In simple terms white people came here with guns and took the land away from the already existing Native tribes. We rounded them up and shifted them to crap government lands. We broke treaties, we killed as if they were animals. Native people were not blameless but what would you do if people tried to take over your land? Fight back.
White people also brought shiploads of Africans here to work plantations and we kept them enslaved for over 200 years on land that we stole from others and when that system ended we came up with sharecropping as a means to keep black people poor and in their place. The list is long through our history of how we kept pushing. Some white people still feel like racism doesn’t exist and they still believe that a black person is beneath them. The officer Derek Chauvin feels that way; you can see it in his body language as he keeps his knee bent into George Floyd’s neck. I have trouble watching the video as most people do. If you think first of other police officers or that All Lives Matter you are missing the big picture. Of course every life does matter but it is the inequality caused by skin color that we mean when we say Black Lives Matter.
I am sure there are many exceptional police officers in this country and inherently in their goodness they should not be sticking up for Derek Chauvin or the other three. I don’t want officers to be killed and I also want all police departments to clean house. They should not be sheltering racist, Nazi sympathizers, white nationalists, power-hungry, violent abusive husbands or men with major anger issues. To fit our diverse world that many of us love and respect we need a police force of empathetic public servants ready to help out in our communities. Many already are successful at this but we still have far too many who would kneel on a man’s neck as a way to restrain and never bother to check on that person or to crash into a woman’s apartment in the middle of the night and shoot. We need to really think about what is important here. If you do not like our diverse population than might I suggest you find another place to live, far far away where you are welcome. I want to live in an America where POC do not fear for their lives and we can truly work toward racial equality.
While looking up the Minneapolis Police Chief I stumbled across their motto:
“To protect with courage, to serve with compassion.” I did not see courage or compassion as they shot pepper bullets and tear gas into crowds of people. I do understand about unions yet they are not meant as a shelter for bad people who break laws against humanity. And it just occurred to me it should be used as a teaching moment. If certain officers are interested in keeping their jobs they should be paired with members of the black or brown community to learn and grow. People can change if given the chance but it should not be at the expense of another human’s life.
I started this post to discuss these two great books yet I couldn’t begin without speaking about these recent events that are overwhelming my being.
One great thing to help students learn empathy is to put diverse books in their hands. I recently read two excellent books that feature Native characters.
I can make this promise by Christina Day (2019) : Edie has always know her mother is adopted but it isn’t until she discovers a box in their attic with pictures of a woman with her name that Edie wants more answers from her family. Day did a great job of integrating Edie’s history and the mystery behind the other Edith with day-to-day friendship problems. An excellent modern day Native American story.
Quote: “The table falls silent, silent, as the sound-the singing-strengthens and rises. Waves lap against the shore, swelling with an incoming tide. And out there, in the middle of the sea, is a line of-canoes. Paddles plunging into the water in brisk, even swipes. Voices harmonizing and bellowing in a language I’ve never heard before.” (p239)
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (2017): Dystopian world showcasing the loss of white culture through their ability to dream (or lack of their ability) and their subsequent search for Native people to steal marrow from which tortures the indigenous people. Schools (assimilation boarding schools) were reinstated to keep groups together for medical experimentation. I hope this book is the first in a series because I would love to know more.
Quote: “We go to the schools and they leach the dreams from where our ancestors hid them, in the honeycombs of slushy marrow buried in our bones. And us? Well, we join our ancestors, hoping we left enough dreams behind for the next generation to stumble across.”
Peaceful Reader 