My wife was watching a repeat of this this music program last night — MC Mong doing his current single “Indian Boy.” I knew about the controversy surrounding the song, mostly as it’s reported by the Korean media, and haven’t really have time to get into it on here, but after seen the above live performance last night I can’t resist.
By in large, I’ll admit that Native American caricatures like this don’t anger me as much as caracatures of blacks and Jewish people. That might come off as insensitive and I realize it’s not politically correct, but I think at this point there’s enough separation between what Native Americans were and are today, to know that the Cleveland Indians mascot doesn’t have much to do with it.
On the other hand I probably dislike MC Mong more that any other Korean celebrity. I find him smug and can easily envision him slobbering and throwing whiskey bottles around room salons. Koreans sometimes take a certain pride in not being politically correct, especially when dealing with things that Americans think ought to be politically correct. Even the KBO recently handed out an anti-MLB pamphlet at a tournament that had a cartoon with a black baseball player drawn as a monkey. There are the Nazi bars, that, take some heat if it’s really turned up high, but not until it becomes a public problem that extends outside Korea.
The funny thing is, if you believe the Asian land bridge theory, and I don’t really see how anyone can’t, then you also believe that so-called Native Americans were actually originally from Asia via the Middle East and Africa. So, with that in mind, you can say Native Americans are also Native Asians and most likely Native Koreans and Native Japanese as well. I’m sure if you suggested that idea to Mr. Mong he’d freak out and start telling you the story of Dangun, the first Korean, who was the offspring of a heaven-sent tiger and bear couple who ate garlic and became human. This is where I run into big problems with “culture” and arguing about who is and what was, especially as it pertains to who was first.
I do wish MC Mong would get called out on “Indian Boy,” not so much because I’m offended, but because I dislike him. As my wife pointed out last night, if someone did a pop song with a similar caricature of, say, turn of 20th century Koreans, Koreans would be beside themselves.
10 responses so far ↓
1 hansioux // Aug 7, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Land Bridge theory is supported by genetic evidence, so it’s kind of hard not to believe in it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_mitochondrial_DNA_haplogroup
I have to say this is a pretty catchy tune though…
2 Spartie // Aug 8, 2009 at 12:29 am
What kind of indian is this supposed to be?
There are bits of native american stereotypes
the stage decoration and costumes are hawaiian stereotypes
the dancing looks like its from a bollywood movie
3 baekgom84 // Aug 8, 2009 at 12:58 am
As I recall, didn’t a few Koreans get upset about the backwards portrayal of (North) Koreans in one of the more recent 007 films?
4 DJ // Aug 8, 2009 at 2:55 am
“Even the KBO recently handed out an anti-MLB pamphlet at a tournament that had a cartoon with a black baseball player drawn as a monkey.”
Uh, this strikes me as pretty big news. And a big deal. If it were to get out to the Western media that the KBO has trafficked in that sort of crap, I don’t see how its reputation in the West (to the extent it has one) would ever recover. And that wouldn’t be good news for a league that’s just starting to get attention over here.
They need to cut that out.
5 DJ // Aug 8, 2009 at 4:14 am
By the way, the Asian Land Bridge theory is strongly contested–even mocked–by many members of the American Indian community. They don’t like being told by white people that they’re really Chinese.
6 Shinsano // Aug 8, 2009 at 10:19 am
“Uh, this strikes me as pretty big news. And a big deal. If it were to get out to the Western media that the KBO has trafficked in that sort of crap, I don’t see how its reputation in the West (to the extent it has one) would ever recover.”
I debated scanning it and posting it, but I’m not really in a position to be breaking that kind of news. I talked to one of the KBO scouts, asked him if the monkey was supposed to be Jerry Royster, and the pamphlets haven’t been handed out since. The league has moved it’s anti-MLB propaganda to the airwaves instead.
“By the way, the Asian Land Bridge theory is strongly contested–even mocked–by many members of the American Indian community. They don’t like being told by white people that they’re really Chinese.”
I say tough titty to that. And to call those people Chinese wouldn’t really be correct either. I’ve heard a number of American Indian groups also object to the theory because it conflicts with various spiritual beliefs.
The sooner people and cultures accept this kind of scientific fact the sooner we can get over a lot of the cultural BS people try to prop up their own existence with. Even if you’re religious and believe your God back-created things like the scientific proof of the Asian Land Bridge Theory, you can still acknowledge that all culture connects with the evolution of humankind.
7 S // Aug 25, 2009 at 11:06 am
Well, Native people tend to be the most underrepresented peoples in the U.S. so it’s not surprising that non-Natives act like they’re invisible. It tends to soften the guilt that you don’t have to deal or think about “those” people, am I right? Hence why folks like that tend to gravitate towards stereotypes of Blacks or Jews. Apart from that, most Natives don’t buy the Bering Strait theory and really, that doesn’t absolve what M.C. Mong did. If that were the case, I don’t see how the Spanish or Argentine teams can be labeled with a racist brush for imitating Oriental eyes seeing how Caucasians apparently came before Asians. I mean, Europe does lie west of Asia and going by the human migration model, Asians are really white people that adapted to Asia.
8 Rob Schmidt // Sep 3, 2009 at 10:36 am
Cute song, but the video is full of racist stereotypes about Indians. Therefore, I’m making the video a permanent entry in my Stereotype of the Month contest:
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/2009/08/mc-mongs-indian-boy-video.html
There’s almost no evidence, much less “proof,” of the Asian land bridge theory. At least a couple of competing theories exist:
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/2009/08/migration-theories-in-time-team-america.html
9 Shinsano // Sep 3, 2009 at 3:21 pm
My guess is there’s more proof of the Asian land bridge theory than what your average Indian would say, but I’m ok with the Solutrean hypothesis, coastal migration theory or kelp highway theory as well.
I’m glad to hear you put the video in your Stereotype of the Month contest. That’s partly why I posted it.
10 Bruins // Sep 18, 2009 at 2:58 am
I like reading arguments from avid fans stating that the MV is not in any way racist or stereotypical. Nevermind that it’s a hodgepodge of different cultures, that it portrays Native Americans as “savages” (as can be seen by the boy being carried away on a stick, a la cannibalism), that he portrays a throwback image of Native Americans with the hootin’ and hollerin’ and grunting around in a stampeding circle. I like MC Mong, personally, but I’m not going to deny that he’s wrong in this instance. And I’m sorry but I don’t think Koreans (I’m Korean) should say “why would people be offended? whatever” because he’s not mis-portraying OUR culture. What right do we have to tell others not to be offended? If a non-Korean made a stereotypical MV of Koreans wearing samurai outfits and doing comical, exaggerated, and stereotypical karaoke, drinking, smoking, and eating live octopus… I don’t think we’d be so quick to state that people shouldn’t be offended by a little bit “cultural fun.” Puh.
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