windtalkers

“Wind talkers” exposed me to the rather evident ignorance and sense of “othering” which is prevalent in the marines. There are two issues which struck me, the treatment of the Navajo soldiers who were a part of the marines and the way in which the Japanese were represented in this movie.
The Navajo warriors were victims of “preconceptions and stereotypes”. Ben was referred to as a “savage” and the only mark of differentiation between him and Japanese was the uniform. Simple because he was a Native American, he was lumped into one group, even though he made it really clear that he was a Navajo. He was referred to as chief and for the most part “othered”. After his act of great bravery and intelligence during which he risked his life to save the rest of the soldiers, he was commended in no way by the ranking officer visiting the squad. On the other hand his friend Anderson was celebrated with a medal of honor. Ben’s achievements were “evaluated” due to his race and they were undermined. He was looked at like an outsider and his place in the army was still of an alien, not an American. This is a classic example of privilege and racial bigotry.
“It is their home but we are going to take it away from them”, these were the words uttered by the officer that was explaining the invasion of Saipan to the men. Instead of feeling the injustice and the moral contradiction in this statement the men were motivated and inspired by the thought of rendering thousands homeless and spreading destruction. The Japanese are looked at as the faceless other, a horde of emotionless savages, brutal and uncivilized that needed to be taught a lesson by the “white” brigades. The incredible stereotypes at play here render the people they are going to invade from living, breathing human beings to a mass of worthless bodies which are the “evil”. Even towards the end the focus is on the emotional exchange between the two main protagonists of the movie and the massive slaughter of the Japanese is overlooked.
However as it is evident from the movie, the more you know a person the less race seems to matter. Therefore after the soldiers had gotten to know Ben, they stopped evaluating him and judging him and having an image of stereotypes about him. Therefore Ben was just another soldier and their friend.
The point I brought into class was in relation of whom to blame for the situation of immigrants that is being created in the schools. I saw that putting all the blame on the parents of these children would be unfair since the only reason they are here is because someone hired them in the first place. Thus without jobs they would be forced to return back, however since they are allowed to stay here and work illegally whose fault is it? The contractor that hired them is bound to another higher company that obviously wants him to make more and more profit. Thus since by employing illegal labor he can increase his profit margin he indulges in that. The larger company that owns the contactor is obviously trying to survive in the market and the only method of doing that is getting more and more revenue generated every year. Thus were does the problem lie? I say it is in the capitalist system which governs the social structure that this country possesses.
To propagate just one language in a country like the USA is ridiculous. With the rate of immigration that was always been prevalent this country is like the melting for many different cultures and languages. Therefore encouraging a monolingual culture is rather limiting.