June 2011
15 posts
“When Columbus got off the boat, he asked us who we were. We said we’re the Human Beings, we’re the People. Conceptually the Europeans didn’t understand that, it was beyond their conceptual reality. They didn’t see us. They couldn’t see who we were. Historically speaking, we went from being Indians to pagans to savages to hostiles to militants to activists to Native Americans. It’s five hundred years later and they still can’t see us. we are still invisible. They don’t see us as human beings, but we’ve been saying to them all along that’s what we are. We are invisible to them because we are still the Human Beings, we’re still the People, but they will never call us that. They taught us to call ourselves Indians, now they’re teaching us to call ourselves Native Americans. It’s not who we are. We’re the People. They can’t see us as human beings. But they can’t see themselves as human beings. The invisibility is at every level, it’s not just that we’re tucked away out of sight. We’re the evidence of the crime. They can’t deal with the reality of who we are because then they have to deal with the reality of what they have done. If they deal with the reality of who we are, they have to deal with the reality of who they aren’t. So they have to fear us, not recognize us, not like us. The very fact of calling us Indians creates a new identity for us, an identity that began with their arrival. Changing identity, creating a new perceptual reality, is another form of genocide. It’s like severing a spiritual umbilical cord that reaches into the ancestral past. The history of the Indians begins with the arrival of the Europeans. The history of the People begins with the beginning of the history of the People. The history of the People is one of cooperation, collectivity, and living in balance. The history of the Indians is one of being attacked and genocide, rather than a history of peace and balance. The history of the People under attack, the Indians, in an evolutionary context, is not very long, it’s only five hundred years. The objective of civilizing us is to make Indian history become our permanent reality. The necessary objective of Native people is to outlast this attack, however long it takes, to keep our identity alive.”
—John Trudell (Santee Sioux) (via riotisnotquiet)
THE FEEL OF FREE: Today A Man Touched Me On The Subway And So I Hit Him →
thefeeloffree.tumblr.com
The last part of this story really struck a chord with me. I cannot tell you how many times I have yelled at, given the finger to, screamed GO FUCK YOURSELF (and even got so heated to the point that I threw my water bottle at them) to guys on the street and in cars cat calling, making whistling and kissing noises at me. I think what most people who brush this sort of thing off and say “what harm is it?” don’t understand is that sort of behavior is incredibly disrespectful. You can’t take the time to approach me with some dignity like I am human being? No, you instead make noises at me like I’m inferior to you and worthless of any effort beyond what you’d do to get a dog’s attention. And yes plenty of times after I’ve verbally fought back I’ve felt afraid that they’d turn around and do something to hurt me. It gets to you after a while.
I’m writing this on the R train as it rattles slowly along toward Brooklyn. I’m headed to pick up my 6-month-old daughter. I’m writing because I’m still reeling from what occurred on the Times Square subway platform a few moments ago. I was walking to the end of the station as I…
