Smith, Andrea - Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide
Despite it only being June, I am going to go out on a limb and say that this is going to be one of the best books I read this year.
I'm not even sure where to begin. It's an incredible piece of work that synthesizes Smith's work with Native women and against sexual violence and colonialism. Smith argues that putting Native women and women of color at the forefront of feminist analysis, scholarship, and activism can only help feminism, particularly when it comes to the US feminist movement's poor track record when it comes to intersectionality. I am, of course, generalizing as to what comprises "the" US feminist movement, though I think it's fair to say that mainstream US feminism has largely been white, middle class, able bodied, and heterosexual.
Some of what Smith writes about was already known to me, largely in thanks to the anti-racist blogosphere and LJ comms, but much of it is still unfortunately new news to me. Smith traces the history of colonization and the genocide of American Indians from the past (which most of us know about) to the present (which isn't covered much at all in the media or textbooks), and the book is particularly strong when Smith links sexual violence against Native women in the form of forced sterilization, medical experimentation (particularly with birth control drugs), and domestic violence with the forcing of white patriarchy onto American Indians, the rape of American Indian people and lands and spirituality in the form of cultural appropriation, and the ongoing and current genocide of American Indians.
What startled me most were the dates in the book: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 (the book was published in 2003). Depo-Provera, Norplant. Statistics and knowledge about how few rapists of Native women are ever caught, thanks to the very broken criminal justice system and the BIA. This shouldn't be startling knowledge; but outside the anti-racist blogosphere, you barely hear about these things, and I'm fairly sure it's not common news in the white feminist blogosphere. Smith hammers in again and again that the United States is a nation formed via the genocide of an entire people, and that that genocide is still happening, particularly as the government and corporations try to cash in on the natural resources on many reservations.
I am not even covering half of what I found exciting about the book, but the core of it is how Smith reads what is normally read as racial or cultural violence as sexual violence. Just... *flails* READ THIS.
Links:
- coffeeandink's review
- sanguinity's review
I'm not even sure where to begin. It's an incredible piece of work that synthesizes Smith's work with Native women and against sexual violence and colonialism. Smith argues that putting Native women and women of color at the forefront of feminist analysis, scholarship, and activism can only help feminism, particularly when it comes to the US feminist movement's poor track record when it comes to intersectionality. I am, of course, generalizing as to what comprises "the" US feminist movement, though I think it's fair to say that mainstream US feminism has largely been white, middle class, able bodied, and heterosexual.
Some of what Smith writes about was already known to me, largely in thanks to the anti-racist blogosphere and LJ comms, but much of it is still unfortunately new news to me. Smith traces the history of colonization and the genocide of American Indians from the past (which most of us know about) to the present (which isn't covered much at all in the media or textbooks), and the book is particularly strong when Smith links sexual violence against Native women in the form of forced sterilization, medical experimentation (particularly with birth control drugs), and domestic violence with the forcing of white patriarchy onto American Indians, the rape of American Indian people and lands and spirituality in the form of cultural appropriation, and the ongoing and current genocide of American Indians.
What startled me most were the dates in the book: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 (the book was published in 2003). Depo-Provera, Norplant. Statistics and knowledge about how few rapists of Native women are ever caught, thanks to the very broken criminal justice system and the BIA. This shouldn't be startling knowledge; but outside the anti-racist blogosphere, you barely hear about these things, and I'm fairly sure it's not common news in the white feminist blogosphere. Smith hammers in again and again that the United States is a nation formed via the genocide of an entire people, and that that genocide is still happening, particularly as the government and corporations try to cash in on the natural resources on many reservations.
I am not even covering half of what I found exciting about the book, but the core of it is how Smith reads what is normally read as racial or cultural violence as sexual violence. Just... *flails* READ THIS.
Links:
- coffeeandink's review
- sanguinity's review