Question

What are some prevalent stereotypes of American Indians today? How do they differ from reality?

Answer 1

There are various stereotypes that we hear when we talk about American Indians, these are popularized by media and fiction stories which are portrayed on television screen. Some of these misconception are as follows: the Native American culture is only single entity. What I meant by that people from different tribes and different cultural practice, all are categorized and put under the same umbrella of Native Americans. Despite having various and vast difference between their language and practice we tend to generalized them together. It is like saying all white people are English, it doesn’t make sense and is far away from reality. Another interesting myth about them is that they are given free rides from our government. It is easier for us to say that minorities enjoys benefit given by government but truth being they face their own struggle and we should not judge them on that. People in minorities suffer more from the system than generalized public. In reality average American Indians are subject to same income tax like any other individual and they pay the same as us, there is very little privilege in what we see vs what they got.