H-S columnist taken to task over website
蘑菇视频 columnist Al Owens can’t have it both ways!
I find it disturbing that on one side of the $20 bill Al Owens in his May 2 column about Harriet Tubman clearly points out the impact of others’ racist behaviors to defend the planned image of a former slave on the $20 bill.
On the other side of the bill, not written in the article, is that Mr. Owens is the webmaster for redraidernation.com., with its title containing a blatant racial slur. On the homepage, one is greeted by a image of a stereotypical grim Native American wearing a war bonnet, having a large nose and very red skin.
For the record, Harriet Tubman on the $20 is fine by me. For a long time I have wondered how and why certain faces have remained on our currency. It’s about time “we the people” are all better recognized for the good of the order.
A few years back, I did some serious soul searching and took an public stand against local racism. It was an unpopular stand, and I will again probably garner more criticism. I do not stand in judgment but of observation of those whose minds are cluttered by institutional racist affect. I too had fallen prey to the “pride of Red Raiderisms” until one day I thought about how people of other “marginalized skins” might feel about being put into the role of mascot. It sickened me to the core.
I thought, why did it take me so long to see the big picture? Don’t we promote bullying if the mascot is “red face”? Then I thought, I will step up to the challenge of changing this type of thinking, as difficult as that will be. I am put on this earth to love. Racism is not love.
On one side, Owens successfully defends the photo selection of a grumpy-face Tubman for the $20 bill as the replacement for the current-face Jackson, a slave owner and abuser of Native Americans. On the other side of the bill, he promotes “red face” entertainment. Go to the homepage. The faux Native American image is accompanied by a superficial creed that claims pride, passion and joy can be found in some unmarked territory of the mind. This sounds a bit like the ramblings of someone in the Twilight Zone.
On one side, Owens insightfully asserts that Tubman “helped give people their freedom while Jackson gave people their misery.” No argument here! I applaud her courage in the face of men like Jackson. On the other side, there’s a need to reflect on how the words “Red Raider” are reminders of the continued misery of people frequently spoken about in past tense and who endure mockeries of their falsely perceived ways of life.
There’s more two-sidedness. Owens goes on to suggest that Trump would “like to do to Mexicans” what Jackson did to the Cherokees. Sadly, that’s not a stretch. Conversely, isn’t it obvious that the use of faux headdresses and outfits pranced about in fake sometimes suggestive “native” dances to cliche drum beats is profoundly cruel to Native Americans? The idea of a wall to separate people is not new in this world. Geronimo was imprisoned and lived out his natural life within the walls of military forts. And how did that wall work out in Germany a few years back? Or how about the fences of the Japanese-American internment camps in WW2?
Dare I say that Mr. Owens suffered from the Wendy Bell syndrome when he wrote this article? Much is revealed in what Bell said but much was revealed in what Owens did not say in his article. That Mr. Owens is the webmaster of a site providing pride, passion and joy in a “red face” nation as a platform to tout one’s successes reveals, oh so, much more than his written article supporting a new face on the $20 bill.
So Mr. Owens, while my hope here is to influence community thinking in a positive direction, I thank you for getting the conservation started again. If Harriet Tubman could speak for us all I believe she would say the end of the Trail of Tears is long overdue.
Beverly DeMotte Santella is a resident of Uniontown.