2 Discuss how Native Americans have been portrayed in media

2. Discuss how Native Americans have been portrayed in media and popular culture. How have these stereotypes influenced the self-esteem, visibility and life experiences of Native people?

Solution

ans

For centuries, Americans have regarded Native Americans as the “Other,” that is, fundamentally different from themselves. Majority Americans have viewed the Other (“Indians”) as lacking something, either in a good way or a bad way. Such a characterization of Indians is a stereotype. It does not represent the reality of Native American cultures and histories. It lumps together and defines Indians as somehow deficient. Stereotypes about Indians are represented in the imagery Americans have used to portray them and, in this imagery, there are two contradictory conceptions of Indians—favorable and unfavorable—that reflect the use to which the image is put.