The politics of ethnic minority villains

If you're worried about causing a stir, or hurting someone's feelings, you're in the wrong business. If the story is fictional, the characters fictional, then be honest with your writing. And if that means characters cutting out the eyes of other characters, then so be it.

Personally, I like the native's idea of retribution; it seems logical and incredibly vivid.

 

Only if you talk about mundane archaeological items. Valuable objects, like those made of gold, are unlikely to just have been lying around until a European found them and picked them up. More likely they were stolen in military campaigns or armed robberies.

The Spanish conquistadors, like Cortés and Pizarro, conducted military campaigns against the Aztec and Incan empires with the express purpose of taking their gold. Since they tried to justify their actions, not deny them, there is little room for interpretation in those cases.

 

Dear some people in this thread,

As soon as you start assigning or imagining atributes for a racial group you're being racist. And I don't mean that as an insult.

I'm sure you know that both the invaders and the invaded had all kinds of people: nice, evil, funny, loud and quiet. I'm sure you imagine that in a moment of war, both sides had murderous bastards and honorable fighters. I'm sure you understand they were all human beings and there was essentially no difference between them but for a bit of technology.

So, next time you say "the natives were... ", "the conquistadors were...", etc try to actually imagine a human being in a jungle, being attacked by guys with boomsticks and metal hats just like the week before he was attacked by the local tribe of cannibals. Or a guy who got in a boat to flee from his wife's father after killing her. Or a fisherman who just wanted to be the first to start a fishing business in that new coast. Or an indian woman who's just wrong wired and likes to kill people. Or a child born of the unthinkable love between a spaniard and a shaman helper girl. Try to avoid thinking of "a spaniard" or "a native".

People are people, they've always been, and deep down it's easy to be much different from the guy who's sitting next to you in the bus, than from a random spanish conquistador or an american native hunter.

 

That is not strictly true. Genetics and enviroment play a huge part in who we are, the way we treat babies affects the adults they will become etc People from a different culture and time may well have a different reaction to the same situation because of everything that went into making them who they are.

People vary from culture to culture, because they often share a similar background or experiences.

Fact is my Mom in Law's first reaction to a dangerous situation because of her background is to shoot her way out. Mine is to get everyone out.

We are being influenced by food, mood and people around us right from the womb.

Recommend reading Baby Wisdom by Deborah Jackson or Dream Babies by Christina Hardyment.

Accepting people are different because of where they grew up or who they are is not racist. Not accepting their differences is where racism begins.

 

I don't think all invaders were brothers. I can't believe different native tribes taught the same things to their children.

People treat their babies in nearly opposite ways two km from where I live.

I'm pretty sure my neighbour will have a different reaction from mine, to the same situations, because of everything that went into making him as he is.

The common points make a tini difference compared to each person's individual mind.

You're interpreting exactly the opposite of what I said.

What I said (unless I expressed myself incorrectly, which is always a possibility in english) is that racism is implying people are equal because of where they grew up. For example "spanish colonists are murderous bastards" or whatever.

 

Not if you are brought up in a tribal situation or a commuinity where collective behaviour is a huge part of your upbringing. I found the Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff fascinating there are now other similar work studying insular tribes but hers was the first really indepth.

 

Ok, maybe I'll something about tribe psychology because I really find it hard to believe that everyone in a tribe (women, men, children, elders, shamans or hunters) thinks in the same way.

However, even if tribes are like that because of the special psychologic upbringing, the Native American people weren't a tribe, but hundreds of them, and the invaders didn't came from the same Spanish household.


In short, in a novel you can obviously have the characters think of the enemy as an homogeneous mass of same thinking bastards; however, as a writer, you can't think of your characters that way or that part of your story will be plain and fake. From some posts I just felt that homogeneization that kills so many otherwise nice stories.

 

It's nothing special our society is more fragmented now but tribes and cultures still do have specific ways of bringing up their babies and children, all of which affects psychology. A simple example would be pink and blue it is only since the 1930s that his become enshrined in some cultures as pink for girls and blue for boys. Watch the reaction if I put my sons in pink wellies and then say they are a boy. In the 1800s blue was seen as a girls colour and pink for boys,

Native Americans formed many tribes but some did at various time follow similar patterns to the Amazonian Tribes. Each tribe had a specific way of bringing up children for example one may pick a baby up and not let them cry. Another would let a child of the same age cry for periods of time preparing them for war. Another tribe will use colostrum, another feeds the child all sorts of a weird mix and concoction banning breastfeeding or certain kinds of contact for the first few days.

Some tribes interacted with the baby in the womb or the Mother had a specific diet during pregnancy. The aftercare and interaction between Mum and baby is prescribed in many tribes. Yes there are individuals but there are usually commanalities between people of the same race even if it is just what time they have dinner etc

 

I remember reading something about that, but I can't recall where I saw it.

Specifically, that in medieval heraldry, pink was deemed to be a shade of red, and red was the color of the Roman god Mars (The god of war).

Where pink and other shades of red were considered to be "hot, fiery colors of war" and thus masculine, blue was considered to be a "cool and subdued" color, and thus feminine.

Now that you've got me thinking about it, I really wish I could remember where I read that

 

Any number of history books, red was seen as an angry colour. As a shade of red pink right up until the 1900s was used as a boys colour. It is possible Hitlers use of pink for homosexuals is what changed the perception from manly to effeminate.

Think of the paintings of Mary, what colour is she most frequently depicted in? Blue it was ultra feminine.

The perception is changing but for several years those two colourss show a societal reaction to the sexes, and dressing a child in pink or blue against sex still causes people to treat them different. Even today in some cultures pink is still a boys colour.

How an Eastern Eruopean behaves with their children is often very different to how a Scot behaves with theirs etc, many cultures find letting a baby to cry abuse, others have extended family around them more frequently.

My grandparents way of dealing with trauma was to lock people who couldn't cope away, the rest picked themselves up dusted themselves down and moved on. The reaction to a flash of a knee was shock etc

People are basically the same but culture starts to affect us right from the womb. Look at the different attitudes to suicide, some cultures it is heroic others cowardly and selfish. If we are going to be comfortable ripping someone head off depends on training and condtioning or mental illness. Oddly the latter seems to occur less in a tribal situation, however other tribes used to train children for war from the moment they were born.

 

Bottom Line Up Front: No.

I liked your topic for a book, and it never crossed my (white man)'s mind that you were coming off anything close to racism.

Just to echo what's already been said, I think you should carry out your original plan to gouge out eyeballs and such, without fear of being chastised.

Again, sounds like a great book! Good luck to you!