Dismantling White Privilege: Indigenous Erasure
Though history classes teach historical events pertinent to white supremacist treatment of indigenous peoples of this continent such as The Trail of Tears and Wounded Knee, what courses do not teach is the continual erasure of Indigenous culture and history that continues to occur in this country today.
White supremacy, though never labeled as such, is taught through the lens of the past under the guise that United States society has evolved since the mistakes of the past. This is not the case.
Symbolism, or the assigning of importance to an inanimate object, generally speaking, is important to North Americans. For example, in 1989, Gregory Lee Johnson burned a United States flag in protest of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Because the flag was such a venerated symbol, he was arrested and his case was taken all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Many today are still offended by the desecration of such a sacred symbol because to them, the American flag symbolizes freedom, equality and pride. More important, because the flag represents this county, many believe that this symbol, even if it is ‘just a flag’ should be honored.
The fact that the American flag, a flag created for a country that was ‘founded’ upon genocide and imperialism has rarely if ever, been the topic of discussion. In a far too limited comparison, isn’t the American flag to the indigenous populations what the Confederate flag is to the Black populations? Now I am not indigenous nor am I Black and I will not attempt to speak for either population; but, I would imagine that the American flag is just as offensive to certain populations because of the true origins of this country.
The American flag was a flag that was created for a country that was founded after imperialism and colonialism perpetrated one of the biggest known genocides humanity has ever completed in known history. The American flag did not exist prior to the white European ‘settlers’ and though this may be a symbol of honor to them and their descendants, what does this ‘symbol’ represent to the remaining descendants of those the white European ‘settlers’ displaced and murdered?
Similarly, a favorite and major monument that ‘represents America’ is Mount Rushmore. Four of the greatest North American president’s heads are forever immortalized carved in rock in the Black Hills Forest in South Dakota. This monument is visited by travelers both far and wide to see the glory and splendor of the incredible craftsmanship needed to preserve American history into stone.
What is not discussed when discussing this monument however, is that the Black Hills Forest is sacred ground to the peoples of the Great Sioux Nation, so sacred in fact, this according to Lakota legend, is the place of origin of their people. If stealing land and killing people weren’t enough, the white ‘settlers’ had to literally stamp their faces, the faces of imperialists, on one of the most sacred places of a specific indigenous group.
Mount Rushmore is a physical example of white entitlement that is revered and honored by North American culture.
As they continued to move west, displace and kill off more indigenous people, they did so by literally desecrating some of the most sacred sights to indigenous peoples. And this is just one example.
When we talk about dismantling racism, these are the examples that we need to look at and discuss. Many people from different ethnicities have been calling out white allies for widely distributing videos online that depict violence against bodies of color. I am not a person of color but I agree with these concerns. When we are continuously exposed to certain stigma we can become desensitized, meaning that overtime certain images that may have been offensive to us before no longer have an effect because we are so used to seeing them. Distributing these images can also be very traumatizing and white people need to be sensitive to this fact before clicking ‘share’ and passing on certain images.
Because I am not a person of color I want to be careful what I suggest because I do not want to speak for people of color. If I overstep here please call me out but when we teach history, I believe, we should be focusing more on the ingrained sources of racism in this country so that we do not re-traumatize people of color by repeatedly discussing the graphic accounts of the trauma done unto them by white European colonists.
When we teach instances like The Trail of Tears and Wounded Knee, we inadvertently suggest that these issues are over and done with because they were in the past which in turn infers that the issues of white supremacy and oppression no longer relevant. In fact, much resistance to acknowledging white supremacy and white privilege within white populations in this country is the argument that this all happened in the past and that there is nothing we can do about it now
If we were to switch the focus in education from ‘what has happened in the past’ to ‘what was done in the past and how it has affected our present’, I believe that white peoples would be more aware of their white privilege as well as the white supremacy in this country. The white population of this country that denies the existence of white privilege and white supremacy need to understand how the powers have morphed and though they may look different, the power structures are still very much in existence.
When history is taught under the lens ‘of what happened’ it seems to take responsibility out of the equation meaning that the genocide of the indigenous populations just ‘happened’. In order for full accountability to take place, history must be taught through the lens of ‘what was done’ implying that choices were consciously made i.e. the white Europeans consciously chose to displace and murder millions of peoples. Taking accountability will not only help white people dismantle institutionalized racism in this country but it would also validate the experience of the indigenous people that were and still are affected.
Better yet, let’s stop only teaching white history i.e. only teaching notable white people and white accomplishments. Preserving knowledge of only white people and their contributions is an institutionalized form of racism and white supremacy entrenched within the education system of the U.S. because it promotes the actions of colonists, murderers and imperialists while ignores thousands of accomplished people of color.
Rather than traveling to see Mount Rushmore, plan a visit to the Crazy Horse Memorial just around the corner in Rapid City South Dakota. Rather than celebrating and promoting white supremacist history and contributing to indigenous erasure, take time, make a physical effort and better yet donate money to the preservation of indigenous pride and history. Check out the story and help rewrite history.
One last note on this edition. The greatest teacher I ever had was my A.P. (Advanced Placement) U.S. History course junior year of high school. A fact that this teacher passed on, one of which I will never forget and she is the only educator in my experience who revealed this information is this: even though Hitler hated the United States and what it stood for, he praised the country for the treatment i. e. of the ‘subhuman’ indigenous populations. Facts like this should not be left out of history curriculums and when they are, they only result in perpetuating white supremacy in this country.
