You kids obviously don’t hang out in the bad part of this town.
I’ve been wearing my sweater for over half a year now here in beautiful Washington, DC. I’ve had some good comments on it as well.
The story as you apparently heard it, Fenris, was mischaracterized. As delphica so eloquently stated in that otherwise uninteresting Pit thread cited above, the intention was to raise awareness about a local high school which uses the, ahem, off-color nickname “Fightin’ Reds.”
They were successful beyond their wildest dreams, at least in the sense that they got the attention they wanted. Furthermore, the proceeds from their merchandise goes to an Indian scholarship fund, so whatever the motivations of their customers, they are helping American Indians in some small way.
Others have argued that this nonsensical story detracts from the very real plight of American Indians, which (despite cynical and ignorant jabs about rich Indian casino-magnates) is bad and has been getting worse every day since the beginning of last year. I think that is, in a word, bullshit. Anything which gets the attention–and the money–of the apathetic segment of American public is better than the vacuum in which these folks currently exist. And sometimes, otherwise ignorant, insensitive and apathetic Americans might even get the chance to learn something about what’s going on out there in Indian Country.
For example…
Chances are that some of you don’t know that your federal government lost perhaps as much as a hundred billion dollars of American Indian money over the course of the past hundred years, and that some of your Representatives tried to quietly ensure that the Indians wouldn’t get most of it back just a few short months ago.
Some of you may not know that this Administration has inexplicably reversed a decision protecting a sacred American Indian site, and is trying to allow a foreign-owned strip-mining company to wreck the place, with, I am told, virtually no profit going to the Indians, the state, or the feds. When Department of Interior officials were questioned about this at a recent Senate hearing, they had no decent answer for why they were doing this. Hmm, what could be going on?
I work for thousands of Americans who have no running water, who have a few dozen cops to patrol areas larger than some states, who have infant mortality rates and health issues which compare favorably with third world nations. And some of you think it’s funny to make fucking mascots out of them. That’s pretty lame, if you ask me, but why should you listen to me? The Indians lost and disappeared and you don’t have to give a damn about 'em anymore, right?
Well, maybe not, if I have anything to do with it. If you actually took the time to read this post, and learned something new, you can thank the Fightin’ Whites.