be proven to be better. What's more it is never necessary to eliminate another culture entirely. It helps to give a people a sense of identity and can provide a healthy alternative point of view. This isn't to say that in this instance the Indians culture actually was inferior, but to say that even if it was the whites were very misguided in their efforts.
I disagree with the person who said it was like Nazi Germany. It was misguided not malicious, and based on cultural bias, not racial bias. The idea was to help improve a people, even thought they didn't want to be improved, not wipe them out Although both were bigoted the White men of America weren't truly evil, just very ignorant.
I thought that it was very intresting how all of the americans just assumed that the native americans were savage and crazy. so in response to this, they all thought that they should reform them and ultimately wipe out their way of life. This to me is completely ignorant, and i feel bad for the native americans that should have been able to believe what they wanted given that this country is supposedly the land of oppertunity...
In response to shady's post, i dont think that the americans had any intention of coexisting with the natives, in the film it said that they took all the kids and intended to make them american, and wipe out the native in them so that they would not return to their tribe after learning the american way.
absent
sorry--absent
I found this film upsetting because the Native Americans where stipped of all their culture. When they completly went against their spiritual beliefs and made them vut their hair i felt for them. In the end when some of the Native Americans conformed to be what they where told it showed that you can minipulate people in bad ways with power.
Allie... I also like the comments about how ignorance toward others is what drove the white man to do what they did.
absent
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