Uprisings

Posted Up: February 12th 2004

This is my take on this uprising over a Grammy Performance by Andre 3000 of OutKast when he went out and had some native music and props.

Andre 3000's performance at the 2004 Grammy's was probably derogatory, but probably also unintentional. Everyone looks for an angle, or a way to bring themselves apart from everyone else in the entertainment industry. So, he did his thing and probably didn't think about whatever consequences might happen, or who would be offended by it. I know there are times we all just went and did something without much thought put into it.

His song "Hey Ya," is banging around place to place, and no doubt young natives are bumping it rez to rez. Some natives are thinking he probably jacked it from natives, but that in itself is self derogatory I'd say. To think that pow wow songs just consist of the sounds "hey ya" is such a 'white' interpretation it's basically funny to me.

Then people are calling for boycotts and all, but why? What's the point, and what will that solve? CBS is not a company in itself, but instead is apart of a larger company. To boycott one channel for something they didn't even have a part in bringing about seems pointless to me. And besides, I know that CBS is a major force in audience share of the nation in regards to television. To say that natives don't want to perhaps be involved in that sometown down the road is straight up lying. These t.v. specials going on just might have something to do w/ cbs, but nah, we're in a bad light because we chose to boycott over something pretty trivial.

That's not the only thing though. What's up w/ giving this so much coverage? Why concentrate our efforts on something that may or may not even have any major affect on us later? To do that we'd have to stretch ourselves out to where we have to take away from something else. So what, he went out and did a cheap background drop of a native environment? Why not talk about those political figures trying to do away w/ tribal sovereignty, or finding out who really killed Anna May Aquash back in the AIM hayday? John Trudell himself testified that the ones who made the call were figures higher up on the ladder and Arlo Looking Cloud admitted to being there and witnessed John Boy Graham shooting her. Candy Hamilton said that several AIM leaders and attorney Bruce Ellison, who has handled Leonard Peltier's case, met at the house where Aquash was brought. It seems people want to nitpick the little things to feel better about what? Why not fight a true battle that will effect future generations, not just those who happened to see something that was in all honesty, just a misrepresentation of something, that's it. I guess I'm trying to ask if this is exactly where we should be concentrating when there are 'real' issues to look at. Andre wasn't saying to do away w/ our culture, he wasn't calling for an end to tribal revenue through quiting tribal gaming. He didn't go out and say that natives shouldn't have any land anymore. He just dressed crazy, and had his dancers do the same? No one gets mad that natives are walking around in cowboy hats, wranglers, and are trying to rodeo out all the time. Why mention that? Remember the game cowboys and indians?

CBS offered an apology already, and that is what people are asking for. They offered it a couple days after the airing of the award's ceremony. Basically, people are getting riled up for nothing and demanding what has already been given.


Posted on 04 Jun 2006 by Windreamer