necro- I'm doing a little canvassing to recoup my monetary losses these days. and today a carpool run out to our turf was over an hour long, and the driver was one of those painfully white guys trying to prove how woke he is to the two hispanics and one black member of the group. Now I'm a quarter indiginous, but I don't usually claim it, because I was my mother was an unfit parent and lost rights to raise her kids, I wasn't raised in the culture, I don't really look the part unless you know what to look for and even then my Dutch and irish cloud it enough that I've been call middle eastern and italian as people try to describe my feature. and I'm usually pretty careful not to claim native heritage because it is frequently met with the eye roll and comments about how every white guy wants to claim native heritage. or how I wasn't raised that way so it doesn't count. or some such.
and I don't really disagree. I'm 1/4 from several nations. I wasn't raised that way and nobody can tell by looking. so I don't really want to claim something that isn't an active part of my life.
But the discussion shifted through education to languages and I professed wishing I could learn the Seneca and Mohawk languages of my anscestors. and the elsalvadorian in the back said that if I don't "get paid" I don't get to claim the heritage.
The thing is I don't want the heritage. I'm not looking for an identity, I have one, and it's not a native identity... but it does include natives in my families past. And I want to learn about it and know it better. I'm not going to convert. I have other lineages I respect just as much and maybe resonate a bit more with my identity, but I don't wish to remain ignorant of a part of my family history and some of various people I come from.
But the comment reminded my too much of the gate keeper mentality that I encounter, and I cant even be upset by it because the BS claims are rampant and the pushback justified.
And so I'm left feeling like I need to not explore or express interest in that part of me, and it feels like letting a branch fade away as others require me to hide it in the dark.
what sucks the most though is I don't believe for a second that I'm the only one out there this is the case for.
I had to grapple with your statements for a while. First I wrote a long winded response (you know me), then erased it, thinking that I was being patronising (which I often am), and then after re-reading the offensive comment from the El Salvadorean , I realised I was right the first time.
OK. So here goes my answer:
1. The El Salvadorean can go jump off a bridge. It's none of his business.
2. American society is full of psychological baggage related to race relations. Some of it justified, but most of it serves only to inflame and separate the so-called "races." The biggest problem is that American society is very racist. The world can see that today in the news.
3. Imagine for a second that I was a shaman of sorts, and I could put you in a trance, whereby - like the Maya in Mexico believed- you could be put into direct contact with the spirits of your ancestors, presumably your Great Grandparents. By the way, that makes you as much Native American as I am French. And 1/4 blood is only two generations apart. My great grandparents were alive when I was born!
I give you three subjects of conversation to discuss with your great grandparents (1/4 blood). You have no other options. You must follow through or your soul will die during the trance:
a) Tell them how you think that you can or can't claim Native heritage
b) Your perception of the white dude trying to be "in tune" with the brothers."
c) How you feel about the El Salvadorean's comments.
What you tell your great grandparents? Do you even dare to tell them that you don't feel it's right for you to claim to be Native? I won't blame you for anticipating a slap in the face. What do you think they'd answer? What do you think they'd say about how close they think you are to them? Is colour of skin important to them?
That white dude who was trying to be "politically correct." What do your great grandparents tell you? Would they even have anything to say about him?
And what about the El Salvadorean's comments? Just because most Hispanics (another ignorant American word I hate) in Latin America (another ignorant American term I hate) have some level of Native American blood in them (ranging from none to 100%), do you think your great grandparents even care what he says about what you can claim or not? What do you think your great grandparents would feel and say about what you can claim to be?
Do you see what I mean? This is not about colour of skin, it's about family. Colour of skin is the trick the white man has used for centuries to control and divide people!
These are your great grandparents man! What do you think is the right thing to do?
Poll
