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I have zero interest in reading 25 pages, but I will ask this: How could being a Native American be "having it bad"?
I've a close friend who is a member of the Mashantucket tribe, who makes over $200,000 a year for, quite literally, doing NOTHING but being a member of the Mashantucket tribe thanks to the Foxwoods. That's it. He gets a 6 figure salary because of his DNA. I've recently made acquaintance with a Muckleshoot out here in Seattle and, while I don't know exactly how much he makes, it appears he does quite well for himself - and he doesn't work, either.
Being a Native American in this country is awesome. Hell, I wish I had some of their blood coursing through my veins.
I have zero interest in reading 25 pages, but I will ask this: How could being a Native American be "having it bad"?
I've a close friend who is a member of the Mashantucket tribe, who makes over $200,000 a year for, quite literally, doing NOTHING but being a member of the Mashantucket tribe thanks to the Foxwoods. That's it. He gets a 6 figure salary because of his DNA. I've recently made acquaintance with a Muckleshoot out here in Seattle and, while I don't know exactly how much he makes, it appears he does quite well for himself - and he doesn't work, either.
Being a Native American in this country is awesome. Hell, I wish I had some of their blood coursing through my veins.
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.
Interesting that both groups fought in the Revolutionary War against Britain. Now if I had to pick one, I would have to go with female Native Americans since they were literally the property of the ranking male members of the tribes to which they belonged and often treated worse than the horses for which they were traded. That was certainly bad, but on top of all that, they were told by white people that their way of life "sucked".
The reality of not separating a group which refuses to assimilate is war and/or endless campaigns of terrorism, often by both sides.
You can't point to horrible things that other people did in the past without at least trying to understand the complex problems they faced and lack of options they had. Using atomic weapons to force the surrender of Japan was an awful thing to do, but the alternatives were no better.
Like Chris Rock said, "no one had it worse than the American Indian. When was the last time you saw a Native American family just chilling at Red Lobster?"
They may as well be an endangered species.
Hey I told that joke 20 pages ago...stop stealing my material
Again, why should we care? NONE of us were alive when that happened. You didn't do it. I didn't do it. I'm not going to be suckered into feeling guilt for things someone else did.
Again, why should we care? NONE of us were alive when that happened. You didn't do it. I didn't do it. I'm not going to be suckered into feeling guilt for things someone else did.
You shouldn't be guilty, but you shouldn't be ignorant either. Your original post is extremely off-base.
You say that being Native American is awesome, yet a brief glance at Wikipedia would tell you that " Native Americans rank at the bottom of nearly every social statistic: highest teen suicide rate of all minorities at 18.5 per 100,000, highest rate of teen pregnancy, highest high school drop out rate at 54%, lowest per capita income, and unemployment rates between 50% to 90%."
Most tribes do not own casinos and Native American reservations are some of the most woefully impoverished locations in our nations. If you cannot see the connection between their historical treatment and the general social status of the population today then there's not much more to say. Recognizing the continued presence of structural inequality based on this treatment and feeling personal guilt for this inequality are two different things.
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