Comments | theair_thesun: Let's discuss... Native American racism!

sleepy_sheep683 in theair_thesun

Let's discuss... Native American racism!

Oct 13, 2010 01:14

Hi all,

I'm opening up a dialogue about this for fairly selfish reasons- my beta-reader has been going over one of the later chapters of my fanfic and is of the opinion that the racism aspect is potentially overshadowing the story.

There are indeed quite a few references in my story to tensions between Forks and La Push reservation, the tribe ( Read more... )

Comments 32

stigmata_crow October 13 2010, 06:23:11 UTC

How interesting, I just got finished reading Thomas King's Green Grass Running Water that deals with this sort of stuff ( ... )

stigmata_crow October 13 2010, 06:23:23 UTC

Onto race relations. Well, Canada has done a lot of good things recently. Too bad we did a lot of shitty things in the past. Our recent track record isn't exactly spotless either. You asked if we ever had a class dealing with First Nations race relations. Well, I'm going to show you a picture:

( ... )

audreyii_fic October 13 2010, 14:27:19 UTC

Oh, I wouldn't argue that Meyer didn't touch racial relations, just that she didn't try to address them. I wouldn't have put it past her to throw in some kind of Dances With Wolves-esque Lifetime TV movie side plot about teaching things to the poor little injuns, and I'm immensely grateful that she at least didn't do that.

stigmata_crow October 13 2010, 18:45:06 UTC

True enough, it would have been dreadful.

Thread 8

sleepy_sheep683 October 14 2010, 00:24:19 UTC

Just wanted to add- a big thank you to everyone for sharing your stories and knowledge.

audreyii_fic October 14 2010, 15:44:24 UTC

On a personal story front (and not much of one), I'm a teensy bit Cherokee (a side effect of being fifteenth generation American, you really can't have been here that long without picking up a little of everything, though the crazy thing is that I'm actually about 95% English -- Saxon at that -- so, yeah). I'm nowhere near enough to be qualified for anything at all, but my grandfather was (the Cherokee relation was adopted into the family). We didn't find out about it until my cousin started doing major research into family history. My grandfather knew, of course -- and once we knew, we realized you could see it in his facial features -- but he never told anyone. He was very ashamed of it.

So there's that.

audreyii_fic October 14 2010, 15:47:48 UTC

I also whip this information out once in awhile when dealing with people who are snots about immigrants. Said people are usually third or fourth generation American. I point out that if they think time in the country determines citizenship rights, then at minimum my vote should count fifteen times more than theirs, at maximum several thousand more, given the tiny Cherokee blood drop. This usually shuts them up.

sleepy_sheep683 October 14 2010, 18:44:01 UTC

LOL. Liking the comeback.

We sometimes get UK peeps over here spouting that stuff to (normally they're affiliated with the BNP or at least don't think Nick Griffin is a chronic waste of organs). It makes me laugh even more in the UK because the amount of times we were invaded? Every single one of us is descended from immigrants.

maria_madalena October 15 2010, 01:51:00 UTC

I'm not a Native American and I have never been in a reservantion or close to.
I have indigenous blood in my veins, probably. In Brazil, we have that stuff too. Brazilian Indigenous are pretty excluded, despite the wrong imagine that there is a communion of all ethnicities here. There isn't a substantial politic to maintain their cultures, which is our (brazilian) culture too. The problem with the lands is really serious and they are losing their lands to landowners, wich invade the reservations. And there is a lot of jokes.
I knouw you're talking about Native American from USA, but know about the situation of indigenous people in other place maybe help you with your story, which is, by the way, very good.