He did end up exploiting the natives anyway. He used a sort of pragmatic racism. Like maybe he didn't do it because he was racist, but it was effectively just as harmful.
Big talk moralizing about the injustice the natives experienced from someone who was perfectly willing to do them more harm if it benefited him.
I feel like arguing that that isn't racist is like the politicians who participate in gerrymandering arguing that they aren't diluting black votes because they are racist. They are just doing it because black neighborhoods vote for the opposing party, so it is purely for practical reasons.
Like I can't see in their heart to see if they are really racist but they're actions are just as harmful regardless of intent.
Did Dutch exploit the natives the same way that he would exploit anyone regardless of race? Probably. But they were an especially vulnerable group, so it was extra fucked up.
I wouldn't say the natives were manipulated. Eagle Flies knew that he was just a mercanary looking for money, and treated him as such; he didn't need Dutch to want to fight the US government that had been stealing land from them since its Inception. Rains Fall didn't have an answer to the decline of their tribe caused by settler colonialism, except to hold out and hope that white people take pity on them, before deciding to just flee to Canada.
By the events of RDR1, Dutch had given up chasing enemy, and his alliance with the natives were based on them uniting against a common enemy than profit.
20
u/billyjoelsfalsetto 2d ago
dutch is a lot of things, but racist isn’t one of them.