Yes it does, that’s because it’s how a very large number of Americans of both and neither political affiliation feel about American politics. Belief that the country was going in the wrong direction and things were getting increasingly worse was rampant. The Democrats chose to run on, “Well, actually, things are going pretty well” and on “We can’t let this maniac have the keys to the white house.” They lost on that message. Since then all I’ve seen from the Democrats is doubling down.
Canada, the US and Australia all have their own crazy racist histories with indigenous people. I’m sure they bear lots of similarities, but the differences matter and it means I don’t understand American issues with indigenous people at all. Still, somehow when people claim to be part indigenous, there’s always something more to it than that. There’s this weird racist tone to it that makes me really uncomfortable.
If someone were really into genealogy, and knew who most of their great great great grandparents were, and one of those people were indigenous, I’d be a lot more neutral to that fact of their heredity. Of course a person who is really interested that one of their ggggrandparents was Irish and another was French is going to be equally interested that one was Mi’kmaq.
But if a family has held on, generation after generation, to a notion that once upon a time one person in that family was married to an indigenous person, how can I not feel there’s something a little racist about it. It’s like a weird time-travelling parallel to, “I’m not an antisemite, my lawyer is Jewish!”
