High Stakes Stereotypes: The Emergence of the “Casino Indian” Trope in Television Depictions of Contemporary Native Americans

摘要

Native Americans and race scholars have argued that the media construct and perpetuate racist notions of tribal peoples through images and discursive practices that portray them in very stereotypical ways. In particular, the dialectical “master tropes” of the Noble Savage and the Ignoble Savage have long shaped the cultural consciousness with regard to native peoples. The author examines examples from several recent television texts, including The Sopranos, Saturday Night Live, Chappelle's Show, Family Guy, Drawn Together, and South Park, in which Native Americans are depicted in contemporary contexts and argues that these depictions reference age-old racist stereotypes of the Ignoble Savage while simultaneously working to construct a new trope that she terms the Casino Indian. This article attempts to chart the contours of this stereotype and argues that it suggests Native Americans are once again being portrayed as a threat—the Ignoble Savage of the past posed a threat of violence, while the contemporary Casino Indian image, which articulates with both racist and classist discourses, reflects the fear of Native Americans as an economic and political threat.View full textDownload full textKEYTERMSIgnoble Savage, Native American, stereotype, television, tropeRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2011.546738