'All the years of calling the Indian a savage has never made him one.'(Luther Standing Bear, Lakota Sioux).Survival's Stamp It Out campaign aims to challenge racist descriptions, however unwitting, of tribal peoples in the media.
What's the problem?
Terms like 'stone age' and 'primitive' have been used to describe tribal people since the colonial era, reinforcing the idea that they have not changed over time and that they are backward. This idea is both incorrect and very dangerous. It is incorrect because all societies adapt and change, and it is dangerous because it is often used to justify the persecution or forced 'assimilation' of tribal peoples. The results are almost always catastrophic: poverty, alcoholism, prostitution, disease and death.
Survival International,(an organisation supporting tribal peoples worldwide), would like you to be on the lookout for terms like 'stone age' and 'primitive' used to describe tribal peoples in the media today. When you spot one, please fill in one of their Stamp it Out postcards or e-cards and send it to the editor.-"(You can also write your own statements and arguments to educate our media)".-Peace.-SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL...a movement for tribal peoples>
