This has nothing to do with fashion or costume, but its my blog and I'll write what I want - I just read a comment made by a family member who was joking about bringing a peace pipe to a Burger King on an Indian Reservation in order to get something decent to eat there. Maybe I'm being too sensitive, but I thought this was said in poor taste.
Maybe there was a thread of truth in the statement, though, as Ive seen what goes on behind the scenes in fast food joints and the sight of a wealthy, well fed, blond white woman stepping into a Burger King on an Indian Reservation might very well bring bodily fluids into the meal............just a guess. As would the sight of a wealthy, well fed white G-Man.......just sayin.
So this statement brought me a night of sleeplessness and trendy white guilt. I looked up all the info I could on the state of the Native American people today. Dear God. While it looks like The Bureau of Indian Affairs is trying to better the situation, it still looks like more of the same bullshit that has been doled out for so, so long. I'm no expert and most of us modern Americans are either not interested or we are too busy trying to occupy other lands. And granted, you cant turn back a clock and fix mistakes or wish people away. Many of us are trying with great difficulty to make ends meet in our own little occupied pockets of land. Every country has been occupied - taken over by someone. People and tribes enslaved, wiped out, assimilated. This particular genocide makes me so sad, though. It just wasn't all that long ago that a nation was almost completely wiped out. And look what we've done to the land. Its just awful. However, if I was a white person back then, would my consciousness be at this current level? Would I be like my grandma who chased starving Indians off their stolen land? Probably - but who knows.
This all reminds me of an incident that occurred last year when I was in line at an Asian run convenience store. A drunk Mexican man in front of me was hassling the store owners and calling them names. I tried to shush him up and help them get him out of there, but he spun around to face me and said "why don't you go back to England where you belong!" Well, he had a point and while I wasn't about to argue with a drunk, I totally saw where he was coming from. I couldn't excuse his bad behaviour, but I saw his pain. And all I said was " I tried, but they wont have me." Which was the truth. I looked into it - a lot. And we both just shrugged. We both knew the deal. Whataryagonnado?
So while we don't want to really look at these things or see the underbelly of the wealth of this country, there are real wounds caused by hatred, fear, greed or famine, religious persecution and fanaticism that take many hundreds of years to heal. If not thousands.
Maybe our dear government feels a debt is owed it. It was hard work to exterminate these people and force them onto these little parcels of mostly unworkable land. It cost the United States Of America a whole lot of money to conduct this project. I'm tellin ya - this made the Jewish Holocaust and the Japanese Internment look like a piece of cake!
There is the not so popular view that if the underdog has the tools and technology, it will conduct the same behaviour as the current alpha dog. This may very well be true. People are people and do stupid people things regardless of their color or creed. The humans with the most money and the best tools will always win out. Look at the Vikings, for cryin out loud. White people fight white people. Black people fight black people. Some offer help. Most turn away. Few want to be responsible for their miserable behaviour.
But it really is a sad state of affairs. I wish it would just stop. Well, they say that in 2012 it may very well..........stop. I cant wait to see what happens. I'll be mighty disappointed if there is no drama and happenstance. Mighty disappointed indeed. We need a little cleansing.......not a genetic cleansing, but perhaps the human species could use a little spanking soon. Time out? Play time over? A taste of medicine? One can dream. I dream that it will simply be a time of awakening. We will all just forgive and move forward. So this means that I also have to forgive my relatives, stupid people, ancestors, and my own arrogance ( I must seem stupid to someone )- and hope we all see the light eventually.
Sigh.
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