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Just some thoughts provoked by watching Little Big Man
6 years ago
General
I cry at this scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrirdytJj5k
Someone made a comment in reaction to Dustin Hoffman's character asking about hating the White man, the person leaving the comment saying that he himself did though he is White.
I don't hate the White man, or people of any race. I despise the thinking, the racism and things that were done to my people of the Lenape nation, to all NDN and Indigenous people on this North American and other continents by the colonizers of their lands, but I do not hate the White man for it. I despise the men who let their hatred poison their hearts; their racism drive them to commit genocide against NDN people. To include in the Declaration of Independence of the US the description of NDN people as "Merciless Indian Savages". I'll bet they don't mention that in school when history classes discuss 1776 and the writing & signing of that document. They sure didn't back in my day. The history was told from the perspective of the colonizers.
When NDN people were mentioned in school texts it was always in the context of "in the past". Nothing about contemporary struggles. Just another way the colonizers educational system erased NDN people from the general public consciousness.
These men who committed unspeakable acts of violence and genocide against NDN people were not wholly representative of their people. It is sad they were in the majority for their time, but times are slowly changing. There is still anti-NDN racism and violence today - and I have personally experienced it on numbers of occasions. Look into how many Native women of the US and Canada are Missing or Murdered every year with little investigations, if any. Does it make me angry? Yes.
But hate only breeds more hate, and a black heart. Hate does nothing to heal, it only perpetuates the wounds. Yes I get angry reading the history of the Wounded Knee massacre and others, how can one not? However...
Live a good life with a good heart. If you can do this, really live with a good heart, then you will not give any reasons for anyone to hate what you do or say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrirdytJj5k
Someone made a comment in reaction to Dustin Hoffman's character asking about hating the White man, the person leaving the comment saying that he himself did though he is White.
I don't hate the White man, or people of any race. I despise the thinking, the racism and things that were done to my people of the Lenape nation, to all NDN and Indigenous people on this North American and other continents by the colonizers of their lands, but I do not hate the White man for it. I despise the men who let their hatred poison their hearts; their racism drive them to commit genocide against NDN people. To include in the Declaration of Independence of the US the description of NDN people as "Merciless Indian Savages". I'll bet they don't mention that in school when history classes discuss 1776 and the writing & signing of that document. They sure didn't back in my day. The history was told from the perspective of the colonizers.
When NDN people were mentioned in school texts it was always in the context of "in the past". Nothing about contemporary struggles. Just another way the colonizers educational system erased NDN people from the general public consciousness.
These men who committed unspeakable acts of violence and genocide against NDN people were not wholly representative of their people. It is sad they were in the majority for their time, but times are slowly changing. There is still anti-NDN racism and violence today - and I have personally experienced it on numbers of occasions. Look into how many Native women of the US and Canada are Missing or Murdered every year with little investigations, if any. Does it make me angry? Yes.
But hate only breeds more hate, and a black heart. Hate does nothing to heal, it only perpetuates the wounds. Yes I get angry reading the history of the Wounded Knee massacre and others, how can one not? However...
Live a good life with a good heart. If you can do this, really live with a good heart, then you will not give any reasons for anyone to hate what you do or say.
couger
~couger
I am sad and angry that folks do not learn from what they did to us. I refuse to tolerate racism around me and make it clear to folks if they cannot grow enough to accept us all as equals then i can niether do business with them nor can i be friends with them. (Its self protection in action) to a large degree i feel a form of pity for those who harm us.
I can't agree more with you. I don't tolerate racism myself. I've had to step on a couple people where I work, including one director who thought it was OK to call a meeting a "department powwow" and once say that if the network at campus went down to use smoke signals to communicate if we had to in front of me and the rest of the team. He knows full well I'm NDN. I had a private discussion with him, and since then he's not gone there again. I didn't want anyone new to be exposed to that sort of thing, especially if we got another Native American staff person in the department, didn't want that person to have to deal with that sort of off-hand treatment.
