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Stereotype of the Month Entry
(12/3/02)


A response to a Stereotype of the Month Entry:  "Cornell Leftists Trash Columbus/America":

>> I'm surprised you're reading frontpagemag.com. There may be hope for you yet. <<

I don't read it regularly. I stumble across it when I surf the Net or when people forward messages.

>> Mr. Sabia's diatribe was otherwise no more or less bigoted than the leftists he was attacking. <<

I'd say it was more bigoted, or at least more wrong. Sabia falsified the facts about Native cultures. It's called lying, something Bush-era conservatives are familiar with. Unlike Sabia's statements, "Amerikkka" and the like are opinions that aren't subject to verification.

And what if Sabia were as bigoted as the leftists he criticized, but no more bigoted? Should a university magazine or FrontPage.com publish a bigoted article? Whatever happened to "two wrongs don't make a right"?

Since I'm not as bigoted as Sabia, I'm happy to find him guilty of bigotry. I'm also happy to find conservatives who apologize for him, like you, guilty of bigotry by association.

>> Beyond that, I don't see how you can respond to something like this because the subject is so vast. <<

See http://www.bluecorncomics.com/stype2a5.htm for one response.

>> Yes, there were brutal whites and noble savages. But there were also noble whites and brutal savages. <<

By making them sound equivalent, you're missing the point. There may have been 100 or more brutal whites for every brutal Indian. The two sides were not equivalent in any real sense.

Moreover, most Indians weren't savages. Since your formulation is as racist as Sabia's, you may want to rethink it.

>> I liked Louis L'Amour's analysis wherein he concluded the Natives broke about as many treaties as us Europeans did. <<

Which analysis is that? I hope you're not referring to "Last of the Breed." That was propaganda, not analysis.

I've read some 50 books and hundreds of articles on Native history, and I've never heard anyone claim Indians broke as many treaties as Anglos. When a respected historian, or any historian—not a pulp novelist—makes the claim, let me know.

Rob

Related links
The myth of Western superiority
Those evil European invaders
Native vs. non-Native Americans:  a summary


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