The Inconveinience of Being Proud of My Native Heritage
“Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shore, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles over racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it. Our children are still taught to respect the violence which reduced a red-skinned people of an earlier culture into a few fragmented groups herded into impoverished reservations.”
― Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
― Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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[This post is reprinted and somewhat altered from its original version on my private FB account]
Those few of my friends, who for their own reasons, voted for Trump I have a simple request. Do not talk politics with me until after 2020. The President is not only openly mocking Sen. Elizabeth Warren for being of Native American ancestry (she got so sick of his bullshit about it that she actually got a DNA test done, which confirmed she had about as much Native blood as she thought), for one his nickname for her is Pocahontas, which he brags about calling her.
Don't believe me? He did it this morning on Twitter. As in he didn't just call her that, but bragged that was his nickname for her.
Then made a Trail of
Tears joke about the fact that she announced that she was running for
President. So he openly, gleefully makes racial slurs at the woman and
when she announces that she is running for President he decides to
insult her by bragging about his favorite President's (Andrew Jackson)
attempt at genocide when the Cherokee nation jumped through all the
hoops and applied for statehood. Let me repeat that, they attempted to do
things the "right" (i.e. white) way, had all their papers in order, it
went all the way to the supreme court with them saying "Yep, they meet
all the requirements, they get to be a state." (most of modern day
Georgia was the contested area) and Jefferson's response was to say fuck
the House, fuck the Senate, fuck the Supreme Court, lets go kill us
some Indians... and thus began the Trail of Tears as it is known today.
And Trump is using that as fucking joke to let Warren know that there won't be a President with Native blood under his watch. Not surprising, as back in the 80's he said many times in taped interviews he hated Indians because of the casinos that they were building on reservation land that were competing with his gaudy Atlantic City monstrosities. More recently he openly spoke of simply seizing ALL reservations, evicting those living on them, and selling the land to energy and mining companies. When asked about the people living there, his response was "They can buy their land back if they want.". Just in case anyone wants to take a shot at my for referring to Natives as 'My People', I do because I'm half. My mother was half Cherokee, and half Blackfoot. My father was Puerto Rican, which is a mix of Spanish, African, and Native. So you might say I'm half + a little bit, but no need to get too technical.
I'm sorry, but the casual racism against my people which is tolerated at times brings me very nearly to the point of losing my temper. Watching Dennis Miller and Jay Leno talk about the record number of Natives in the House of Reps, and saying the government should be paying them in beads and buckskins to save money... then 30 more minutes of even more offensive material as the audience nervously laughed and Miller just jumped from one Indian bashing topic to the next. He even got in a few jabs at Elizabeth Warren, referring to her as Sen. Pocahontas.
Imagine if Trump or Dennis Miller had been insulting so casually someone of Asian, or African descent. Do you think the reaction from the talking heads on CNN or FOX would be different? Your goddamn right they would. But for some reason casual racism against Native Americans is still just fucking fine. I was honestly shocked that anyone, other than a few Indians, said anything about Johnny Depp doing 'Red Face' for that awful Lone Ranger film. Jay Silverheels (the original Tonto, and actual Native) must have been spinning in his grave so fast they could used him to power most of Southern California.
I could go on... but I'll end it here. Do any of my friends or readers have any theories as to why casual racism against Natives is so accepted? Is it because there aren't many of us left? 3 million give or take with as much blood as me or more. Is that? There are so few of us that we can't fight back so fuck us? Say what you want, its not like we have any political or cultural muscle to flex to make any changes. I think to Dakota Access Pipeline, which just broke and contaminated the reservations drinking water like Energy Partners assured everyone would never happen, proved that if you get a bunch of us together, along with some well meaning white college kids, we can at best be a fly in the ointment.
We are a conquered people on the verge of extinction, and some people simply cannot wait to dance upon our collective graves.
And Trump is using that as fucking joke to let Warren know that there won't be a President with Native blood under his watch. Not surprising, as back in the 80's he said many times in taped interviews he hated Indians because of the casinos that they were building on reservation land that were competing with his gaudy Atlantic City monstrosities. More recently he openly spoke of simply seizing ALL reservations, evicting those living on them, and selling the land to energy and mining companies. When asked about the people living there, his response was "They can buy their land back if they want.". Just in case anyone wants to take a shot at my for referring to Natives as 'My People', I do because I'm half. My mother was half Cherokee, and half Blackfoot. My father was Puerto Rican, which is a mix of Spanish, African, and Native. So you might say I'm half + a little bit, but no need to get too technical.
I'm sorry, but the casual racism against my people which is tolerated at times brings me very nearly to the point of losing my temper. Watching Dennis Miller and Jay Leno talk about the record number of Natives in the House of Reps, and saying the government should be paying them in beads and buckskins to save money... then 30 more minutes of even more offensive material as the audience nervously laughed and Miller just jumped from one Indian bashing topic to the next. He even got in a few jabs at Elizabeth Warren, referring to her as Sen. Pocahontas.
Imagine if Trump or Dennis Miller had been insulting so casually someone of Asian, or African descent. Do you think the reaction from the talking heads on CNN or FOX would be different? Your goddamn right they would. But for some reason casual racism against Native Americans is still just fucking fine. I was honestly shocked that anyone, other than a few Indians, said anything about Johnny Depp doing 'Red Face' for that awful Lone Ranger film. Jay Silverheels (the original Tonto, and actual Native) must have been spinning in his grave so fast they could used him to power most of Southern California.
I could go on... but I'll end it here. Do any of my friends or readers have any theories as to why casual racism against Natives is so accepted? Is it because there aren't many of us left? 3 million give or take with as much blood as me or more. Is that? There are so few of us that we can't fight back so fuck us? Say what you want, its not like we have any political or cultural muscle to flex to make any changes. I think to Dakota Access Pipeline, which just broke and contaminated the reservations drinking water like Energy Partners assured everyone would never happen, proved that if you get a bunch of us together, along with some well meaning white college kids, we can at best be a fly in the ointment.
We are a conquered people on the verge of extinction, and some people simply cannot wait to dance upon our collective graves.
+ + +
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