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Good point, rxpwas. Just about every group has at one time or another, gotten screwed over by others. Virtually no one is completely innocent...it is part of human history. sad but true. Hopefully one day we will learn to live in peace with each other...it'll probably be long after I'm gone lol
I sure hope not, but, unfortunately, we will probably neither one be here when that happens. Have a great day!
I think while both definitely got a very short stick compared to the white settlers, the clear loser of them all was the Indians.
Slavery is horrible, and we should be ashamed as a nation of allowing it, but it's not as bad as genocide. When you're enslaved, you can still hope to be freed, sing, have a family, enjoy nature, and know you'll have a legacy (which blacks do in this country and Native Americans don't).
The Indians were basically exterminated like rodents. Could you imagine strangers from another continent telling you your way of life sucked, and you had to believe in their God, and follow their lifestyle, or die? If you DID do this, you still might die. White people embraced African American culture, and it's strong to this day, especially in music where it DOMINATES outside of rock. What do the Indians have? Place names? Casinos? Chapters in history books? That's about it. They're foreigners in their own land to people who are themselves foreigners from the other half of the world.
The only reason blacks are seen as being more oppressed is because they lived to tell about their plight. The Native Americans don't even get that privilege.
Oh yes we ARE still here. We're just "hiding" among what you call Hispanics. You tend to lump us in with whatever other race we look like to you. On the birth certificates of my family members it tends to say eitiher Caucasian, Negro, or Mexican. Never "Indian." You defined us away. You intermarried with us until the offspring looked "white" enough to pass for white and then tended to label any future offspring "white" on the birth certificates. Those of us who still look brown get called "black." Anything else gets called Hispanic or Mexican.
We're not dead. We're just getting TREATED like whatever worse-off race we can get "passed for" which is usually 10x worse.
I'm Choctaw and everywhere I go in my own damned country I keep getting asked for a birth certificate and a damn GREEN CARD. I was born here. Never mind which side of the US/Canada border, both count under the Jay Treaty. You don't need to see my birth certificate as I have passports for both countries. And actually, if youse thought I looked "black" then you wouldn't be asking me for a Green Card like I must look like a Puerto Rican, who by the way are US citizens so even they don't have Green Cards. They get US passports too.
Oh we're here all right. Being treated WORSE than illegal immigrants. Being treated like we must be illegal immigrants and LYING about it.
You are exactly right... I'm part Cherokee myself, and I have not seen any Cherokee call themselves "Native Americans". I also used to visit my wife's family in Idaho (they weren't Indian but lived on the Nez Perce Reservation), and all the Nez Perce there, of whom I made many great friends and acquaintances, did NOT one time, that I remember, say "Native American". The only times I ever heard the term Native American is on tv, radio, or among non-Native peoples (white, black, Asian, whatever). Nothing against the term Native American, it is certainly an honorable term, but to me, anyone born in America, whatever the race or ethnicity, is a "Native American". Also, too many syllables (Indian sure is easier than Native American to say and don't take as long to write !). The only problem I have seen with the term "Indian" is that people from the Indian subcontinent are also "Indians". Anyway, I grew up with the term Indian, my red ancestors were Indians, not Native Americans or First Nations. (Actually, I kinda like the Canadian term, though still prefer Indian). Also, y'all might disagree with me, that's ok, but I don't like "politically correct" terms and things forced on me. Examples.... the term "Native American" is b.s. overkill. Indian is perfectly acceptable, "*****", "red ******", etc. are definitely not. To me, "Black" is perfectly acceptable, "******", "***", "coon", etc. are definitely not, "African American" is overkill. To me, "White" is perfectly acceptable, "Honky", "Cracker", or "Whitey", etc. are not, "Caucasian American" are overkill. To me, "Oriental" or "Asian" are acceptable, "Asian-American" is overkill, "*****", "***", etc. are unacceptable. I guess a better term for all of us is simply "people".
Really? I'm Choctaw but people call me "black." That's two different races, dammit and plus that's calling me a liar! Basically that's telling me I'm NOT what I just said I WAS. And yes this happens to me a lot in person. Almost every time I have to interrupt someone's long tirade about "black" this or African-American that and tell them I'm Choctaw so why are they telling me all about the situation of a race I'm not even part of?!
Sample scenario:
Me: I took 4 years of Latin in high school.
Them: Most blacks don't take Latin in high school!
Me: What the f***? I'm Choctaw, so why would you need to tell me what black people do or don't do?!
Them: No you're not. You're black!
I keep my temper a lot so as not to have a criminal record which would bar me from getting teacher licensed in every state I otherwise qualify for. I wouldn't want to be unemployable for an actual REASON. In other words I haven't actually scalped anyone yet.
Last edited by pkennedy1990; 03-22-2010 at 06:13 PM..
Reason: add more
Oh yes we ARE still here. We're just "hiding" among what you call Hispanics. You tend to lump us in with whatever other race we look like to you. On the birth certificates of my family members it tends to say eitiher Caucasian, Negro, or Mexican. Never "Indian." You defined us away. You intermarried with us until the offspring looked "white" enough to pass for white and then tended to label any future offspring "white" on the birth certificates. Those of us who still look brown get called "black." Anything else gets called Hispanic or Mexican.
We're not dead. We're just getting TREATED like whatever worse-off race we can get "passed for" which is usually 10x worse.
I'm Choctaw and everywhere I go in my own damned country I keep getting asked for a birth certificate and a damn GREEN CARD. I was born here. Never mind which side of the US/Canada border, both count under the Jay Treaty. You don't need to see my birth certificate as I have passports for both countries. And actually, if youse thought I looked "black" then you wouldn't be asking me for a Green Card like I must look like a Puerto Rican, who by the way are US citizens so even they don't have Green Cards. They get US passports too.
Oh we're here all right. Being treated WORSE than illegal immigrants. Being treated like we must be illegal immigrants and LYING about it.
I wouldn't know about that stuff happening, mainly because I never hear it reported. I could imagine that stuff happens.
African Americans had it better in early American than they would have in Africa.
Really? I look at it this way. At least in Africa, one would have been free. The way I look at it, "free" food and lodging don't make up for anything else that happened under slavery. African-American slaves weren't given a choice.
American Indians by far. They were enslaved, and then suffered all the European diseases, which decimated them. Easy choice.
Africans were enslaved and suffered diseases too. Don't get me wrong, I am not downplaying the suffering of Native Americans, nor to I intend to. I am just saying that both Native Americans and African Americans have suffered some of the worst abuse in American history. There are some differences. Native Americans had their land stolen from them and were herded onto reservations, not unlike that of the South African "homelands". Africans were stolen out of their homeland.
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