Caricaturing the Indian: seriously, JK Rowling?

[beatrice_otter]

I imagine you all have heard by now that Jo Rowling has been releasing stuff about American wizarding history over on Pottermore, and that it shows a lack of interest in anything but the pablum white-washed Pro-US Hollywoodized stuff, with bonus appropriation of Native American culture/mythology for a does of the exotic.

NK Jemison has a short post about it.

Native Appropriations does a more in-depth look at it, which I appreciate.

Now, Rowling has never been very culturally sensitive, shall we say, but when she was mostly just layering Beauxbatons and Fleru with every French stereotype she could muster, well, it's not like the French are an oppressed minority.  And the general lack of diversity at Hogwarts and other problematic issues was bad, but at least they were tangential to the core of the story.  This is, well, the appropriative caricatures are pretty central to the pieces she's releasing now.

As a palate-cleanser, here's A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction.  Would've been more appropriate to link to a crash course in Native American Science Fiction, but I couldn't find one.  I found general Native American book lists, and lists of speculative fiction by authors of color, and SF/F stories "with Native American flavor" (?!?) but the best I could find was Wikipedia's list of Native American Speculative Fiction Authors of Note.  And the University of Arizona recently published an anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, of which some of the authors are native American.

Comments

[schneefink]

I'd only seen the first part so far, from that Native Appropriations article. It looks like in the future parts she barely mentions Native wizards at all: apparently colonization and genocide proceeded the exact same way with wizards on both sides. That seems impossible/very thoughtless on her part. I'd have expected fights, at least, if not a war, where settler wizards fought Native wizards under the guise of "preserving the statutes of secrecy." And if not I want to be told why not. (That could be a great story, but it shouldn't be written by her.)

[beatrice_otter]

Pretty much, yeah.

[muccamukk]

Well, and First Nations religious figures like Thunderbirds and skinwalkers are rolled into European mythology, and/or claimed to be fictional.

Plus she skips the Civil War and slavery, which does make the linked lack history essay on point.

[lilacsigil]

Well, the French aren't an oppressed minority, but she did the same thing for Eastern Europe, and Eastern Europeans *are* the target of a great deal of hatred and discrimination in the UK. She has no shortage of access to people who would love to help her research their cultures and create an authentic world, so it's disappointing that she doesn't bother.

[muccamukk]

It's one of those situations where my level of surprised approches zero, but my level of annoyed is pretty high.

(Jemisin, btw)

Silent Dances?

[(Anonymous)]

I loved a Science fiction book called Silent Dances. It was written years ago and I still remember it. The heroine is Native American - the first native American character I think I ever read about. I loved the fact her heritage was relevant without being preachy.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1560606.Silent_Dances

Re: Silent Dances?

[beatrice_otter]

Thanks for the rec.