Posted by
Tzimisce on Monday, November 19, 2007 3:51:59 PM
To our Native American friends this Thanksgiving: get over yourselves. I'm sick and tired of being lectured too by you self righteous bigots. Yeah we've all heard the simplified version of PC history where evil Europeans came here, found a peaceful people living in a paradise, sold them guns and liquor, introduced them to slavery, stole their land, massacred them using war and disease and so on and so forth.
You know, Native Americans (or as I call them "Indians") did terrible things in "500 years of oppression" too. Indians in the United States got off on playing the European powers off each other. There were a lot of tribes that were violently opposed to the white man (or as they should be called, "European Americans".) Some of these tribes are still honored today with statues and even towns named after them.
Ever heard of "Baton Rouge Louisiana"? It's French for "Red Stick" after the tribe of Creeks that massacred all whites who dared enter their land. The Red Sticks went on rampages where they burned crops, scalped the innocent, massacred women and children and did a bunch of other things patriotic libs tell us that only white people in the Marines stationed in Iraq do. But since Indians have brown skin, practice a minority religion and are considered to have lost, we'll forgive them.
It's a myth that most Americans wanted to wipe out the Indians. Constantly through all the wars between the government and the various tribes there were many people who were sympathic to the Indians. A lot of Americans compared Indian leaders to George Washington: a ragtag band standing up to a united, powerful force. If it was supposed to be a put down, they would have compared them to King George of England.
Thanksgiving is an American holiday. It's all inclusive. The first Thanksgiving was open to all regardless of race or ethnicity. The Indians at the time showed up too. They were welcomed with open arms. It was a second in a violent time where everyone actually got along. Isn't that worth celebrating?
I know what libs and Indians are thinking as they read this: another white guy defending his racist history and way of life. Another white man making excuses for his prejudices and justifying his stereotypes, right?
Well let me tell you a story about a man named Homer. Home lived his average normal life in Louisiana around the turn of the 1900's. But all was not well. Louisiana had just passed a law requiring that blacks (which included Mexicans, Indians, Asians and Blacks) be separated from whites.
Homer went to get on the bus one day and told the driver, "My great grandmother was black, making me one eighth black. Should I sit at the front or the back?" The driver made him sit at the back. Homer Plessy sued - took his challenge all the way to the Supreme Court and lost in the landmark "Plessy vs. Ferguson" case. In that ruling the court affirmed the practice of segregation. Unfortunately for Homer Plessy, he was too black for society.
How ironic it would be that today Plessy is too white for Affirmative Action laws. Not judging by skin color indeed.
Why is this story important and why am I telling it? Because my great grandmother was an Indian. I'm one eighth Indian.
(Yeah well, you've had it easy cause you look white.) What were you just saying about not judging by skin color and ethnicity?
Yeah - your own rules never apply to you.
Happy Thanksgiving all.