The Comedy of Double-Theft

Jeremy Ahearn

                                                         The Comedy of Double-Theft

           Throughout this work, emphasized especially in chapters such as “Red like Me,” “A List of Alternative Identities to Try for Fun and Profit,” and “Hey America, I’m Taking Back Thanksgiving,” Midge creates humor in pointing out an incongruity in U.S.-Native relations. The comical contradiction is thus: although white settlers colonized this country with the intent to dominate native cultures, their descendants have now coopted native symbols and practices to use as their own. In this way, there is a sort of “double-theft.” First, the land; then, the identity. We can see this battle of double domination play out every year in the third week of November. As Midge says, “The Redskins are set to face the Cowboys at Jerry World this year, and I’m sure you’re completely over the moon about that abomination” (Midge, 202). It’s a sort of comedy that provides a throat-catching laugh, the humor is in the ridiculous immortality that runs opposite to reason.

           “Red like Me” is an entire chapter that explores the absurdity of the “Pretendian” phenomenon. This passage finds comedy in its situational irony and the purposeful obtuseness of Rachel Dolezal. Although the reader knows the act is up, it is clear that Dolezal has been found out as non-Native, Midge takes the time to toy with her subject. Midge asks if she “was aware that pretendians present a real and present danger to the integrity of Native communities because they usurp authentic Native voices” (Midge, 211). Dolezal, in her delusion, simply brushes off the question and keeps the conversation moving. This is incongruous with the reason! We laugh because we ask, “How can anyone be this way!?” 

           We, as the reader, are willing to confront this problematic behavior because it is presented in a way appealing to the everyday palate. By this, I mean that not everyone wants to read a history of brutal native subjugation on their train ride to work. Instead, through authors like Midge, they can learn and laugh at the same time. In asking, “Tired of the unending grind of playing make-believe and stealing from Native Americans?”, Midge makes the reader question the absurdities they encounter in their daily life (Midge, 214). One may ask, why does Cleveland's baseball team have a racist caricature as its mascot? How did the most popular sport in the country have a team named after a racial epitaph for 80 years? Why does an NHL team have the authority to profit off the name of a tribe whose land they have taken over? How does this double theft keep happening? Where did all the Natives go? 

          Midge’s comedy is proactive—as comedy should be.

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