A part of Obama's speech on Selma and our country: "Of course, a more common mistake is to suggest that Ferguson is an isolated incident; that racism is banished; that the work that drew men and women to Selma is now complete, and that whatever racial tensions remain are a consequence of those seeking to play the “race card” for their own purposes. We don’t need the Ferguson report to know that’s not true. We just need to open our eyes, and our ears, and our hearts to know that this nation’s racial history still casts its long shadow upon us."
This touched me because when I attended a church meeting, I brought up that some people of color, like my sons, don't quite feel welcomed in our church. Before the discussion could ensue someone, a youth leader, said I was playing the "race card." Boy I dislike that phrase and now I know why.
Some people think racism is a thing of the past because we a more diverse country or live in a diverse community, because we have a partially black president, and so on. Yet for those of us who are people of color the struggle goes on because the doctrine of discovery is rooted deeply in our schools, justice system, churches, work places, and so forth, particularly for American Indians. Why? Quite simply, we were here first. This is why we have treaties. (I want to add a 'duh' right here, but I won't).
Some people think that because we have had the right to vote, that our religious freedoms were restored; because the treaties were honored, in part; because we have been given food; health care; education; and self-determination, that we, American Indians, should be able to care for ourselves. All should be well now or by now. Not to mention all those casinos "you" have.
When I spoke about the devastating news in Pine Ridge, about the 5 suicides in less than a month, a woman, from my church said, "We used to live 20 minutes from Pine Ridge." She added that it was a rough place then with all the alcoholism and homicides, and now, "you think they would want to help themselves." What?
When you have been treated as though you are invisible; when you have been discriminated against because you are in a town that is surrounded by THREE reservations; when you people are covered under the Department of Interior and the BIA; when all of your freedoms were restored in the 70s'; when it took an act of Congress to restore the bodies of your people tucked away in museums and the Mayo Medical Center; there is still a very long shadow of racial inequality cast upon the American Indian people across the United States.
Many Americans, even black people think the sun is high and clouds cover the sun sporadically here and there in places like Ferguson, New York and now Madison. Yet for many American Indians the sun rarely shines in places like Red Lake, Pine Ridge, Crow Creek and in Rapid City. We are kept from the sun unless we challenge the laws of the land and break free. I think I know of what I speak having filed the first complaint of human rights violation in northwester MN and won. It was a victory though I had to leave my job and eventually move. See, American Indians need the sun to thrive.
We have sun rays though. People like Billy Mills, David Baines, Vine Deloria, Wilma Mankiller, Ada Deer, and a host of others manage to shed light on us while we bask in their presence and think, "I can do this, in spite of ________." Please fill in the blank and choose from the following: Alcoholism; Domestic Violence; Lost traditional ways; Sexual abuse; My grandparents were forced to attend boarding school and now I don't know the ways; I live in the cities and I am not a real Indian; I don't have any religion or spiritual beliefs because until 1978, and I couldn't pray the way my grandparents taught me; I was raised in a foster home because my parents were unable to care for me; or write in a reason of your own choice.
For me, our Selma has yet to come. We need to return to being the People of the Sacred Voice, Stewards of the Land, the First Nation, the Spontaneous Ones, the Spirits of the Water, the Born of the Waters, the Sacred Fire Keepers, the People of the Seven Council Fires, or the Sacred Ones. Ours was a people given the law from God Himself and it is time for us to rise up from the dust and become who God intended us to be. We have not been forsaken.
No comments:
Post a Comment