RE: Indigenous Erasure on the 4th of July: Prayer for a Common Memory
A wonderful, conscious and heartfelt post. In Australia, we have a similiar debate on Australia Day, which commemorates the landing of the First Fleet - this is also called 'Survival Day' by indigenous people who see it as the beginning of their dispossession and the genocide and miscengation of their people and a highly insensitive celebration, much like the 4th of July. We too get a a holiday for it, but we don't 'celebrate it'. There's always calls to 'change the date' - some argument for May 8 which is funny (mayeight - read 'mate' in an Aussie way) which is probably a good idea. Fuck Cook and the boat he road in on. Again, Ihijrack your post with an Australian view/story - but I guess it's how I digest and relate to our two countries dilemmas and struggle to move forward to a more unified whole - God bless (which doesn't feel right on my lips, but the sentiment is there).
Also, I enjoyed the debates and discussion in the comments, which is always healthy. :)
yeah, mine either and i don't even really feel that, but i included that in the article b/c honestly i was struggling with how to make my message palatable--- i want to engage and not to turn people off. americans are so fragile and touchy... and this shit doesn't go down our throats well (as evidenced by how few people commented on this article who disagree...).... i wish there was more debate/discussion and i'm glad you said that. although personally I AM SO OVER the stereotyping--- oh she's just a liberal-- chalk it up to that! like that one guy (who's never commented on our posts) who just wanted to know who had taught me what i know and surely i was just liberally educated because otherwise NO ONE EVER is aware of their privilege as white person-- or heaven forbid willing to acknowledge/discuss the underbelly of this country, the fact that it still has implications today, etc. honestly i'm sick of it and i've been doing a lot of processing lately. wtf is up with americans and not being able to face this shit....
i had no ideas of the details of any of your history so thank you for sharing about your similar holiday. i like that you process that way as it helps me see the similarities.... are australians resistant to seeing the damage they've done? i know in canada they're working on reparations for indigenous people (ini's sister is a historian and when she visited earlier this year i picked her brain heavily)... we are so far from reparations it's laughable/a travesty....
Ha even from a distance we label Americans in that way - touchy, patriotic - and what the hell is up with that fierce defence of a constitution that no longer works and that is a fussy historical document born in a time where things were set in motion that created such an unstable and unpleasant future that goes against what your forefathers (maybe) had in mind?
Labels are gettting more and more damaging in this world. Iread what that guy said and responded. Who gives a shit whether 'white priv' originated in social marxism or wherever, it's just words to describe a reality of social division. Sure, not our fault personally, but we have to acknowledge it because then we're also seeing the lack for others.
I'm not sure what reparations means for Americans or you personally.
We are getting there. Yet on one of our morning shows the other day a woman called for indigenous children being adopted into white families because 'thhose people' can't look after their own (this was in the wake of an abuse of an indig child) which was horrifying, considdering we have the 'stolen generation' that involved miscegnation, bleeding out of colour and aboriginality as an express government mandate here in the 20's, 30's - so many children taken away from their families for no reason but to get rid of an entire race. What a naive and ignorant woman - yes, those people still exist. As do the people that say 'don't give them handouts, they'll jsut drink them away' and all those other stereotypes born of ignorance and unwillingness to see the cause of it all - and rather sit on the beach, drape themselves with aussie flags, drink beer and think we're the greatest nation on earth.
americans are so touchy about this is crazy. that's why i made that clause in the beginning.
americans are literally crazy about this shit. it can get you killed and ostracized here to disagree with the flag. it's literally a religion!!!!
yepppppp
this is basically where i live in white rural amerrrrrrrrrrrica .......
I think, to be honest, you're far worse than we are - you have a terrible reputation for it, so much so that I never wanted to go to America nor befriend Americans, and I thought you were all flag waving wankers.
However, I've formed strong friendships with many of you online, and found out that some of you are actually nice, decent, lovely, smart, thoughtful, creative and interesting human beings.
Who knew!!!
lol oh i know we all have a horrible rep. sad part is that yeah a lot of us are like this evidenced by trump. american "exceptionalism" has americans believing we're "the best country on earth" (and i grew up hearing this shit!!) with the "most opportunities, most freedom, best education, most diversity, most stable democracy"-- it's brainwashing at its finest because (as i wrote in my shadow post), as i've grown up, i've started to see what the US really is!!! and how horrible it is!!!! but american exceptionalism is still rampant and breeding like a disease in every nook and cranny of this country. disgusting!!!!
Bahahahahahah