Caliban and Post Colonialism

I think that the article we read definitely had some concepts that could be applied to The Tempest, specifically Caliban. Caliban states, “As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.” He is saying he was living peacefully on the island first and was enslaved by someone who got there after him. I think he is very comparable to a Native Americans when our country was being colonized. Both were forced into slavery and had their customs and culture erased and replaced with someone else’s ideas of how people should live. In the article, the author states, “The message sent to these ‘others’ by the dominant culture has been clear and consistent-conform and be quiet; deny yourself and all will be well.” Caliban is forced to do this to avoid getting punished by his master. He is seen as an other, or monster, and that scares people. I do not think Shakespeare wanted to justify colonialism by writing this. In my opinion he was trying to do the opposite. He includes information that causes you to feel sympathy for Caliban. He keeps getting changed by other people and it is obvious that he was enslaved by people who were on the island after himself. Shakespeare makes it easy to see both sides of the situation, but I do not think he was trying to justify superiority of the white man in writing this.
I think there are a few parallels between Caliban and the Native Americans in the video. Caliban was seen as a monster; similarly, the Indians were all seen as savages. They were portrayed as monsters and killers when that is not historically true. When Caliban was discovered under his cloak, the men are scared of him and think he is some horrible creature. After they get to know him they realize he is actually harmless. It just shows how people think of others who are different than themselves.