Burning Walls, Building Bridges: Native Americans

In honor of Thanksgiving next Thursday, I thought I would dedicate today's blog post to Native Americans and the racism they face today. I am starting it off with a short video highlighting a lot of the misinformation we are taught about the holiday. I'm not anti-Thanksgiving, in fact, it's one of my favorite holidays of the year. But I would encourage people to educate themselves about it, and all holidays, and learn the meaning of all the elements of the rituals we partake in, and the history behind them. If the historical element of Thanksgiving is important to you, then you must do the work of educating yourself about the truth of not only how the original event took place, but how the holiday came to be a holiday. It means educating yourself about the tribes involved over the years, and learning that not all tribes were the same or had the same cultural traits. The information is out there, you have only to take the time and effort to glean it.

And just for fun, one of my favorite clips from the only Buffy the Vampire Slayer Thanksgiving episode, breaking down Thanksgiving, and showing how white guilt plays into all of it. For a little context, Spike, the one tied to the chair, is a vampire, and has been around for a couple hundred years. He's seen things...What I like about this clip, is that it masterfully shows how ultimately white guilt plays into white privilege. We're so busy sitting around feeling guilty about what we did or whether or not to enjoy a meal, that we're ignoring what's going on around us. We debate it endlessly, while doing nothing in the meantime. We're making it about ourselves, and our feelings, yet again. I think a certain level of white guilt is necessary to get us our of our own mindset and spurs us to action and change, and that's vital. But too much is just debilitating and ends up perpetuating the issues at hand, instead of fixing them.

I learned a new word this week: Aporia. It basically means living in the state of confusion that comes from an issue or concept that can't be easily summed up or decided upon. Something that has so many facets to it, and none are necessarily right or wrong, but all must be acknowledged, that it leaves us feeling uncertain about all of it. I think Thanksgiving is a perfect example of aporia. We can't just put it into a single category or box and say, that's it, this is what it is! We all have to decide for ourselves how we're going to deal with it. It's ok to be confused and uncomfortable about something. It might not be fun, but it's ok.

For me, holidays become what I make of them. What I decide to participate in or not, and the meaning it has for me and my life. And, spoiler alert: You might not think so, but so do you. We all do this. For me, I choose to look at Thanksgiving as a celebration of the harvest and taking stock in the positive elements of our lives. I tend to leave history out of it entirely.

And now, as you can see, I have done a great job of making a blog post about Native Americans and the racist issues they face today, into a post about my white feelings and opinions. This has been a great example of white privilege. Real time racism...I could rewrite this blog post so as to keep it on target, but I think it's a great example of how white people deal with stuff, so I'm not going to alter it, in fact, I am highlighting it. So, now, to get back to the topic at hand...

I think we tend to look at issues regarding Native Americans and the indigenous people of this continent as something that happened a long time ago. It sucked, colonizers were terrible people, but what's done is done and it cannot be undone or dealt with in any way or it would put our legitimacy into question, and we just can't do that, so let's just move on, all right?...But there have always been acts of racism against Native Americans, and even some quite recently that I am going to highlight here. History is full of examples, and as I have shown in one of my earlier posts, there are plenty of Supreme Court cases you can study about that show just how the highest court in the land really thinks about these people.

First up is an article about voter suppression in North Dakota just last month. You may or may not have heard about the state's new voter "protection" law passed to help ensure against voter fraud. This new law stated that a person had to have a physical address, not just a PO Box, in order to be allowed to vote. For many Native Americans living on reservations, a physical address is impossible to obtain. Thousands of people in the state were disenfranchised just before the election. Here's a handy tip: Any time you hear people talking about passing laws to protect against "voter fraud," know that that phrase is code for "minorities voting". Voter fraud discussions are always, always about disenfranchising people of color, who tend to vote Democrat. It's why so many of the people fighting for these laws tend to be Republicans.

Just out this week, a short report about Native women in Seattle and Tacoma. These two cities have the largest amount of missing, kidnapped, and murdered Native women, in the entire nation. What is it about this city, that claims to be liberal and fighting for all, that is named after a Native American chief, that makes us a hotbed for this issue and do we care enough to do anything about it?

Here is another article regarding that issue. I have come to believe that we, as a nation, have chosen not to do anything to help our indigenous brothers and sisters because it would put our legitimacy as a nation into question. It would make us start to question, and as we know, questions are dangerous. Because they demand answers. And we don't always like the answers, because it might end up with us losing our claim to power. We all bought into Manifest Destiny at one point, so that would make us actually complicit in what happened and continues to happen to these people. So, it's better to not even ask the questions in the first place. Any sort of apology or attempt at restitution would be viewed as admitting we were wrong and that we took this land unfairly and that we are acknowledging that. So we must continue to ignore it, no matter how many more people become victims.

Did you know that Native Americans have a life expectancy 20 years shorter than the average non-Native American? Lack of access to healthcare, clean water, healthy food, and jobs, among other things, has led to this. This is the legacy our policies have left with these people. This is a slow genocide.

This interesting opinion piece explores whether or not the term "person/people of color" is appropriate for Native Americans. It has some really great points. But as it is up to each group to determine how they wish to be referred, it's not on me to have an opinion, it's on me to respect their wishes when a consensus has been reached.

And also just this week, news of First Nations women in Canada having to endure forced sterilizations in order to be allowed to see their children, made the rounds. This is another example of institutional racism and how it's sadly being enforced even now. Just imagine the outrage we'd be experiencing if this had been middle class white women. The fact that you either didn't hear about this yet, or maybe saw the title in scrolling through FB or Twitter, but didn't have time to read the article yet, is an example of how we all help perpetuate institutional racism in this country. We might not harbor anger or hatred for these people, but neither do we do that much to help them, either. This makes us all complicit in their suffering. This is another example of how we are racist. Of how I am racist. Because I, and we, all can and must do better.

In December, a library in Boston with a "surplus" of Pacific Northwest Native American artifacts will be auctioning them off. Native Americans are protesting this and working hard to stop this auction and get the artifacts back to the people from whom they came.

And finally, Standing Rock was two years ago, and the next phase of building the pipe is upon us. Stay tuned as the next set of tribes will ultimately be railroaded in the name of progress. The fight will be valiant and noble, but past is prologue, and we all know how it will end...

Again, I would encourage people to research different tribes and know that not all Native Americans are the same. They do not all have the same cultural traits or beliefs, just like any other group of people. I would also encourage you to look skeptically when you run across social media posts and memes talking about "The Native American Ten Commandments" or anything that would lump all tribes into one set of beliefs. This isn't helping anybody.

There is so much information out there about the topics I wrote about today, there really is no more excuse for us to say we didn't know. So yes, go out there and enjoy the turkey or tofurkey and mashed potatoes and gravy, but also spend some time reading the articles I shared today, and do further research, and then more importantly, start telling others about it. Start caring about it, and ask that the people in your life, care about it too.

Burning Walls, Building Bridges: Antisemitism

Ever since starting this blog project, I have wondered where antisemitism fit in with it, or if it fit in at all. Is it racism? Is it institutional racism? I am not Jewish, and there isn't a large Jewish community where I am, so it's not something I've really had to think about or deal with before. It's not like I have have an issue with Jewish people. I respect the religion, culture, history, and cultural aspects like the food and holidays. I mean, I know antisemitism is a thing that happens, I don't disbelieve it. I see it on tv and hear about it all the time. I've just never seen it up close before. I think here in Seattle, we think of it as something that happens "over there". "Over there" probably meaning the East Coast. We're more laid back over here. We don't care about things that divide us like that over here. People are just people. I mean, of course we have racial divisions, and segregated neighborhoods, but in our minds, Jewish people are mostly white, so they're white people. Plain and simple, right? That's what I thought, until discussing it with an online friend who is Jewish and has white skin, but doesn't identify as white. This was very confusing to me and I didn't really understand it at all. But then I read things online from nationalist groups and other racist hate groups who say things like "Jews aren't white" and that made me think that must be what it's about. But how can white people not be white? Why the big distinction? And then last Saturday, there was a shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh and eleven people were killed. I felt awful, I felt helpless, and all these questions I've been pondering recently came to a head and I knew I had to write about it for this project.

I am ashamed that I've lived this much of my life without really ever thinking deeply about this before. I don't know if I've been an idiot or just woefully naive about this, but I am making up for lost time and educating myself on this subject. I just wish it hadn't taken the lives of eleven people to spur me on.

The following are links for anybody looking to learn more about antisemitism. I would encourage people who haven't ever experienced antisemitism to study up on this. In order to not accidentally contribute to it, we need to be fully educated on it.

First up, a brief explanation on the proper spelling and punctuation of the term "antisemitism." "Anti-Semitism" or "antisemitism"? Which is correct? The article is a few years old, and I just tested it on a blank doc file and Microsoft has fixed the issue since this article was published.

This is a great source of answers to basic questions about Judaism and all things Jewish. I highly recommend this one!

Here is the Anti-Defamation League's definition and explanation of what antisemitism is.

This is has good information on racially-based antisemitism. This plays into the idea of antisemitism as racism.

One of the things that confused me, is the idea of how white privilege works with being Jewish. There is an ongoing debate in the Jewish community of how much white privilege affects or doesn't affect white Jewish people. Ultimately, it's not up to me to make a decision on that or even to have an opinion on it. Definitions of "the thing" are to be made by the people affected by "the thing," not by people on the outside or those inflicting "the thing" on others.

I think one thing I need to work on to make sure I don't contribute to more confusion or antisemitism of my own, is to remember that while a lot of Jewish people are white, a lot of them are not. Assuming Jewish=white is racist. And that while white Jewish people have white privilege in some situations, it is negated in others. It's sort of a "gray" area, if you'll forgive the pun. I will try to do better with that from now on.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg has an excellent Twitter thread on the topic of white privilege within the Jewish community.

This opinion piece from The Jerusalem Post explores the idea of antisemitism being racism, whether or not it is institutional, and also speaks to white privilege.

There is good news and bad news about antisemitism. The bad news first-It's still very much a thing, as last week's shooting shows. The good news? We no longer live in a world where information is hard to find and share. There is so much information out there about this issue that there really is no longer an excuse not to become educated about it. And as knowledge is power, the more we know about it, the more aware we'll be, the more we'll be able to see it, and hopefully, the braver we'll be to stand up against it. We just have to hope and pray that the people fighting against it far outweigh the people perpetrating it. So, go out there and learn all you can about this! If not for yourself, then for these people:

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