Even Indiana Jones Is Suspect to the Woke Crowd

Just when you thought the woke crowd — which sees racism and white supremacy under every bed — could not get any more weird, Smithsonian magazine published an article last week arguing that the Indiana Jones series, starting with Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, is based on several “myths,” one of which perpetuates both racism and sexism. At least Kristina Killgrove, the article’s author thinks so.

Killgrove is a professional archaeologist, as is the mythical character Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Killgrove even quotes another archaeologist in the article saying that his interest in archaeology was generated by the series, which starred Harrison Ford. You see, Ford — certainly on the short list of the greatest movie stars ever — is (gasp!) white, and male. “The face of archaeology today is shifting away from those who look like Indiana Jones, albeit slowly,” Killgrove wrote. According to her, when Raiders launched with a movie based in the 1930s, it was a “time when 99 percent of archaeologists were white men,” quoting a Cal-Berkeley (naturally) professor, Bill White. Today it is closer to 80 percent — no doubt still too high a percentage for Killgrove and the Berkeley professor. “White cautions that the myth of Indiana Jones as the quintessential archaeologist means that archaeology appeals to a certain demographic and is a turn-off to most other demographics,” Killgrove laments. “A simple Google news search reveals dozens of white male archaeologists being called the real-life Indiana Jones.” These so-called liberals can hardly see anything but skin color, it seems, when they evaluate movies (or anything else).

Why is this such a problem? Killgrove cites an “African American female,” Alexandra Jones, who contends that there is a “need for her field to be inclusive of a range of voices and life experiences.” Specifically, Jones claims that archaeology needs a “polyvocal, intersectional view coming from the community in order to do the science of studying that community’s culture.” Why? Because archaeologists need to work toward becoming a more diverse field in order to make more advances in the field. It should be noted that — to those on the Left — diversity does not include diversity of political or social opinion. To them, diversity means a liberal white person, a liberal man, a liberal black man, a liberal woman, a liberal Hispanic, you name it. Blacks, females, and Hispanics who do not subscribe to their liberal views are routinely crucified.

“Since archaeology is a humanistic experience, it matters greatly who is doing the asking and generating the data,” Jones argued.

Such racist rantings are not the only “myths” uncovered by Killgrove in her Smithsonian article. She also writes that, unlike Jones, today’s archaeologists rely on “collaboration with the community to identify and protect resources from destruction.”

Killgrove slips back into her race-focused narrative, writing, “Archaeologists today are much more likely to solve local mysteries, assisting in uncovering hidden histories.” She offers the “example” of the archaeological efforts to locate and excavate mass graves of the black Oklahomans killed in the violent Tulsa race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a riot that led to the destruction of the city’s (all-black) Greenwood neighborhood in 1921. Killgrove cites Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, who said it was his desire to resurface the city’s “long-denied past.”

Bynum’s remark perpetuates the myth about the Tulsa race riot that Oklahoma’s history books did not cover it until the last generation. Actually, I have researched this myself and have found Oklahoma history textbooks dating back to the 1940s that do cover it. (That is as far back as I can find Oklahoma history books.) But such false narratives fit in well with what the woke crowd wants to accomplish — advancing the Marxist mantra that history has been one long story of the oppressed class being oppressed by the oppressor class.

In case one doubts that Killgrove’s article seeks to promote a left-wing worldview designed to trash the Founding Fathers, and thus the nation’s founding, her article asserts that slavery was “protected by the U.S. Constitution.” That is hardly the case, as slavery had already been abolished in some states, and would be abolished in even more states over the next few years. In contrast to Killgrove’s unhistorical remark, the Constitution was crafting a common government for several states, a government that was limited by that Constitution to certain powers. “Protecting” slavery or “abolishing” slavery was not among the powers delegated to the U.S. government by the Constitution — but then, neither was advancing education, or any number of governmental activities the Constitution left as the “reserved” powers of the states.

White admits that the Indiana Jones movies inspired him to enter the field, after he saw the movies as a child. “These movies are an escape for many of us, including archaeologists.” Exactly. The Indian Jones movies are entertainment, and should be taken for what they are. No one above the age of five really thinks a man can be bitten by a “radioactive spider” and gain the ability to climb walls with his fingers. Only a child would really think that the average college professor — which Indiana Jones was — could perform all the athletic feats he performs. For all of the talk by Killgrove and the woke archaeologists she quotes about the misconceptions perpetuated about archaeology by the Indiana Jones series, history is far more frequently distorted to advance the Left’s worldview. In movie after movie, the silver screen offers up progressive propaganda on a regular basis.

This article is yet another example of how a professional field — archaeology in this case — is used to advance that left-wing view.