Not so strong and free
I'm a white Canadian. I make no secrets about this. I am well aware of how lucky I scored on racial-roulette, even country-roulette. Despite one or two glaring things (being female and mentally ill), I am still so fucking lucky.
Which is why I feel so much pain and sorrow for the real Canadians, the aboriginal Canadians, whom I bet my asshole white ancestors were racist to at some point in history. I am able to somewhat distance myself from my murky roots and remember deeply the disgusting genocide done on this so-called land of the free. I can't change the past. But we can change NOW.
Which is why I find the modern-day treatment of aboriginals here in Canada so abhorrent and wretched. Between the pipelines, the land-steals, the uncaring that the white government has about the glaring truth that native women, in the thousands, go missing and are being raped and murdered by whites who only get slaps on theirs wrists because, hey, they were just Indians, right?
NO. Fuck you. NOT right.
First of all, let's address that word: Indian. Last I checked, it meant someone from INDIA. The idiot and racist Columbus sets foot on a land he wasn't welcome on, sees non-whites, and labels them Indian. We can somewhat excuse his idiocy once it was discovered he wasn't in India. Fine.
But it's centuries later, and whites are still calling aboriginals by this name. They even do it legally, under the "Indian Act of Canada", a disgusting document in itself, maybe hence why it retains its ignorant name.
But (again) it's not ignorance anymore. These people were here first, and had and have names for themselves. "Aboriginal" is an umbrella term I am using to include all tribes and bands affected right now. But people - usually those white fatcat rich 1%-ers in Parliament - still like to use the name Indian, never kindly, and never, ever, in the right way.
I recently watched a documentary filmed in the 80s called "Dancing Around the Table." It enraged me. I was screaming at Trudeau's image, a man I had admired once. (You could probable find this video on YouTube, but if not, let me know and I will edit this entry with a link.)
I've started to hate my own skin, its privileges, its history on this land I really love and consider my home. And yet I am an immigrant, no matter what, and people who are immigrants like me with the same skin tone tell others to "go back to their countries", when the soil they claim is theirs is stolen land.
Second, there was a controversy in the last few weeks about an aboriginal teenager wearing a hoodie to school (Got Land? Thank An Indian). It caused a backlash, alright - the wrong one, which I deeply regret and wish people weren't so fucking stupid so that they would actually understand the message she was obviously saying, and begin to discuss it and MAYBE JUST MAYBE THINKING ABOUT WHAT THAT MESSAGE WAS INSTEAD OF PUNISHING HER.
As a teenaged aboriginal, (her, not me) I cannot imagine how this poor girl must feel. I know there is a group of awesome people also supporting her and the cause (which would have been me also but because I'm white I'm actually genuinely not sure I have a right to wear that shirt, even if I agreed with the message), but I hear more about the bitchy whities from the hill about how the shirt is offensive. To whom? You? Because you have to own up to the fact that nearly 200 years later, nothing has changed for the people your ancestors stole land from?
Fucking idiots, would you fucking wake up?
Third: There is a sort of small group growing on Twitter (yes I went back, long story) that wants to celebrate 150 years of "Canada" as a nation. I proposed that hey, maybe just maybe, instead of celebrating 150 years of white domination, maybe use this celebration to actually repair the damage you (we, they, whites) caused them? Surprisingly, the tweet was met with support. At least there is that.
This rant went on long, so, long story short: Hey white people, stop fucking oppressing the only peoples who have a right to say "I'm purely Canadian", because YOU? You don't! Stop raping their women and children, experimenting on their students, murdering their women and not punishing the whites who do most of the above, and also, hey, FUCKING GIVE ABORIGINALS ACTUAL RIGHTS.
WHY IS THAT SO FUCKING HARD?!
Please feel free to comment on this, whoever reads is, in whatever way. Agree, disagree, whatever. I want to know what everyone things, if anyone cares, and why the fuck not?
This was originally posted over on Dreamwidth. Feel free to comment on either site!
Which is why I feel so much pain and sorrow for the real Canadians, the aboriginal Canadians, whom I bet my asshole white ancestors were racist to at some point in history. I am able to somewhat distance myself from my murky roots and remember deeply the disgusting genocide done on this so-called land of the free. I can't change the past. But we can change NOW.
Which is why I find the modern-day treatment of aboriginals here in Canada so abhorrent and wretched. Between the pipelines, the land-steals, the uncaring that the white government has about the glaring truth that native women, in the thousands, go missing and are being raped and murdered by whites who only get slaps on theirs wrists because, hey, they were just Indians, right?
NO. Fuck you. NOT right.
First of all, let's address that word: Indian. Last I checked, it meant someone from INDIA. The idiot and racist Columbus sets foot on a land he wasn't welcome on, sees non-whites, and labels them Indian. We can somewhat excuse his idiocy once it was discovered he wasn't in India. Fine.
But it's centuries later, and whites are still calling aboriginals by this name. They even do it legally, under the "Indian Act of Canada", a disgusting document in itself, maybe hence why it retains its ignorant name.
But (again) it's not ignorance anymore. These people were here first, and had and have names for themselves. "Aboriginal" is an umbrella term I am using to include all tribes and bands affected right now. But people - usually those white fatcat rich 1%-ers in Parliament - still like to use the name Indian, never kindly, and never, ever, in the right way.
I recently watched a documentary filmed in the 80s called "Dancing Around the Table." It enraged me. I was screaming at Trudeau's image, a man I had admired once. (You could probable find this video on YouTube, but if not, let me know and I will edit this entry with a link.)
I've started to hate my own skin, its privileges, its history on this land I really love and consider my home. And yet I am an immigrant, no matter what, and people who are immigrants like me with the same skin tone tell others to "go back to their countries", when the soil they claim is theirs is stolen land.
Second, there was a controversy in the last few weeks about an aboriginal teenager wearing a hoodie to school (Got Land? Thank An Indian). It caused a backlash, alright - the wrong one, which I deeply regret and wish people weren't so fucking stupid so that they would actually understand the message she was obviously saying, and begin to discuss it and MAYBE JUST MAYBE THINKING ABOUT WHAT THAT MESSAGE WAS INSTEAD OF PUNISHING HER.
As a teenaged aboriginal, (her, not me) I cannot imagine how this poor girl must feel. I know there is a group of awesome people also supporting her and the cause (which would have been me also but because I'm white I'm actually genuinely not sure I have a right to wear that shirt, even if I agreed with the message), but I hear more about the bitchy whities from the hill about how the shirt is offensive. To whom? You? Because you have to own up to the fact that nearly 200 years later, nothing has changed for the people your ancestors stole land from?
Fucking idiots, would you fucking wake up?
Third: There is a sort of small group growing on Twitter (yes I went back, long story) that wants to celebrate 150 years of "Canada" as a nation. I proposed that hey, maybe just maybe, instead of celebrating 150 years of white domination, maybe use this celebration to actually repair the damage you (we, they, whites) caused them? Surprisingly, the tweet was met with support. At least there is that.
This rant went on long, so, long story short: Hey white people, stop fucking oppressing the only peoples who have a right to say "I'm purely Canadian", because YOU? You don't! Stop raping their women and children, experimenting on their students, murdering their women and not punishing the whites who do most of the above, and also, hey, FUCKING GIVE ABORIGINALS ACTUAL RIGHTS.
WHY IS THAT SO FUCKING HARD?!
Please feel free to comment on this, whoever reads is, in whatever way. Agree, disagree, whatever. I want to know what everyone things, if anyone cares, and why the fuck not?
This was originally posted over on Dreamwidth. Feel free to comment on either site!