Racism and Ponies Redux

the_sun_is_up has a really good post about racism in the most recent MLP episode.

Also worth highlighting is this comment by mekosuchinae:

"Okay, can we call a moratorium on all analogies implying the Native Americans were as prejudiced or at fault as the Europeans/White Americans who attacked and disenfranchised them, stole their lands, and did their best to eradicate native cultures and peoples? Because, uh, no. At all. Ever."

THIS.

Also the fail behind the logic supporting the settler ponies' claims in the episode was so, well, failtacular that I still can't believe it was upheld as "reasonable" at all. The show made it very clear that the settler ponies built their orchard on buffalo land by *mistake* (as if the real white colonists that settled the American frontier took native lands by *mistake* but whatever) and then makes the logic leap that because the settler ponies took land that wasn't theirs by mistake, now they... have a legitimate claim to it. Somehow. Also, they worked REAL HARD to plant those apple trees, and the fact that they worked REAL HARD to farm land that was never theirs to begin with is also repeatedly upheld as a reason why they "deserve" the buffalo land.

I'm sorry, but WTF, My Little Pony? It doesn't matter that the settler ponies made a mistake - this is arguably proof that they weren't ill-intentioned against the buffalo, but it is NOT a reason why thy should therefore have a claim to buffalo land - and it does NOT matter that they worked reaaaaaaal haaaaaaaaard to farm that land as long as it was never theirs in the first place. So what if the settler ponies needed those apple trees to feed their village? That still DOESN'T GIVE THEM A CLAIM TO THE LAND THAT ISN'T THEIRS. If the buffalo had refused to share - as would have been their right to do so - then the settler ponies should have just scrapped their town and moved somewhere else. Yeah all of their hard work would have gone to waste, and that would have been sad and caused a lot of hardship for them, but here's the lesson that should have been learned: Accept the consequences when you make a mistake, learn from it, and next time do your freakin' research before you start working reeaaaaaaal haaaaaard to build your town. Wanting to be on that land real bad is not the same as having the RIGHT to be there. Jesus, show!

The settler ponies were completely in the wrong in this episode and the amazing twists of logic that the show comes up with to try to convince the viewers that they had a legitimate claim to buffalo land is just plain insulting as fuck.

Hmmmmm, kind of like how colonist/native conflicts from all over the world are continually misrepresented in history books and media depictions created by the colonizing powers. But I digress.