In modern society, social acceptance is necessary for survival. People rely on their communities for resources they cannot produce individually, and they tend to conform to the more prevalent culture within their environment in order to maintain their status as a community member. I experienced this in the beginning of high school, where I was willing to change myself in order to maintain my friendships, but this was just a smaller example of the effects of conformity. Daily exchanges can reveal subconscious biases that affect oppressed peoples views of themselves and their culture; but they must endure this in order to adapt to the prevalent culture they are surrounded by. This can be seen in Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Lone Ranger and Tonto
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In “Readers Defend the Rise of The ‘Microaggression Framework’”, Conor Friedersdorf shares his viewpoints on microaggressions - brief and commonplace verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color - and discusses readers’ responses to his previous article. In his previous article, a young Latina student attending Oberlin college received an email from one of her intramural soccer teammates that she perceived to be a microaggression. She then submitted the email to a blog, “Oberlin Microaggressions”, after replying to the email and explaining why she was offended. When a microaggression occurs, it exposes an antiquated system which some think is extinct- racism - exists in daily interactions. It also reveals the victim of the microaggression is not accepted by …show more content…
On the Spokane Reservation in Alexie’s book, the community believes the words they are fed by the white government, and they reinforce the messages they are told by preventing each other from succeeding. This occurrence is clearly is seen in The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, when Alexie theorizes that the disenfranchisement of Native Americans creates a status quo between breaking free and being accepted, and when the status quo is interrupted by an individual they are ostracized from their community. As Victor, a member of the Spokane community, grows up he realizes that no one has dreams, his community accepts the circumstances they live in. Victor questions the possibility to, “imagine a new language when the language of the enemy keeps our dismembered tongues tied to his belt”(152). His community is historically disenfranchised, and they are taught from the beginning of their lives that their voices do not matter; they are nothing. It is difficult to have aspirations when they are constantly told that they are useless. When Alexie uses this phrasing, he is alluding to the oppression of Native Americans by white men who prevent them from having dreams. Alexie’s vivid imagery of tongues being cut off and tied depicts the horrors that can take place because the Native Americans can not
In “Readers Defend the Rise of The ‘Microaggression Framework’”, Conor Friedersdorf shares his viewpoints on microaggressions - brief and commonplace verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color - and discusses readers’ responses to his previous article. In his previous article, a young Latina student attending Oberlin college received an email from one of her intramural soccer teammates that she perceived to be a microaggression. She then submitted the email to a blog, “Oberlin Microaggressions”, after replying to the email and explaining why she was offended. When a microaggression occurs, it exposes an antiquated system which some think is extinct- racism - exists in daily interactions. It also reveals the victim of the microaggression is not accepted by …show more content…
On the Spokane Reservation in Alexie’s book, the community believes the words they are fed by the white government, and they reinforce the messages they are told by preventing each other from succeeding. This occurrence is clearly is seen in The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, when Alexie theorizes that the disenfranchisement of Native Americans creates a status quo between breaking free and being accepted, and when the status quo is interrupted by an individual they are ostracized from their community. As Victor, a member of the Spokane community, grows up he realizes that no one has dreams, his community accepts the circumstances they live in. Victor questions the possibility to, “imagine a new language when the language of the enemy keeps our dismembered tongues tied to his belt”(152). His community is historically disenfranchised, and they are taught from the beginning of their lives that their voices do not matter; they are nothing. It is difficult to have aspirations when they are constantly told that they are useless. When Alexie uses this phrasing, he is alluding to the oppression of Native Americans by white men who prevent them from having dreams. Alexie’s vivid imagery of tongues being cut off and tied depicts the horrors that can take place because the Native Americans can not