In season four of Buffy the Vampire Slayer there is an episode "Pangs" that is set during Thanksgiving. A new Native American cultural center is being built, but when they break ground, they find an old mission and release the spirits of Native Americans bent on exacting revenge for the wiping out of their race. Throughout the episode the discussion of what Thanksgiving means and how the history of the Native Americans has been erased. One quote I particularly like is when Spike gets fed up with the fact that Buffy doesn't want to kill the spirits. I can't find a clip of it, but the conversation is...
Spike: I just can't take all this namby-pamby boo-hooing about the bloody Indians.
Willow: Uh, the preferred term is...
Spike: You won, alright? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That's what conquering nations do! That's what Caesar did and he's not going around saying, "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it." The history of the world is not people making friends, you had better weapons and you massacred them, end of story.
This episode demonstrates the ways in which many Americans feel guilty about "their"role in the genocide of Native Americans and how we change history to make our actions seem better.
Here is a link to the full episode if you would like to see it. It's very good and rather funny.
http://www.surfthechannel.com/info/television/Buffy_The_Vampire_Slayer/53784/S4E8.html?aid=218924
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1 comment:
Good example. I wasn't familiar with this episode. Buffy was a very smart show.
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