Number 6, I would never imply that ALL the people in ANY group are arrogant and racist. I am merely saying that there was a significant amount of insecurity, arrogance, and prejudice showing itself among Native Americans I was around...and among Native Americans here and there that I wasn't around, but may have seen on the News or something.

At the same time, I met some marvelous people among the Native Americans, and my favorite folksinger is a Native American (Buffy Sainte-Marie)...and I've found her to be a very warm and fair-minded person (have had several impromptu discussions with her after concerts). For example, although Buffy has written some strongly worded songs in support of women's rights from time to time, she also makes a point in every concert I've ever seen her in to say something really good about men...about the extraordinary pressures that men are put under to be competitive and macho and all that stuff...and that people should appreciate what men have to go through and not put them down so much.

Hooray for Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Was Rolling Thunder arrogant? Oh, YEAH! (grin) But he was so over the top about it, you had to like him anyway, unless you were one of those people who hated him...and there certainly were some who did. The disarming thing about RT was, he fully admitted he was prejudiced and he was good at making jokes at his own expense now and then about it. He was a crusty, cantakerous hellraiser of a man who liked rattling people's cages.

The best medicine person I ever met was Brooke Medicine Eagle. I have nothing but good to say about that lady. She respected all people and cultures.

No, I would never say that all Native Americans were arrogant and racist. Hardly. What I would say is that when a media system bombards people for several decades (since the mid-60's) with shows that encourage only one politically correct viewpoint, based on race...that viewpiont being calculated to portray a people as victims, and mainstream whites as their evil oppressors...then a peculiar psychology can develop among some of the "victims". They can get a real chip on their shoulders, an unnecessary one, and some of them do. Then you have a problem.

I've seen that happen with some Native Americans, more than a few blacks, a rather small number of women, and more than a few Jews.

It's called having a "persecution complex". It looks so hard for prejudice everywhere that it often sees it where it doesn't exist (kind of like those WMDs in Iraq). ;-) Being around such people is wearing on the nerves. Expecting them to be fair-minded and even-handed usually leads to major disappointments. Getting them to see the other guy's point of view is usually downright hopeless.

For that reason, I don't really expect most Middle Eastern Muslims to be fair or rational about Israel...and I don't really expect most Israelis to be fair or rational about the Muslims they are fighting with there either. After all, they are both populations which at this point in history suffer from having really BIG persecution complexes, due to past and present events that have badly hurt their people.

Is that clearer?