The reader doesn't get to realize the full extent of the racism in this novel until they reach these pages. Before the Native Americans began wearing a military uniform, people never cared about them. "White women never looked at me until I put on that uniform..." (Silko, 37). All that the white women really were attracted to was the status of the military uniform which reveals that the white women would otherwise avoid the Native Americans because they were "inferior". Emo is shown as a dominant Native American who thrives off killing enemies. "...Some men got sick when they smelled the blood. But he was the best; he was one of them. The best. United States Army" (Silko, 57). This part of the book breaks the stereotype for Native Americans that states that they are all peaceful and respect their enemies as opposed to men in white warfare who kill their enemy without even knowing them or acknowledging them.
The Vietnam War made some of the Native Americans feel like heroes, but when they came back from the war, they realized that they were not heroes, but still the same discriminated Native Americans from before. The men block out the truth by drinking and having sex with white women. Tayo creates a satirical story to encompass the truth of why they are acting this way, "They went off to the war...Bars served them booze, old white ladies on the street smiled at them. At Indians, remember that, because that's all they were. Indians...These Indians got treated the same as anyone...They were America the Beautiful too, this was the land of the free just like the teachers said in school. They had a uniform and they didn't look different no more" (Silko, 38). The other Native Americans already knew all of this but they just wanted to shove away the truth because all it brought was pain and sorrow to them.
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