Monday, November 3, 2008

wonder: "Indians"? "Native Americans"? "Indigenous people"? "Skins"?

In the midst of some fine fancydancing, Sherman Alexie and Stephen Colbert raise a common question about proper terminology. But . . . do they ever provide a proper answer?



7 comments:

  1. That's the best Colbert interview I've seen in a while! hilarious!

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  2. This was the strangest Colbert interview I've ever seen. I think his guest was genuinely pissed at having a view of Christopher Columbus from his hotel window - probably something Colbert had no knowledge of. But there was an undercurrent of a power struggle in that conversation.

    It's as though his Native American guest was determined to not make light of his ethnic heritage and Colbert wanted to do this anyway - and did - with biting sharp humor. While the joke about the blankets was funny, it also wasn't because of the underlying tension.

    It was strange and uncomfortable for me to watch.

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  3. That was a very short interview. (I do not watch television, so I do not know if that length of time is normal for a Colbert interview.) I wanted more.

    Nonetheless, I have fallen in love with Sherman Alexie! What a smart, clever and sharp man he is.

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  4. You thought he looked pissed, Kit? Looked to me like each of them could barely keep a straight face (though Alexie is so used to having to throw true facts into his interviews, he got the counting coup one out whole & serious in between the jokes). The only competition I saw was topping each other's lines.

    Sherman Alexie's pretty funny even with a regular interviewer (even on NPR or college radio) so this was a double treat. "We learned it from you!"

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  5. i'm with kit, this interview made me hella uncomfortable, i thought alexie did an awesome job, but colbert could have taken the high road and not tried to defend some of the messed up shit he said. i respect colbert, but i think he makes some bad calls and flirts with the inappropriate and disrespectful for a few laughs at times.

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  6. This was kind of a strange/inappropriate exchange. It was also funny, but I'm just not sure what I thought about Colbert's...comedic libido.

    Anyway, very interested in this cat, Alexie, and eager to read some of his work. =)

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