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| Pirate Flag |
We have seen all sorts of names changed in
recent years to remove offensive racial stereotypes. Rightly so, because there were some wildly
inappropriate and offensive names out there.
Many still exist, of course, but that is not is not the point I want to
make.
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| Fulton's Red Raiders' logo |
My high school athletic team members are ‘Red Raiders.’ Their mascot was an Indian in my day. Now it is a neutral symbol. However, the Atlanta Braves are not the only
team to cling to their Native American-based name and ‘tomahawk chop,’ despite
protests that they are racist.
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| St. Patrick's Day - offensive stereotype? |
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| Long-tailed/Oldsquaw duck |
An
elementary school in Wilbraham Massachusetts changed their St. Patrick’s Day
celebration to O’Green Day. Firefighters
and mail carriers have replaced the more gender-specific firemen and mailmen. People are no longer blind or deaf – they
have visual and hearing impairment. Little
people are ‘vertically challenged.’ Geographical
locations are receiving makeovers everywhere.
Even the long-tailed duck has had its name changed from ‘oldsquaw’
because its calls were said to resemble wailing Indian women.
So, if all these groups are getting facelifts, what
about Pirates?
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| Roman trireme |
Piracy is a very long-standing problem. The earliest documented pirates were the Sea
People, who terrorized the Aegean Sea in the 14th century BC. We all remember the phrase, Ramming Speed! It comes from the movie Ben Hur, when Roman galley slaves are lashed into extra speed to
attack Macedonian pirates. Saint
Patrick, mentioned earlier in this post, was captured from Roman Britannia and
enslaved by Irish pirates.
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| 12th c Danish seamen |
China, India, Malaysia – all regions
adjoining the sea were troubled by pirates.
Vikings
are among the best known. For five
centuries ships loaded with Norse warriors terrorized European coasts
from the far north to Sicily. Coastal
and river villages lived in dread, but Vikings raided far inland. They probed deeply into Russia, as remembered
in Alexander Nevsky’s defeat of the Swedes in 1240. Barbary pirates took New Englanders captive
in the 1600s.
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| Somali pirates and their booty |
Being taken by pirates was no
fun. We hear talk of a ‘pirate’s code,’
sparing those who gave up their ship without a fight, but I doubt that all
pirates followed it to the letter.
Perhaps they were out to rob, not to kill, but it happened. Those captured who said they could pay were
held for ransom, just has been done in Somalia recently. Women without means or protection probably
faced a very hard time.
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| Edward Teach/Blackbeard |
Acts of piracy
in the Caribbean may have existed before Europeans arrived, but it certainly followed Columbus to the New World. In 1523, Jean Fleury, a French naval
officer and privateer, seized two Spanish galleons
carrying Aztec gold from Mexico to Spain.
Piracy continued in the Caribbean region, but also all along the
Atlantic coast until America’s navy grew strong enough to contain it.
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| Protest against Cleveland Indians mascot |
Of course, headlines
demonstrate that piracy continues today.
Somalian pirates are only the most well-known. Why have those real pirates not demanded
their own image makeover? Why are there no demands for
the Pittsburgh Pirates to change their name? I think a major reason is because pirates are not a single ethnic group or nationality. They aren't born that way. Pirates are men - and a few women - who follow their hearts. How can you protest that?
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| Disney's Captain Hook |
You know, pirates are
getting a facelift. In 1911, Peter Pan’s Captain Hook wanted to kill
Peter because the boy had humiliated him.
The bloodthirsty Hook was evil and ‘cadaverous,’ but he had the manners
of an Eton gentleman. Disney’s 1953
cartoon makes him into a comic fop. The
1954 musical, later a movie, with Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard (which I
adored!) continues in that line.
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| Pirates of the Caribbean ride |
Bans have been set on
flying skull-and-crossbones flags as being ‘unneighborly.’ Playground boats are purged of cannons and
planks to be walked. Disney sanitized
their ride, removing most of the sex and violence. A hearty pirate stud is left chasing a turkey
leg instead of a woman.
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| Jack Sparrow *swoon* |
Maybe that makeover is why we can now find
pirates so attractive. Boomers were
taught that once-frightening marauders are clowns, as much a danger to
themselves as to us. These tamed men
learned to express their feelings in a more civilized manner, while remaining
tough and adventurous. We love our Bad
Boys, and now we have Johnny Depp and Keith Richards to sigh after. Helen Hollick’s Jesamaiah Acorne is a
charming, handsome rogue. He’ll get what
he can out of a woman, but he respects her – most of the time.
If you feel a need to be politically correct, you can call pirates “Vocationally Challenged
Undocumented Sea Re-allocators.” You can look down your nose at someone flying a pirate
flag because that person is likely to be unbearable in one or more ways. I’d like to mention here that I would enjoy
flying the skull-and-crossbones on my canoe for the whimsy of it. However, painting eyes on my craft appeals
to me more.
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| Wall Street - another type of raider |
For those of you who yearn for adventure on the bounding main, we STILL have pirates. Need I mention the ‘Somali Navy’ again? And as far as I am concerned, anyone who
commits a larcenous act for personal gain is a pirate, whether on sea or land. There are a lot of very minor pirates. There are big-time ones, too. They just go by different names, and wear
better clothes.
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