Playing with a touchy notion

[valarltd]

So, my hero for NaNo: Chuck Hummingbird

He's mid-thirties, Cherokee and gorgeous. He drives a petroleum truck between Seattle and Bozeman MT (about 680 miles, 1 way) He is very good friends with a man at the refinery: John Littlefeather (either in charge of the driver, or the foreman, but definitely of some authority).

When he takes his paperwork in, the exchange goes like this.

Chuck grinned as he opened the office door. Time for one of his favorite games. He wiped the smile off his face and assumed the standard Hollywood "Stoic Indian" face as he put the bill of lading on John's desk. "Got'um heap big load, Littlefeather. You got'um place to hitch steel pony?"

John looked up at him, his face impassive. "Hitch'um in slot two tens, Hummingbird. Great White Mother on coast send red errand boy to steal Injun wampum again."

They could go back and forth for hours, each trying to make the other laugh with the ridiculous pidgen. The loser had to buy the winner lunch. So far they were evenly tied.

Fred Halfmoon opened the door as they launched into a third volley and dropped the clipboard. "How dare you? A century and a half of work and you two are in here acting like...like Hollywood savages."

Both men looked at him and laughed. Chuck looked back at John. "I think we're both buying Fred lunch today, huh?"




Is the above offensive? If you came across it in the first chapter of a romance novel, would you hurl the book across the room? Does it play to stereotypes--other than mockingly--that are damaging? Chuck only uses that sort of language around John. He's very aware of the stereotypes, just as he's always aware of the tatoo on his right bicep (his earliest memory is of being herded into a gymnasium with everyone else and being tattooed. He was three.) and just as he's aware that Lone Star has declared open hunting season on Native Americans and Mexicans, complete with a coyote-like bounty.

Comments

[hlglne.livejournal.com]

I am an Injun by marriage, and I say they would do it. Just like those gangstas call each other nigga. But nobody else better try it. Sort of like that bit in the Jackie Chan movie Rush Hour 2, when he nearly gets himself killed trying to be cool. The guy objecting to their play is probably a white guy. Why is a Cherokee way up north there anyhow? He should be a Suqamish or Kwakiutl or something-- I forget whatall-- like Sherman Alexie.