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As one of my students so adequately put it: "I just wanted to point out what I expected from but what I find particularly ridiculous about the CBS apology- CBS apologized Friday to American Indians angered by OutKast's Grammy Awards performance, which featured feathers and war paint. "We are very sorry if anyone was offended," said Nancy Carr, a CBS spokeswoman in Los Angeles. I think Nancy Carr's statement probably (and unfortunately) reflects a common view about the issue. She never acknowledges that the performance could have been in any way racist, inappropriate, or overtly damaging. She seems instead to apologize, reluctantly, for the fact that some people have been conditioned to be hyper-sensitive. She has barely, if at all, admitted any fault on CBS' part." my student makes a good point here. it's like a cheating lover saying they are sorry "if you got upset" but not for the act it self. David "CBS Sorry for OutKast Performance: Feathers, War Paint in Grammy Finale Offends American Indians," Associated Press & Local Wire , February 14, 2004, Copyright 2004 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global Communications Corp. All Rights Reserved. ["Albuquerque, N.M.: CBS apologized Friday to American Indians angered by OutKast's Grammy Awards performance, which featured feathers and war paint. 'We are very sorry if anyone was offended,' said Nancy Carr, a CBS spokeswoman in Los Angeles. As the final act of Sunday's Grammy telecast, OutKast's Andre (3000) Benjamin and several dancers swirled wildly around a green teepee as he sang Hey Ya. Costumes included war paint, feathers and fringe. . . . The San Francisco-based Native American Cultural Center called for a boycott of CBS; OutKast; Arista, their record company; and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which sponsors the Grammys. The centre also has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission and said it posted documents online explaining 'why this broadcast was racist and why the companies involved need to take responsibility for their commercialization of Native American culture.' George Toya of the Jemez Pueblo powwow group Black Eagle, who was in the audience at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, said he was initially happy when he heard the chant that opened OutKast's performance. He thought he was about to see an American Indian group perform. 'It was a Navajo song that I recognized, and I got a little excited, said Toya, who was at the ceremony with other members of Black Eagle to pick up a Grammy for best Native American music album for Flying Free. But the drumming was actually the intro to Hey Ya. American Indians across the country were angered by what they said was a performance disrespectful to their culture and a perpetuation of tomahawk-and-teepee stereotypes."] David Delgado Shorter Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow Center for the Americas Wesleyan University 255 High Street Middletown, CT 06459 office: (860) 685-3735 fax: (860) 685-2985 email: dshorter@wesleyan.edu
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