Okay, so...here it is:
Have you ever had someone respond to you when you tell them something and they are like, "NO WAY!!", and then begins the moment when you must justify your stance/experience/viewpoint?
Yeah, I am sure you have, after all, such is the human condition. People either believe us or they don't.
Now, imagine if you will taking that interaction and applying it to something like cultural heritage.
Take this dialogue for example:
Random person: "I feel really bad for the aboriginals in Attawapiskat, the conditions they have to live in, and yet the government continues to turn a blind eye."
You: "I know, it makes me sick, but alas, it isn't the first time the government has mistreated First Nations, hell, don't even get me started on what they did to my people with the ujamiit, or as you would probably know it..EIC tags."
Random person: "What? You're saying you're aboriginal?"
You: "As a matter of fact I am. I am Inupiak/Inuit"
Random Person: "No you aren't!"
And it is here my friends that you begin the game of justifying.
Now, add into that one more little ingredient...and this is the tasty one in this soup of social interaction. The people who are "Random Person" are also First Nations...and hell, sometimes are even from the same band as you.
Now ain't that just fucked? I know right?
So, when you get this your whole life, it kinda fucks with you. Now make it that in place of people acknowledging your aboriginal ancestry, they instead thrust, quite forcefully, "white privilege" upon you.
Yeah, you heard me right. You are lumped in with those people everyone loves to hate...the big bad "white guy" who tramples all over other cultures, heritages, religions and the like. The one who loves to oppress anyone who isn't him...and hell, sometimes, even those who are JUST LIKE HIM.
Talk about making your skin crawl. Like I would ever want to be associated with that mess. But, reality has it, that I am..not just by this forced "white privilege", but by the other parts of my cultural heritage. After all, I am also Norwegian, Scottish and Acadian Creole. Now mind you, even with those snippets mixed into my bloodline...I would NEVER want or even remotely take advantage of "white privilege". But, sadly, when you are as pale skinned as I am, with piercing ice blue eyes, and chestnut hair, it's kinda hard not to have people assume yanno.
And yet, continually I am having to state that I am not "white" and I don't want the privilege that goes with that word.
Trust me when I say it gets tiresome.
Why is it that people must ignore what is in front of them for some stereotype perpetuated by Hollywood? Why is it that if someone looks more of this than that, then they can't possibly be that?
I mean I touched on this question earlier in another blog posting about femme invisibility...and I think the point is pertinent in both instances.
Why do we subscribe to stereotypes? Why do we buy into the very shit we abhor? Why do we exclude rather than include?
I donno, but damnit, I will not be denied entry to something that I am a part of. After all, I know what runs in my veins....and I ask, who are you to think YOU DO?
*end rant
I see this constantly with Mac. Hell, he doesn't usually say he's Cherokee right off the bat, he claims the Creek so he doesn't have to hear "My grandmother was a Cherokee princess..." But, I really can't speak for him, only my observations.
ReplyDeleteTry telling someone you're hispanic when you look scandinavian with your skin color. I can empathise with you. I can never say I know exactly what it's like, but no one ever should.
Ok, I'm done barely making sence now. :)
-Elliott
Yanno, it's funny that you should mention the Tslagi-Cherokee. I often get people in my life who claim tribal affiliation. And because of what I go through I never question it outright as that who am I to determine if someone is aboriginal or not, but I can't lie, I think, "Yeah, you and EVERYBODY else.". And with that, I chastise myself. But the question remains...are they like me in that they don't look aboriginal? Or is it really something else entirely? I think perhaps it is a little of both. So often in American culture we are in undated with these images that to be aboriginal you must BE and LOOK like some Plains or Woodland tribe as depicted by art, movies and other mass-media and if you aren't Cherokee, Sioux (and their various bands), Navajo, Iroquois, yadda-yadda...then you cannot possibly be aboriginal. But the reality of it is this simple fact...okay, not so simple fact...most aboriginals these days come from "qallunat" (non-aboriginal) stock and also that many of us come from OTHER TRIBES (gasp! There ARE other tribes???). Not all of us walk the mass-marketed "Great Red Road"....we walk through the world in either forced or chosen assimilation to mainstream white culture...and therein lies the crux of it all. Assimilation, which may be why none of us are seen as who and what we are...
DeleteDid that make any sense? After all...this is a pre-caffiene ramble.
wow. having to defend your heritage is crazy! i wish i knew exactly all my heritage, but i'm just a big mutt.
ReplyDeletei'm pretty sure the stories i heard growing up that i'm part first nations are true.
i only found out i had jewish heritage a few years ago.
Yeah, Andrea, it is. And yet, it is an every day (or damned near every day occurance for me. And really I think what I said in my response to Elliott says it all...not many of us these days are full bloods and also many of us are forced to assimilate that we just aren't seen anymore....we are the ghosts that walk among you.
DeleteHey, mutts are the best....never know what you're gonna get. Ahh, Jewish eh, what a beautiful culture/heritage as well as an intriguing religion.