Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/09/02/msnbcs-lawrence-odonnell-o.html
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That was beautifully put.
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Good to see something like this from a corporate media outlet. They’ve been ignoring this massive indigenous protest otherwise. Winona LaDuke on D Now was more informative (maybe add this to OP?)
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Yup. Well put.
Also, I can’t recall when I last saw a modern news anchor and thought, “there’s an eloquence unique to their profession.” I feel like that kind of thing went out with Cronkite.
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Native American Council Offers Amnesty to 240 Million Undocumented Whites
At a meeting on Friday in Taos, New Mexico, Native American leaders weighed a handful of proposals about the future of the United State’s large, illegal European population. After a long debate, NANC decided to extend a road to citizenship for those without criminal records or contagious diseases.
“We will give Europeans the option to apply for Native Citizenship,” explained Chief Sauti of the Nez Perce tribe. “To obtain legal status, each applicant must write a heartfelt apology for their ancestors’ crimes, pay an application fee of $5,000, and, if currently on any ancestral Native land, they must relinquish that land to NANC or pay the market price, which we decide…
Despite the council’s decision, a native group called True Americans lambasted the move, claiming amnesty will only serve to reward lawbreakers.
“They all need to be deported back to Europe,” John Dakota from True Americans said. “They came here illegally and took a giant crap on our land. They brought disease and alcoholism, stole everything we have because they were too lazy to improve and develop their own countries.”
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I kept waiting for a misstep, some clumsy (if unintentional) “out” to allow a European-descended viewer to not feel something significant but… no. This was the straight truth. I’m kind of stunned that this aired on a television in 2016.
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Dis guud. More dis now plz.
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I guess the “outs” are all the same things we’ve heard before, “I didn’t kill anyone or break any treaty”, and “my grandparents came to this country in the 1920’s and lived in Manhattan, so they aren’t culpable either”, and finally “there’s not much we can do about it now, all that stuff is water under the bridge.”
The first two have some validity, the third doesn’t-- there is something we can do about it now: stop the US government from screwing over the Natives one more time.
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One small step in the right direction might be to stop calling Native Americans, well, Native Americans. Can I suggest ‘Indigenous’?
FTL: …[the term] distinguishes Indigenous peoples from the settlers, colonizers, or other populations who have attempted to undermine Indigenous autonomy. It was also carefully crafted [by José Martínez Cobo] to remove potentially problematic notions of race and blood quantum.
If the term has too many syllables for you, you can do worse than doing what Canadians do and call them First Nations, thereby acknowledging, every time you say or hear it, that they were here first. It would be a start.
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There was some pretty raw journalism during the Vietnam war/civil rights era. I feel like that was another time when shit was so fucking upside down that it didn’t feel like you could just keep your head down and hope for the steady arc of justice to play out while you waited in a comfy, middle class exiatence. Shit needes to be done.
Now feels like another such time, when whatever one thunks they could gain by not rocking the boat just doesn’t feel worth it anymore. hopefully this is just the beginning, 'cause the crazies on the other side of things already have a head start…
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This reminded me of Keith Olbermann’s commentary.
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My God, but that was good.
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Update
Yesterday, security guards for the Dakota Access Pipeline attacked protestors with pepper spray and attack dogs. Among those protestors sprayed and bitten were children. The security personel were also attacked by their own dogs, indicating that they weren’t trained guard dogs, but dogs trained for fighting.
This is some sick shit being perpetrated by ruthless evil people, but I doubt it will get commensurate press coverage.
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I do try to be sensitive about this, but to be honest, I don’t think it’s that big a deal to the folks in question. If you ask them what they want to be called, they will say they want to be called by the name of their nation/tribe, i.e., call a Navajo person a Navajo. Most (in my experience) don’t care if you use the term Indian or Native American when you speak of them collectively. If you use the term Native Americans, the great majority will know what you are talking about.
The important thing is to remember they are still here, living among us and/or living on the reservations. A lot people seem to think that Native Americans are a thing of the past, a historical curiousity, not members of vibrant living cultures. You sometimes hear about European tourists that try to visit reservations and are disappointed to discover that the residents aren’t living in tepees.
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