Fwd: [FAIR-L] Genocide, A Casino... What's the Difference?

[Doug Millison]

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>                                  FAIR-L
>                     Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
>                Media analysis, critiques and news reports
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>ACTION ALERT:
>GENOCIDE, A CASINO... WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
>Washington Post piece on "greedy Indians" exhibits ignorance of history
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>February 16, 2001
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>A Washington Post report on a lawsuit by the Miami Indian tribe to regain
>ancestral lands in Illinois (2/13/01) severely trivialized the genocide and
>ethnic cleansing faced by Native Americans. Post reporter William Claiborne,
>attempting to put the dispute in context, wrote:
>
>"As in similar Indian property claims that have been growing in number
>across the country, the historic roles of white men and Indians have been
>reversed. White landowners are complaining that they are the victims of a
>ruthless land grab by greedy Indians backed by a complicit federal
>government."
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>When ethnic communities are in conflict, people involved often use
>stereotypes to explain their situation.  Reporters covering such
>controversies no doubt often hear ethnic groups described as "greedy,"
>"lazy" or in other pejorative terms.  But responsible reporters don't simply
>pass on such slurs, without comment, to their readers.
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>While an editor might eliminate a reporter's off-hand reference to "greedy
>Jews," "greedy Koreans" or the like, for some reason "greedy Indians" seems
>not to have set off any warning bells at the Post.
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>After suggesting that the Miami tribe might settle its claims in exchange
>for a relatively small amount of land and the right to build a casino,
>Claiborne wrote:
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>"Many of the 4,700 residents of this 150-year-old farming community of
>ornate Victorian homes and leafy neighborhoods say they are fearful that a
>gaudy new Indian casino will go up on the western edge of Paxton alongside
>Interstate 57. They say an injustice is about to be committed on them that
>will equal those inflicted on American Indians throughout the 19th century."
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>Is it really necessary to point out that having a casino in your
>neighborhood-- even a "gaudy new Indian casino," in Claiborne's racialized
>phrase-- is in no way comparable to the mass killing and forced displacement
>faced by Native Americans, not only in the 19th Century but for the last
>several centuries?  Yet this attitude is not only unquestioned, it dominates
>the Washington Post's article, with no Indians or supporters of Indian
>claims quoted until the 22nd paragraph of a 27-paragraph article.
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>With so little balance, the article comes across not only as a slanted
>attack on tribal claims, but as a racist attack on Native Americans as an
>ethnicity.
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>ACTION: Please contact Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler, and ask him
>to review the February 13 report on the Miami Indian lawsuit.  Ask him to
>clarify that it is not the Post's policy to republish ethnic slurs without
>context, or to equate casino-building with genocidal crimes against Native
>Americans.
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>CONTACT:
>Michael Getler, Ombudsman
>mailto:ombudsman at washpost.com
>The Washington Post
>150 15th Street, N.W.
>Washington, D.C. 20071.
>
>William Claiborne, Staff writer
>mailto:claiborneb at washpost.com
>
>
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