Im an Indian too ?

[alxscrz2]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 11:59pm

Why was 'Im an Indian too' not included on the Bernadette Peters production of Annie Get Your Gun ?? I read somwhere that it was offensive. I listened to Ethel Merman sing the song and don't hear anything offensive about it.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 12:01am

The term "Indian" is no longer socially accepted as description of Native Americans. That's why it's considered offensive.

[alxscrz2]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 12:07am

I wonder if Patti LuPone will be singing the song in the Annie get your gun concert.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 12:08am

Like the Seminole, Navajo, Kickapoo
Like those Indians
I'm an Indian too
A Sioux
A Sioux
Just like Battle Axe, Hatchet Face, Eagle Nose
Like those Indians
I'm an Indian too
A Sioux
A Sioux
Some Indian summer's day
Without a sound
I may hide away
With Big Chief Hole-in-the-Ground
And I'll have totem poles, tomahawks, pipes of peace
Which will go to prove
I'm an Indian too
A Sioux
A Sioux
With my chief in his teepee
We'll raise an Indian family
And I'll be busy night and day
Looking like a flour sack
With two papooses on my back
And three papooses on the way
Like the Chippewa, Iroquois, Omaha
Like those Indians
I'm an Indian too
A Sioux
A Sioux
Just like Rising Moon, Falling Pants, Running Nose
Like those Indians
I'm an Indian too
A Sioux
A Sioux
Some Indian summer's day
Without a care
I may run away
With Big Chief Son-of-a-Bear
And I'll wear moccasins, wampum beads, feather hats
Which will go to prove
I'm an Indian too
A Sioux
A Sioux

Now go read Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee and read these lyrics again.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 12:10am

Not the best reliable source (I know), but here's Wikipedia's explanation:

" 'I'm an Indian Too' is a song from the 1946 musical ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, by Irving Berlin. It was originally performed by Ethel Merman.

It is typical of mid-20th century views of Native Americans, and is sometimes considered racist and demeaning from a contemporary perspective, although others see it as a mildly satirical attack on racial stereoyping. Native Americans did protest outside the New York Theater, as well as the film theaters, too, holding picket signs stating: 'Don't See ANNIE GET YOUR GUN.' As a result of this Native American insult, many contemporary productions have omitted the song from their revivals, and the protests stopped.

In 1979, the song was remixed and released as a dance track by disco artist Don Armando."

Here, I found that Armando disco remix on YouTube!

With Big Chief Hole-in-the-Ground

Updated On: 9/20/09 at 12:10 AM

[alterego]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 8:50am

We should never have let the fun police out.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 9:09am

Before racial stereotypes were thought to be offensive, Fannie Brice combined her Jewish-immigrant stereotype with a Native-American stereotype about a Jewish girl ("Minni-Ha-Ha...Minnie-Who-Who? Minnie-Ha-Ha! Hah-haaaah...") who takes up with an Inidan chief:

He wrapped me up in blankets,
Put feathers on my head--
Between the feathers and the blankets,
I feel just like a bed!
Oy, oy!


Small video of Fannie Brice marionette performing the number from the 1945 MGM film Ziegfeld Follies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMfixeKOy3c



Complete audio:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrSPF1_e7Ec

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 10:28am

It's demeaning and offensive, yes, which is bad enough.

But it didn't go as far as this racist little ditty from Walt Disney's Peter Pan:

"What Makes the Red Man Red?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_at9dOElQk

... not to mention sexist.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 10:43am

Speaking of ... it's pretty repulsive in this day and age that we still have a football team in this country called the Washington Redskins. And a pro baseball team called the Cleveland Indians.

Can you imagine having other sports teams based on races, like the St. Louis Blackies? The New York Negroes?

Or the Minneapolis White Boys? The Altanta Caucasians?

Or the San Fransisco Yellowmen?

This is 2009. Enough already with this antiquated mid-20th century bullsh*t.

Change the name. And wake up.

[vodkastinger]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 12:31pm

"We should never have let the fun police out."

Oh, how we all miss those fun days on the Great White Way. Too bad the fun police stopped that long-needed revival of "A Trip to Coontown".

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 1:35pm

And yet nobody had a problem with the lyric "Folks are dumb where I come from".

I guess the citizens of Ohio just don't get as upset about lyrics in musical comedy as everyone else does.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 1:39pm

Or the Brooklyn Jewboys.

[zamedy]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 3:05pm

We did ANNIE GET YOUR GUN my junior year of high school in '97... and this song was included in our production, along with the rather lenghtly Native American dance ceremony that proceeds it. I live in the Northeast. If anyone complained or was offended by it, we never heard about it.

[alxscrz2]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 3:29pm

I think it should be included in the upcoming concert version of Annie Get Your Gun, with Patti LuPone. It's originally part of the show anyway

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 3:35pm

bestie, you forgot about the Atlanta Braves and their tomahawk chant.

[noradesmond]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 4:39pm

Never thought I'd ever hear ANNIE GET YOUR GUN and BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE mentioned in the same discussion.

Look, I agree that we should all me more racially sensitive and there have been some appalling stereotypes promoted in the name of entertainment over the years. But I frankly don't get all the hoo ha over I'M AN INDIAN TOO. It's seems to me an example of 'political correctness' going too far. Censorship by any name is still censorship.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 7:04pm

noradesmond---you don't get it? Did you read the lyrics?

Running nose? Falling pants? Chief Son-of-a-Bear?

Let's equate making fun of Native American names to doing that same thing in other cultures. Would you still think it was cool if they were singing about:

Shiquiqui Shenaynay Jones? Roosevelt Jefferson Jackson Jr.? Steppin' Fetchit?

Or how about Ching-Chong Ying-Yong? Chew My Fat? Mishikaka Kamikaze?

Or Chiquita Banana Gomez? Cholita Chiquita Rosita Vasquez? Jose Juan Jose?

Guido Fungu Ragu Spumoni?

Jewseph Finklesteiner Goldbergstein?

Still think it's "political correctness" going too far?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 7:29pm

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Judy Garland in blackface, performing the once-entertaining, now-horrifying "Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0_8MQD-3sk

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 7:32pm

If you're going to quote Mr Roxy, you have to get it right! It's the PC police, not the fun police.

[alterego]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 8:56pm

No, I'm with noradesmond on this. But where would it end? What is offensive to one person may not be offensive to another, but you can bet those offended would have their own agenda and their own targets for humour (be it racist or not). Someone is going to be offended. All humour is based on the misfortune of others.

I say put it back into the show. It is one of the better songs and it is representative of the time the show was written.

Phyllis Rogers Stone, there are both the Fun Police AND the P.C. Police. Who is quoting Mr Roxy? Not me. Updated On: 9/20/09 at 08:56 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 9:07pm

When we were driving through Georgia last months, we were shocked to find there was an UNCLE REMUS MUSEUM in Eatonton, Georgia, extolling the virtues of stories that have long been branded as racist, along with SONG OF THE SOUTH, the Disney movie Disney will not allow to be show in the U.S.

http://www.uncleremus.com/museum.html





THE UNCLE REMUS MUSEUM is located in Turner Park, three blocks south of the courthouse on Highway 441 in Eatonton, Georgia, birthplace of Joel Chandler Harris.

The museum is a log cabin made from two original Putnam County slave cabins. The building is similar to the one occupied by Uncle Remus, the lovable character made famous by Mr. Harris. Colorful scenes in each of the windows depict the countryside of a southern plantation during the ante-bellum days. Shadow boxes containing delicate wood carvings of "de critters" capture the other world of Uncle Remus. The focal point of the cabin is a large portrait of Uncle Remus and the Little Boy.

A fireplace surrounded by mementos of the era occupy one end of the cabin. Evidences of the close affectionate relationship between the old man and his little friend are scattered about the fireside. Articles are authentic as to time and are mentioned in the stories.

First editions of many of Mr. Harris' works and numerous articles of interest occupy a counter near the center of the museum. Uncle Remus books and souvenirs can be purchased.

Turner Park, site of the museum, has been acquired by the organization. It was a part of the original home place of Joseph Sidney Turner, the "Little Boy" in the tales of Uncle Remus.

The museum is open daily 10 - 5. (Closed one hour for lunch).
Sunday hours are from 2 - 5.
Closed Tuesdays from November through March.

Updated On: 9/20/09 at 09:07 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 9:27pm

1. I wonder how much leeway white people are get posting the stereotypes of other groups ironically before it in itself becomes offensive.

2. Is alterego's point that racially offensive humor is okay because every group does it? I'm just not clear on that.

3. I disagree that all humor is based on the misfortune of others. I think that's not even a sweeping generalization, it's just wrong.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/20/09 at 10:33pm

While Fannie Brice was singing about her romance with an Indian chief, vaudeville "artist" Edward Meeker was making fun of supposedly weak, funny-voiced Jews with his "Tough-Guy Levi (I'm a Yiddish Cowboy)":



This was popular entertainment, once upon a time: German, Irish, Italian, Asian, Jewish, black and Native American--every group that was "other" was made fun of.
Tough-Guy Levi (I'm a Yiddish Cowboy)

[Dolly_Levi]

Posted: 9/21/09 at 12:34am

Using the same litmus test, is "Spanish Rose" equally as offensive?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/21/09 at 12:53am

I'll let Phyllis field that one.