I can’t quite put my finger on why the Eleventh Doctor using “Geronimo!” as his catch phrase rubs me the wrong way.
Oh, wait, maybe I can.
It has something to do with him being white, British, and not Apache. It has to do with the whole white appropriating and co-opting of non-white culture and bodies, including names, language, and representation for fun and entertainment. White people are infamous for using non-white people’s own language against them, to villainize, oppress, justify acts of violence and racism, and malign them. Let’s not even talk about how they think they’re doing the First Peoples a favor and an honor by naming stuff they stole, colonized, use for destruction and war, sports teams, and commodify after them. Hella racist.
Why does the Eleventh Doctor have to have an American west theme? The theme is sexist, white supremacist, and its racist all at the same time.
I can’t help but think of the SUPPPERRR racist role and usage of “Indians” in Peter Pan and The Neverending Story. And American westerns? The whole time period– Oh my f**king goodness, don’t even get me started. So I’m not okay with special white time lord fairies from Gallifrey yelling “GERONIMO!” every time he’s about to do something stupid or something the producers think is supposed to amuse me. Him yelling “Geronimo” is like yelling “Red Skins” with white appropriation just slapped together like a poisonous jammie dodger.
Shoulda stuck with “Allons-y!”
Raining down injustice and suffering on non-white people for centuries, they have now contrived a very popular fictional world with a dude called the Doctor talking ‘bout some pacifism, which I view as a representation of their agenda whether its purposeful or not. Oh, so, now y’all want to be pacifist, you’re trying to present the pacifist patriarchal alien superhero. A world where they start the problem then end the problem , too, without really changing a damn thing. We don’t get to say when its over, they do. And that’s how they continue to assert their power over non-whites everyday and in fiction. By using manipulation and everyone’s desire for peace to commit an even greater crime—putting a big white band aid on a gaping wound, by ignoring the root of the problem and the impacts.
There won’t be peace until whites acknowledge and pay for their continued crimes. Why won’t they produce a show that’s about that? White people stop being racist oppressive douches—THE END.
Because no time lord fairy can “fix” the human race without placing himself as Earth’s god and becoming the ultimate oppressor himself.
That is where my suspension of disbelief, if I ever had it to begin with, ultimately ends.
As intelligent as the show may seem or try to present itself, the Doctor Who universe is yet another place where whites can pretend that the long history of injustices and crimes against humanity they have committed against non-whites (and continue to commit) don’t exist, with lots of interracial couples and timey-wimey science–and starting with the fact that the main protagonist, for all intents and purposes, is white and uses pacifism to ignore the root of conflicts or uses his power to manipulate everything around him when he can’t see himself as everyone’s hero in the end or just because he can. A very white supremacist tactic.
So now allow me, a white man who has helped and continues to help oppress and destroy your culture and people (and that of many others for decades), to use your now historical name as my catch phrase.
Elia's Diamonds 
Although I do see where you’re coming from, I don’t think that’s the intent of Matt Smith’s usage. The character & storyline reviles intolerance. Doctor Who is well established as a character with a fondness for humans/human culture regardless of genetic or historical background. I was actually surprised to read an interpretation that directly contradicts the spirit of a story with an underlying message of hope for humanity, also love and tolerance.
When paratroopers started yelling “Geronimo!” when jumping out of airplanes, it had nothing to do with mocking or belittling Native American history or culture. The practice might have evolved from a historically inaccurate and possibly ill-advised source of inspiration but I wouldn’t go so far as vilify the usage of the word.
There’s no denying that there is too much intolerance and hatred being bandied about in the world and it’s so very easy jump on the pop culture bandwagon with no regard for the negative implications–fighting hate with hate by clinging to ethnic/cultural grudges might be about as effective as fighting fire with fire. Our enemies will certainly burn but keep it up and all we end up with at the end of the day is scorched earth.
I don’t think you see where I’m coming from, not completely.
Yes, the Doctor is a well-established character with a fondness for humans…white humans, judging by the times in history he travels in and who he hangs around. I’d like to see him park that police box in a cotton field being worked by enslaved Africans.
Wait. No I wouldn’t. He’d probably say slavery is a fixed point in time.
I would suggest you put away the comments of fighting fire with fire and hate with hate. Calling ignorance and racism what it is has nothing to do with jumping on some kind of bandwagon. Its definitely not the equivalent of the hatred, greed, and injustice that motivates white racism. While I understand your intent, you sound like all the white apologists I’ve ever encountered. I guess your catch phrase must be “Andrew Jackson!” (look up his relationship with the First Peoples). Yadda yadda, continuing the hate, yeah, yeah—sound like something the oh so wise and pacifist Doctor would say.
I expect whites to be accountable for the horrors of their history and how they continue to perpetuate it and actually do what needs to be done instead of trying to gloss it over. If you want to defend the obviously colorblind racists producing Doctor Who, go do it on somebody else’s blog.
But thanks for your comment. I’ll leave it here for your potential runner ups.
Oh and another thing–
I was actually surprised to read an interpretation that directly contradicts the spirit of a story with an underlying message of hope for humanity, also love and tolerance.
Who do you think wrote the story, Ms./Mrs. Moore? I’m not contradicting anything. I’m giving you a prospective that doesn’t kiss lily white ass or make peace with injustice and the many ways whites try to wrap it in a bow.
“Tolerance”? Are you kidding me!
“There won’t be peace until whites acknowledge and pay for their continued crimes.”
Sorry, I don’t subscribe to this racist notion that you are automatically guilty because of the color of your skin.
I just though this comment is so provocative, doesn’t matter where it came from.
Nowhere in this piece does it say that any given white person is automatically racist just for being white at all times. Although there is a higher than usual probability, given their fucked up history and pathologies. Please shut the fuck up. And know that your subscriptions and notions don’t mean much of anything to me.
This article is very true, more so than anything else I’ve seen on Doctor Who’s portrayal of pacifism. It’s a show with a lot of potential built into its premise but which fails to broach topics of racism, inequality or white denial.
I started a blog myself on pacifism, but it’s still in its infancy. I’ll admit this is an issue of white pacifism I haven’t considered, about the site or myself. I also want my own blog to target and the issues of privilege, racism and denial. But my own perspective is not nearly enough. I’d like to learn from voices like yours before I try to educate others.
If you’d like to talk more about these subject, please reply. I think my small blog has a long way to go and much refining before it’s ready to accurately expose injustice.
I’d be interested in this. Tell me more. E-mail ms.queenly [at] yahoo [dot] com?
Can do