Words, Context, Power
Apr. 18th, 2010 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yelosonLife likes to give examples. Today's example is Neil Gaiman saying stupid things about Indians. When called upon it, he makes what initially sounds like an ok clarification and apology.
Except, he also had to add this:
"Also apologies to any Icelandic or Norwegian readers who are offended by my imprecision. Obviously none of the Newfoundland settlers were Vikings."
Ah, yes! After all, you wouldn't want the descendants of Vikings getting upset!
They might be offended by a little invisibility or absence, after all, it's just like being the survivors of a centuries-long genocide that covered two continents along with being written out of history and being silenced to this day? Right?
"A few dead Indians" is exactly the history told in this country, every day.
Context. Without context, nothing means nothing.
Germans gassing Jews might as well be Aliens vs. Robots*. Product placement is just as bad as lynchings.
"I don't see what everyone's upset about!" (You people don't matter anyway!).
Yeah. And the thing is, that thing about Vikings? It's not based in genuine naive ignorance of the situation- it's a nod, a signal, "Oh, look I have to be 'politically correct', the natives are restless. Oh bother!"
Of course, if you really care about what you did wrong, you might want to understand what it was, so you could not do it again.
Until then, I guess we'll "keep being oversensitive" about genocide and stuff, until we get our priorities correct, right?
*People often read that comic as "Ha-ha, racism doesn't exist!". Try reading that comic backwards, right to left, and consider... context!
Except, he also had to add this:
"Also apologies to any Icelandic or Norwegian readers who are offended by my imprecision. Obviously none of the Newfoundland settlers were Vikings."
Ah, yes! After all, you wouldn't want the descendants of Vikings getting upset!
They might be offended by a little invisibility or absence, after all, it's just like being the survivors of a centuries-long genocide that covered two continents along with being written out of history and being silenced to this day? Right?
"A few dead Indians" is exactly the history told in this country, every day.
Context. Without context, nothing means nothing.
Germans gassing Jews might as well be Aliens vs. Robots*. Product placement is just as bad as lynchings.
"I don't see what everyone's upset about!" (You people don't matter anyway!).
Yeah. And the thing is, that thing about Vikings? It's not based in genuine naive ignorance of the situation- it's a nod, a signal, "Oh, look I have to be 'politically correct', the natives are restless. Oh bother!"
Of course, if you really care about what you did wrong, you might want to understand what it was, so you could not do it again.
Until then, I guess we'll "keep being oversensitive" about genocide and stuff, until we get our priorities correct, right?
*People often read that comic as "Ha-ha, racism doesn't exist!". Try reading that comic backwards, right to left, and consider... context!
no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-20 08:31 am (UTC)I found Gaiman's original comment highly offensive - nobody with half a brain should be able to miss the insult in 'a few dead Indians.' I fully understand, from a writerly standpoint, what he was trying to say: he wanted a specific kind of graveyard history with everybody _buried in the same place_. He was being extremely insensitive in, as he said, the heat of the moment, which might just about be excusable _if_ he had caught himself, and if he had apologised profoundly.
Apologising to Icelandics and Norwegians makes things a lot worse. He thinks _they_ deserve an apology for something that is not offensive at all ('viking' is a profession, sort of, not an ethnicity, and there's a very high likelyhood that some of the people who settled in North America also went on raids during the summer months; _everybody_ did), but the millions of people he has just dismissed with a casual comment _don't_.
While I can, kind of, forgive a remark made by someone who is stressed and tired (as long as they address it afterwards), Neil Gaiman had plenty of opportunity to go away and think about what, exactly, he is saying. He's intelligent enough to read over his own words and consider their effect - he's a writer, that's his job - so subsequent fails are something I cannot excuse at all.