From The New York Post…
Native Americans rage over MTV’s ‘The Dudesons’
A skit on MTV’s “The Dudesons in America” has a Native American advocacy group crying foul.
The American Indian Movement of Santa Barbara has started a boycott against MTV and its advertisers over an episode of the “Jackass”-style series in which four Finnish friends perform stunts as they assimilate to American culture.
In the episode, which aired in May, the Dudesons performed tasks to qualify as honorary Indians under the direction of Native American actor Saginaw Grant. The stunts included one Finn mounting a horse while wearing a feathered headdress and little else and one involving a totem pole falling painfully on a man’s crotch.
“There’s no other racial group that has to put up with this harassment. People may think it’s funny to do the fingers in front of the mouth and yell, ‘Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!’ but that’s deliberate discrimination,” said AIM director Michael Fairbanks.
The group wrote to MTV in May asking it to scrub the episode from the network and online. Then AIM called for a boycott of MTV and “Dudesons” sponsors, including Frito-Lay, Burger King and Pepsi. The petition site has already gotten 1,000 signatures. Fairbanks is also threatening to file a federal suit alleging the show violates Native Americans’ civil rights.
MTV rep Jeannie Kedas responded to Fairbanks via e-mail on July 2, writing, “I am sorry that members of the American Indian Movement were offended by that one particular episode where the Dudesons were trying to master challenges to gain acceptance into the Native American culture.”
She continued, “While I understand your concern with the dress that the Dudesons wore, in no way did they or MTV intend to offend Native Americans.”
New and previous episodes of the series will continue to run on MTV2.
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