This past Thursday I was at a local restaurant enjoying some live music and getting into a long weekend mode. I was relaxing and having some peaceful, joyous downtime when a startling conversation came up.
The conversation was about how some Native people (excluding myself and all of my friends, of course) are sitting around waiting for government dole outs. How we continually say 'woe is me' and then perpetuate that self-fulfiling prophecy.
I just about threw up. This came from a non-Native who was supposedly open-minded, liberal, educated, and a minority activist of sorts. My heart sunk and I was not ready. I was not ready to defend my nation, to defend myself, to defend my people. I was sitting there ready to start my long weekend and have some fun.
I didn't put up a fight. I didn't want a debate. I was simply not prepared. I just wanted to be away from this person and never to have a conversation of the sort again. Problem is that inevitably I will have to have that conversation again.
It is such a strange thing to have no choice but to learn to be an activist for Indigenous rights. I feel as a Native person I am given no choice but to educate myself and others when facing racism, stereotypes and myths. And so I move on and remember to choose my company more wisely.
For an amazing take on this 'conversation' see:
'We Got Rich but Nobody Told Us' by Drew Hayden Taylor for the Peterborough Examiner
Posts
lisa,
ReplyDeletei just had the same conversation, for the 9834 time in my life, jeez, imagine that, we still have to justify our people's existence to the dominant culture.....sigh, so i wrote a little love poem about it.....
Hunchback bigots juggling dwarves of love:
The past couple years I’ve worked
With a variety of charitable
Organizations
Providing skills for their employees
Or clients
And after such a time
I’ve come to realize
That there’s no progress
Like the dumb ass of ignorance
Plodding across the land
Driven by a team of educated
Halfwits who live in a time
When common sense is revered
As genius
And statues are erected
In their idiotic honour
And they laugh and backslap one another
For their so-called “PROGRESS”!!
And jeer at employees that call
Call for accountability
At the spending
The route of the so-called progress
Is paved on other people’s misery
Not the one’s in control
Of the land
The resources
The money
And sadly I now know
The same old bigotries
Have not been washed away
By some golden chalice of intelligence
At some fountain of knowledge
More than ever
It’s the same old greed
And want
And pride
Heartlessly lumbering over the impoverished
The helpless
The lost
And the one’s in power
The one’s in control
Goddamn their ignorance
Shines so fucken bright
When they ask childlike questions
About race
About why my people
Seem so lost
So backward
So timid
that really Reveals something so sad
About themselves
That I cannot even begin
To explain several centuries
Of oppression in
ten second sound bites
For them
And really I don’t fucken care to anymore
And they don’t really want to know
They just want to empathize and feel it
For a half an hour
Not even to understand it
But to hold it for a little while
Study it
And then will go back
to their kingdoms of fear
And write another grant to get more money
To keep this hideous system lurching
Onward perpetually
Towards infinite progress
And infinite night and darkness
Continues to ride
Over anyone who stands
In their way.
"That I cannot even begin
ReplyDeleteTo explain several centuries
Of oppression in
ten second sound bites
For them"
That is exactly how I felt. I didn't even know where to begin, didn't know how to begin. Shoot give me seven days and library access and I will come back with a killer essay but thirty seconds and an answer ... no way, no how.
This line is rather poignant: "It is such a strange thing to have no choice but to learn to be an activist for Indigenous rights."
ReplyDeleteI totally get what you're saying. Sigh.
Yes I think it is a common perspective for most people of any ethnicity that spend a lot of time outside of their community. Arrgh sad but true.
ReplyDeleteThat sucks.
ReplyDeleteI'm not in your shoes but I can see the prejudice and I heard it before. Makes me sick, because it's not true, and it's... well, a prejudice.
I heard the same about immigrants. One day, this woman was sitting besides me and started going on and on about "sick immigrants putting a strain of the health system, not working" etc.
It was my pleasure to explain her that *I* was an immigrant on my way to work, and that by the way, immigration required us to take a full medical exam before actually immigrating to Canada, and that it disqualified sick immigrants.
She felt bad I guess.
Can't stand ignorance.
Zhu,
ReplyDeletePrejudice does take all forms and no one is immune to it. It is unfortunate and toxic thing to be around. But as Chris says in his poem above:
"that really reveals something so sad
About themselves"
People who choose to live in hate and judgment often experience it most themselves.
People who live in hate and judgment... yes. I don't care much about them.
ReplyDeleteWhat kills me is basic plain stupid ignorance. We should all fight stereotypes everyday: some against the gay community, some against the asian community, some against the natives, some against the black community etc.
Because I'd say 90% of the prejudices are just ignorance, not hate.
Great post Lisa. This is why you are important.
ReplyDeleteZhu - yes good point on ignorance. It is important to love others and do our best to educate in all realms :).
ReplyDeleteRob - muchos gracias.
Beware of liberals. They only difference between them and the right is they feel guilty about their privledges.
ReplyDeletethis kind of thing makes me want to throw up as well. Whenever I hear remarks like this or read them for that matter I feel right sick to my stomache.
ReplyDeletethanks for this post woman, you are definately a good voice for our people
Grumpy Owl - you always have something interesting and poignant to say - thank you for your input :).
ReplyDeleteBraided Diva - it brings me such joy to hear this from you. I really needed to hear that right now.
A friend passed your blog my way. I love this entry. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI just want to elaborate on something that Zhu said:
ReplyDelete'What kills me is basic plain stupid ignorance. We should all fight stereotypes everyday: some against the gay community, some against the asian community, some against the natives, some against the black community etc.'
He left out as usual as all men do, menof any color the stereotypes and bigotry facing women, all women, women of any race.
It seems majority of the times the only forms of bigotry that gets any attention or where there is public outrage are bigotry that affect men.
Racism, anit-semitism is taken seriously and nobody wants to be called a racist or anti-semite. Even when you say something homophobic you are called a bigot and rightfully so.
But Misogyny/sexism is never discussed,we don't call those who have made Misogynistic/ sexist bigots. Men make every attempt to show misogony doesn't exist.
Ohhh well Zhu is actually a female, so the theory is now demystified.
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ReplyDeletewow- im continually surprised when this happens still, and ofcourse when i rebuke such ignorance (from co-workers, and supposed friends) i always hear a scramble of oily words akin to 'no, your ok, your a good indian' or 'your only half-breed' as if their tirade should only be HALF as insulting...'
ReplyDeletewhat to do..
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteAn excellent post. Thank you. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've been through this and the horrible things people say when they think "you're white like us". The joys of appearances being deceiving.
Jacqueline - Thank you for checking in on the blog and for your comment. It is a terrible thing to be a part of these discussions at any time and worse when it is someone close to you. I still get sad when I think of this experience.
ReplyDelete