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Posted by Robert
Rap News Network
2/11/2004 3:06:05 PM
Tags and topics realted to this article include Outkast.
Indian groups are calling for a boycott of the CBS television network and the GRAMMY music awards after Sunday night's broadcast of the rap group Outkast, who performed their song "Hey Ya," while dressed in fake and garrish Indian attire. Those boycotting say the performance was offensive and demeaning.
CBS, through a spokesmen said the network is "very sorry if anyone was offended," by the performance which included young women dressed in green buckskin dresses, one man wearing a war bonnet and another man shirltess and in green buckskin leggings. In the background was a tipi with smoke billowing out of it.
However, that may not be enough for boycott organizers at the Native American Cultural Center in San Fransico. Calling the performance the "most disgusting set of racial sterotypes aimed at the American Indians that I have ever seen on TV," one board member reportedly said.
Andrew Brother Elk, chair of the Indian center heading up the protests said he has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The protest could not have come at a worse time for the network. CBS is already reeling from the backlash from viewers for their half time show of the Super Bowl when pop star Justin Timberlake ripped off part of Janet Jackson's shirt and exposed a breast on national television.
Indian chat rooms have been full of critical and angry comments aimed at the program.
Native Americans have only recently been a part of the GRAMMY program. Some are frustrated by the GRAMMY decision to lump all Indian acts together regardless of what genre they play. Accordinly, folk acts compete with drum groups for the Best Native American recording category.
Calls to the group's publicist have gone unreturned. Virginia Moon, the General Manager of the CBS affiliate KOTV in Tulsa told the Native American Times her station had not recieved any complaints.
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