The Effects of Stereotypes

Southpark has been known as very controversial animated showed ever since its beginnings.  In the 7^th episode of their 7^th season they decided to write about the stereotype of greediness that hunts Native Americans.  This episode has the title of Red Man’s Greed; the tittle pretty much sums up what the whole episode is about, Natives Americans buy the whole town of Southpark just so that they can destroy it and build a highway that can take people directly to their casino, meaning more profits.  Native Americans are greedy casino owner individuals who only care about seeking benefits for no one but themselves.  In most shows and movies Native Americans are portrayed as wise and caring individuals, but Southpark goes down a totally different road, focusing on the stereotype of greediness rather than going down the path most TV and movie writers use. There is also a very important twist to the story, during the whole episode the Native Americans are treating the people of Southpark the way their ancestors were treated when the English arrived to America and took the Natives’ land and infected them with diseases that pretty much killed them.  Where things end up differing is where at the end the Native Americans decided to return the town to the people of Southpark because the people of Southpark helped to save the son of one of the natives that had gotten infected with one of the diseases they had used to get rid of the people of Southpark.  I guess one could make the argument that at the end this episode does go into the stereotype of Native Americans being loving and caring since they gave up making a huge profit by building their high speed highway simply because one of their own was cured by the people of southpark.

            This representation of Native Americans as greedy group of individuals works to justify unfair treatment by creating the “they would do the same to us” kind of mentality.  Another way if which this episode might justify continuous unfair treatment of Native Americans is way making the viewer believe that no matter how bad they treat Native Americans, their actions will be forgiven as long as they do something positive for them, since this episode also supports the stereotype of Natives being wise individuals, and that event though they are greedy, they are wise enough to forgive when something good is done for them.

            It doesn’t matter what stereotype is being portrayed about Native Americans in TV, not all Native Americans have the same beliefs, follow the same principles, dress the same, or look the way we think. There are different tribes with different customs, and when they are being portrayed a certain way on television, they are being generalized and just being grouped altogether.