Peter Pan (1953): What makes the Red Man red? How about cultural insensitivity, you racist bastards!

So, my son is now 3 years old and a sucker for movies.  Especially swashbuckling type movies.  Or movies with talking animals.

I decide to show him Walt Disney's Peter Pan, because he likes whimsy, he likes sword play, and he finds pirates to be scary-but-impressive.

About 30 minutes in, I had to explain to him that the label "savage" is not appropriate when describing the Indigenous people of the Americas.  And then I have to tell him that these Indigenous people have several distinctly rich and diverse cultures over hundreds of nations, and were spread throughout the land with symbiotic success for hundreds or even thousands of years before the European settlers arrive in the late fifteenth century.

I had to explain that the word "How" was a Eurocentric term used as a catchall "Indian" word, and has very little basis in any Indigenous North American nation's vernacular.  But, in actuality, it is an instance of European society subjugating the culture of the native people.  Just like calling the Indigenous people "Indian" (they're not from India) or "Native American" (they were on the land before it was called America).  Let alone "savage", "barbarian", or "primitive" (all terms used by the young British children in Peter Pan).

I had to tell him that the term "Red Man" is insensitive and a misnomer: the Indigenous people's skin is not red. In fact, their skin tone is as varied as their cultures and an adaptation as a result of several hundred generations living in particular regions of the Americas (and their skin has certainly not been altered because once a boy kissed a girl, and became so flushed that his genetic code was altered, and he passed the over stimulation on to his progeny until all members of all nations were darker). Some of the Indigenous have lighter skin color, some have darker skin color.  Because, as Morgan Freeman sez in Robin Hood, "Because Allah loves wondrous varieties."

I'd also like to point out that my usage of the word "Allah" (twice now) has officially put my website on a government  watch list -- yaaaay!

Also, Tiger Lily is totally not an Indigenous name.  If anything, it's a Cantonese name.

I told him all of these things, he looked at me and said, "Pie-wits are sca-wee!"

"Yes, son," I said and patted him on the head.  "Pirates are scary, indeed."

I suppose I'll have to work extra hard to protect my children from the white-washed evil of the 50's.