The first step to coming to terms with the history of one’s nation is to get the complete history, to listen to the stories of those who were affected, regardless of how it may offend one’s sensibilities. Quite frankly, this knee-jerk sensitivity to having one’s nation called out for buried atrocities is shameful and immature. To do so communicates to those around you, regardless of ethnic background, that the suffering of others matters not, for the simple offense it may incur upon yourself personally–more so, the suffering of aboriginal peoples, people of color, and women all matter a trifle in light of what white males wish to believe and accomplish here forward. That’s not very democratic. It’s more indicative of the thinking process of an unsophisticated, petulant, and oversensitive child wishing their own way.
The United States, for a nation of people who claims to be largely Christian and charitable, are neither and vociferously so, in the face of being expected to address their past. To this day, efforts in Germany are under way to make amends for the Holocaust. However, in the US, a bastion of Holocaust deniers, the American Holocaust has gone ignored. A shrug of the shoulders is the best you will get. “It was unfortunate.” No. It IS unfortunate, because the affects of the ‘solutions’ used against First Nations peoples are still being felt, they are still underway. Their calls for redress are met with silence or violence.
One attempt I made at communicating the absurdity of white America in the face of the ‘native problem,’ met with the response: “My ancestors were murdered by them” and other such similar chagrin, meant to express how much more important what was done to usurping whites was to be considered. Absurd. If someone came into your house today and deigned to take anything, let alone take over, and I’ve heard so many white men, bristling with machismo, assure others that they will be met with the end of the latest in firearms tech for their pains to do so. Right. But, no one but white men, possibly white women in certain circumstances such as defending her man’s property (including herself and the house and belongings in it), are not to be afforded the same right.
When blacks, women or anyone culturally deemed as less than the ideal of society (white and male) dare to defend theirs, they are met with more than the full extent of the law. God forbid. This is evident in the language that we use in describing the activities of whites versus people of color, of men versus women, of heterosexuals versus homosexuals…
Find out more about the egregious Boarding School policy that attempted to destroy multiple cultures and bury the American Holocaust in their wake:
“Medical research in Canada (First Nations Information Governance Center) and the United States (American Psychiatric Association) link the boarding school traumas of abuse, neglect and separation from family and culture with high rates of suicide, substance and alcohol abuse, sexual abuse and violence, and other health disparities such as high blood pressure and diabetes.”