Moonwolf's Lair

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“You might fancy running say, the Jewish Relocation Office, or the German railroads system – agencies which, come to think of it, may have some crossover… “

Anyone think a European journalist would ever dare to write the above paragraph in an article? How about one writing for the BBC?

I didn’t think so.

Except it seems perfectly acceptable for a BBC journalist to do just that, when the topic refers to Native Americans.

Witness the article about the incoming US Administration’s quest for replacements for a myriad of government jobs and appointments, which includes this paragraph.

You might fancy running say, the Office of Hopi and Navajo Indian Relocation, or the American Battle Monuments Commission – agencies which, come to think of it, may have some crossover…

Both this paragraph and the hypothetic one I opened this entry with make light of genocide.  I realize that most Brits (and Americans, come to think of it) still think of Native Americans through the lens of John Wayne movies, or TV shows such as Gunsmoke or High Chaparral, but the truth is the US has been responsible for the continuing ethnic cleansing and genocide towards Native Americans for centuries.

So why exactly should some prat of a journalist be allowed to make such an offhanded joke about that genocide, when the same joke applied to the Holocaust would cause such a furore the BBC would be facing even more criticism from the moron they have running their country?

That such a comment can be tossed out so casually without nary a murmor from intelligent people is one more piece of evidence supporting just how successful the US has been in brushing the genocide of Native Americans under the table.  The whole “Noble Primitive” attitude is still there, still strong, and still perpetuated by comments such as the one Richard Lister made in his article.

It shouldn’t surprise me really, the BBC has been racist when it comes to Native American issues before – its reporting of the “Live Earth” event continuously and pointedly refused to make any mention whatsoever of the Native American contribution to the event, hosted it right here in the nation’s capital.

Al Gore made a passing reference to that contribution at the opening of Live Earth, saying words to the effect of how it was the Indians riding to the rescue, yet the whole thing was pointedly and deliberately omitted from the BBC’s coverage.  Even when the BBC listed all the venues for that event, it never said one word about the Native American one.

But ignoring Native American contributions completely like that is nowhere near as egregiously offensive as cracking jokes about genocide and ethnic cleansing by a so-called reporter such as Richard Lister.

It would never even be considered appropriate if it referred to the Holocaust – yet obviously when it comes to Native Americans, it’s not only perfectly acceptable, it’s “funny”?  More Native Americans have suffered and died at the hands of the US Government than the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, but the two are totally dissimilar in the minds of people, if this sort of thing is considered acceptable in a civilized society.

Did it even occur to Richard Lister to question why there might be an Office of Hopi and Navajo Indian Relocation in the first place, and just what its existence implies?

The only way people, especially Europeans, will ever begin to see Native Americans as people is if comments such as the one above are stomped on, hard.

The BBC is especially susceptible to criticism right now because the British Government has pushed to make it vulnerable so it can prevent any further disclosures such as the Dr Kelley issue, so now is the best time to complain about this and similar remarks demeaning and marginalizing the history and current practices towards Native Americans.

I urge people to use the BBC Complaints link to file a formal complaint about this racist section of Richard Lister’s article with the BBC.  It is only by showing them that they’re totally out of line, how patently offensive such attitudes are in these “enlightened” times, that the continued propaganda minimizing or ignoring US policy and cultural bias against Native Americans can begin to be countered