A white man and an elderly Native man became pretty good friends, so the white guy decided to ask him: “What do you think about Indian mascots?”
The Native elder responded, “Here’s what you’ve got to understand. When you look at black people, you see ghosts of all the slavery and the rapes and the hangings and the chains.
When you look at Jews, you see ghosts of all those bodies piled up in death camps. And those ghosts keep you trying to do the right thing.
But when you look at us you don’t see the ghosts of the little babies with their heads smashed in by rifle butts at the Big Hole, or the old folks dying by the side of the trail on the way to Oklahoma while their families cried and tried to make them comfortable, or the dead mothers at Wounded Knee or the little kids at Sand Creek who were shot for target practice. You don’t see any ghosts at all. Instead you see casinos and drunks and junk cars and shacks.
Well, we see those ghosts. And they make our hearts sad and they hurt our little children. And when we try to say something, you tell us, ‘Get over it. This is America. Look at the American dream.’
But as long as you’re calling us Redskins and doing tomahawk chops, we can’t look at the American dream, because those things remind us that we are not real human beings to you. And when people aren’t humans, you can turn them into slaves or kill six million of them or shoot them down with Hotchkiss guns and throw them into mass graves at Wounded Knee. No, we’re not looking at the American dream. And why should we? We still haven’t woken up from the American nightmare.
As Arab Iraqis watch, Kurdish civilians – men, women, children – are being crammed into lorries, driven to their death camps. There they are separated. Some are buried alive in the Syrian desert. Others are blown up in front of running cameras. Many women are sold to Egypt to brothel owners. Others are done even more cruel. Today is the 30th anniversary of the cruel and barbaric Anfal operation of the Iraqi Baath regime against the Kurds. It was the largest genocide ever committed against the Kurds. The Ba’ath Party lost its power with the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In Syria, however, the Ba’athists continue to rule with Bashar Assad at the head of the state.
As Arab Iraqis watch, Kurdish civilians – men, women, children – are being crammed into lorries, driven to their death camps. There they are separated. Some are buried alive in the Syrian desert. Others are blown up in front of running cameras. Many women are sold to Egypt to brothel owners. Others are done even more cruel. Today is the 30th anniversary of the cruel and barbaric Anfal operation of the Iraqi Baath regime against the Kurds. It was the largest genocide ever committed against the Kurds. The Ba’ath Party lost its power with the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In Syria, however, the Ba’athists continue to rule with Bashar Assad at the head of the state.
The old Wintu word for white people translated to something like “poison people”/disease people".
Probably because American invaders would spread disease and literally poison the food and water of California natives as an act of genocide
The name Hitler does not offend a black South African because Hitler is not the worst thing a black South African can imagine. Every country thinks their history is the most important, and that’s especially true in the West. But if black South Africans could go back in time and kill one person, Cecil Rhodes would come up before Hitler. If people in the Congo could go back in time and kill one person, Belgium’s King Leopold would come way before Hitler. If Native Americans could go back in time and kill one person, it would probably be Christopher Columbus or Andrew Jackson.
I often meet people in the West who insist that the Holocaust was the worst atrocity in human history, without question. Yes, it was horrific. But I often wonder, with African atrocities like in the Congo, how horrific were they? The thing Africans don’t have that Jewish people do have is documentation. The Nazis kept meticulous records, took pictures, made films. And that’s really what it comes down to. Holocaust victims count because Hitler counted them. Six million people killed. We can all look at that number and be rightly horrified. But when you read through the history of atrocities against Africans, there are no numbers, only guesses. It’s harder to be horrified by a guess. When Portugal and Belgium were plundering Angola and the Congo, they weren’t counting the black people they slaughtered. How many black people died harvesting rubber in the Congo? In the gold and diamond mines of the Transvaal?
So in Europe and America, yes, Hitler is the Greatest Madman in History. In Africa he’s just another strongman from the history books.
Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (via christymtidwell)
In Ethiopia the worst man in history of debatably Mengistu Hailemariam.
The name Hitler does not offend a black South African because Hitler is not the worst thing a black South African can imagine. Every country thinks their history is the most important, and that’s especially true in the West. But if black South Africans could go back in time and kill one person, Cecil Rhodes would come up before Hitler. If people in the Congo could go back in time and kill one person, Belgium’s King Leopold would come way before Hitler. If Native Americans could go back in time and kill one person, it would probably be Christopher Columbus or Andrew Jackson.
I often meet people in the West who insist that the Holocaust was the worst atrocity in human history, without question. Yes, it was horrific. But I often wonder, with African atrocities like in the Congo, how horrific were they? The thing Africans don’t have that Jewish people do have is documentation. The Nazis kept meticulous records, took pictures, made films. And that’s really what it comes down to. Holocaust victims count because Hitler counted them. Six million people killed. We can all look at that number and be rightly horrified. But when you read through the history of atrocities against Africans, there are no numbers, only guesses. It’s harder to be horrified by a guess. When Portugal and Belgium were plundering Angola and the Congo, they weren’t counting the black people they slaughtered. How many black people died harvesting rubber in the Congo? In the gold and diamond mines of the Transvaal?
So in Europe and America, yes, Hitler is the Greatest Madman in History. In Africa he’s just another strongman from the history books.
Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (via christymtidwell)
In Ethiopia the worst man in history of debatably Mengistu Hailemariam.
Because for hundreds of years, native people were prosecuted and killed for practicing and celebrating our culture. We endured mass genocide and rape, our scalps were held up for bounty by the US government. Children were taken from their homes and placed with abusive white parents.
Indian boarding schools that my grandparents had to endure, having their culture beaten out of them, their mouths washed with soap for speaking their “savage” language. Who had their traditional native clothing burned before them and forced to wear the white man’s clothes, their long braids cut, a sacred sign of beauty and spirituality.
The slogan “Kill the Indian, Save the Man”.
The war bonnet isn’t just “something”, it’s a great symbol of honor and dignity, you work hard for it. Each feather has been blessed by our elders and every bead and tassel MEANS something. You earn each and every feather for bravery, for surviving and protecting.
It was not even 50 years ago that it became legal to practice our own religions. Even now, we’re discriminated against for our beliefs and our practices are made a mockery of. But, some white guy wears a cheap replica and people see him as “Edgy” and “fashion forward”? When our culture was ripped from us, some of us not even knowing the old ways?
Is it so much to ask for respect for our cultures? Respect for our murdered ancestors? Respect for our elders who have survived the assimilation? For young native children who have to grow up with our entire way of life as a joke?
Is it so hard to respect that we’re still a living breathing community and not a costume?
Because for hundreds of years, native people were prosecuted and killed for practicing and celebrating our culture. We endured mass genocide and rape, our scalps were held up for bounty by the US government. Children were taken from their homes and placed with abusive white parents.
Indian boarding schools that my grandparents had to endure, having their culture beaten out of them, their mouths washed with soap for speaking their “savage” language. Who had their traditional native clothing burned before them and forced to wear the white man’s clothes, their long braids cut, a sacred sign of beauty and spirituality.
The slogan “Kill the Indian, Save the Man”.
The war bonnet isn’t just “something”, it’s a great symbol of honor and dignity, you work hard for it. Each feather has been blessed by our elders and every bead and tassel MEANS something. You earn each and every feather for bravery, for surviving and protecting.
It was not even 50 years ago that it became legal to practice our own religions. Even now, we’re discriminated against for our beliefs and our practices are made a mockery of. But, some white guy wears a cheap replica and people see him as “Edgy” and “fashion forward”? When our culture was ripped from us, some of us not even knowing the old ways?
Is it so much to ask for respect for our cultures? Respect for our murdered ancestors? Respect for our elders who have survived the assimilation? For young native children who have to grow up with our entire way of life as a joke?
Is it so hard to respect that we’re still a living breathing community and not a costume?
Celtyradfem 