Race Matters: Pirates

Regarding the Disney feature film, “The Lone Ranger”, Race replied:

1. 
   Race BannonJuly 7, 2013 at 4:36 AM

   Maybe its out there, but I haven’t heard it – where is the uproar from the Native American community regarding Depp playing Tonto, and using face paint to hide his Anglo features? Oh wait…in 2002 Depp acknowledged that he would like to think he had Native American blood in his ancestry. Okay, good, that has to be at least 1/64th, or 1/128th…

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   I have been accused by some (not in a good way) of being a pirate, and having pirate blood. That (in my opinion) gives me standing to voice this objection.
   
   

   Johnny Depp, poking fun at a class of people who are clearly under represented on the world stage — Pirates.

   Which brings to mind some other disturbing thoughts. The Pirates of the world (and yes they still exist, primarily in Somalia and in the Philippines area) have not yet expressed outrage at Johnny Depp’s performance as a pirate in the Disney franchise, “Pirates of the Caribbean”. In case you haven’t seen one of those movies, Depp casts pirates in a bad light. After all, pirates are people too and some of them might have sensitive feelings. After all (quoting the Disney song here) they, pillage, plunder, rifle and loot, kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot (drink up me hearties, yo ho). But none of those activities, however despicable mean that they (pirates) should be portrayed in a less than favorable image.

   

   
   And what about the baseball team? The people of Pittsburg have been disparaging pirates for years, using pirate images in less than favorable ways with their major league baseball team. Note the portrayal (left) of the sneering face, the suggestion bad hygiene and a bad attitude.

   Then there is the even more disturbing image of the Oakland Raiders football team, which equates pirates with unwholesome activities (raiding**).

   **That pirates raid is a given, but fundamentalist Muslims do too, they pillage, plunder, ravage and loot, kidnap, bomb, torture, etc. and if you display of an image of Mohammad-the-Pirate, they set out to murder you. After all, what was Mohammad if not a pirate? Portraying a Muslim in an unfavorable way is “Islamophobic” and is a crime in Britain and almost a crime in the US. I sense a double standard here too.

   I find that offensive. And I see no public outrage when inner city youths pick up the Oakland Raiders logo and use it as a gang totem? Am I the lone voice, crying in the wilderness for the rights of pirates worldwide? What about we who have pirate blood coursing through our veins? Pirates are always portrayed as one-eyed. How much more offensive can the stereotypes get? Can we of pirate spirit obtain reparations from companies who exploit our images and degrade us — for all the wrongs that have been laid at our feet? (I’m talking a treasure chest full of gold dubloons and silver pieces of eight provided at US taxpayer expense — maybe with the next trillion dollar stimulus…) Maybe I should call Gloria Allred? 

   And where is the offending Depp in all of this? Sure, he might be 1/128th Indian/Native American/”feather Indian” as opposed to “red dot Indian”, but does pirate blood course through his veins? I’ve never heard him make that claim. Depp lives most of the year in France (Coneheads are not pirates, though they wear a type of pirate outfit in the Conehead Movie).