JE #1B

The Lone Ranger as a television was relatively unknown until the video that I saw, the only other time I'd had heard about the show was scrolling through the station guide late at night. After seeing the episode however the underlying issues that I found with the show were various to say the least. One of the things that I found problematic was the estranged relationship with the Lone Ranger and his companion Tonto. The relationship is one that to one outside the hegemonic viewpoint of society would find it an oxymoron. The introductory segment of the show demonstrates scenes in which a narrator says that co-existence was once a reality between "red men" and "white men". Of course after turmoil caused by the "red men" and some battles, peace was proclaimed and that peace maintained by the US military. This to me does not seem like peace at all. The history of Native-Americans and the white Anglo population in this country is one that the show attempts to gloss over with this narrative that the white man saved the people who inhabited this continent before their arrival. I found some similarities between the Lone Ranger and Speedy Gonzales however. In both shows, the main characters seem to encompass qualities that are indoctrinated into our daily lives such as individualism and to a lesser extent meritocracy. The Lone Ranger does have a large amount of historical mis-representations, yet regardless though I'm not surprised this show aired in the first place.