Race Relations
Ah, good ol’ fashioned North American history. Glorifying the deeds of murderers and racists never feels as good as it does around Thanksgiving. It’s a lovely thing for our children to learn about such great people as the Pilgrims, the original 13 colonies, and Columbus. While we’re at it, why not discuss the merits of Hitler’s final solution or the Soviet gulags.
While it may be somewhat hyperbolic to compare what Europeans did to Native peoples to the acts of such monsters as Stalin and Hitler, I don’t think it’s entirely off base. Native people across the Americas suffered immensely at the hands of European colonialists, the only reason we don’t call it what it is is that it hits too close to home. The history of the Americas is fraught with bloody wars, tense political situations, and a great deal of land-grabbing and, unfortunately, the people who originally called this place home got caught in the crossfire, literally and historically.
Like most things, there is no black and white with regards to morality and colonial expansionism. Many of the people arriving in the Americas didn’t intentionally seek out to steal land and commit genocide. Some did (primarily military and political leaders) but many were just people looking for a place to live, an important factor to keep in mind. It’s also important to note that not all Native American societies were peaceful or helpful people. There were plenty of hostile and aggressive people that would have gladly killed Europeans or each other simply because it was what they did. The problem with revisionist history (the sort written by the victors rather than the sort written truthfully) is that it muddies the way we see ourselves as humans and muddies our perception of how we got here; a theme I’ve talked about before and one I feel very strongly about. History, like mythology and religion, is an incredibly important part of our experience as human beings. The ability to learn from the mistakes of the past is what offers us the hope of true progress.
Unfortunately, history books for a long time have sugar coated what happened here when colonists arrived, painting a rosy picture of people holding hands and having a hippie style love-in. We’re just now (in the last 30 years) realizing and discussing the sorts of atrocities that happened before and after the arrival of the pilgrims and, as so often happens, we’ve gone the other way entirely with it. Rather than having a rational discussion, we’ve been embracing white guilt since the 70’s, where many of us, at some level, think that white people (especially males) are just bad and that everything native or non-white is good; that it is somehow more natural and therefore more true. New Age spiritual ideas are a perfect example of this embracing of other cultures while shunning the European heritage of this country and many others.
The truth of the matter is that none of these things is real. There is no black and white in morality, only shades of gray. White people acted abominably toward natives, sure, but that is the history of colonialism in general. Whenever people expand outside their borders for resources and land, they commit atrocities to those already living there. Japan did the same thing in World War II. Not everything about Europeans was totally awful nor was everything about Native Americans totally great. We have a duty to ourselves and to history to recognize that sometimes what we are taught is not the full picture and that there are often very complicated relationships between the things that have occurred. We should not look to the past as a paragon of anything good. It is just what has gone before, plain and simple.
Because when we look back and idolize the past, we sow the seeds of our own misfortune.
Either that or we lay the groundwork for our children to engage in biological warfare and shady land deals.
Y’know. One or the other.
Discussion (31) ¬
Ah, small acts of rebellion in favor of the truth. Like telling the true story of Pocahontas when watching the disney version, and disproving cooties in dramatic fashion. Way to be Lil’ K. Your work is lovely Scott, thank you for posting!
:]
This is amazing. K would pull it off, too.
It is the morning and I see no blog. Your betrayal will not go unpunished.
That aside I find it interesting how different cultures, not just the white man, destroy other cultures then precede to ignore what they’ve done.
America celebrates what you’ve depicted in your glorious comic with gluttony and thankfulness.
The Trail of Tears got one day of mention when I was in elementary.
The British blame the near death and destruction of Ireland on a potato famine, failing to mention the mass amount of potatoes they forcibly exported during that time.
The Japanese almost entirely ignore the rape and torture committed on mainland Asia.
People are bad. Should we hold this against them?
Yes. Act now and get the upper hand on them before they get you.
Certainly we should hold people accountable, and never simply forget these misgivings of the past, so that we may prevent or properly judge future atrocities. That doesn’t mean that we should…no, wait. Scratch that. Let’s get em!
I just viciously attacked the nearest white man.
Unfortunately, it was myself. I am now giving all the land back to the Native Americans and moving back to the twenty countries or so my ancestors come from.
Now that I think about it, Europeans took Europe from the animals…Clearly the only solution is to crawl back into the sea and go back to eating single celled organisms.
That is just the start.
To truly repent our ways we must go even further back.
Yes. Back to the beginning.
bless you and your glorious wisdom
lil k owns the school ! Of course even had they not traded it to him it would be his by right of conquest. ^_^ I find the way to most effectivly see around either revisonist or apologitics histories, regarding colonialism, is to look toward early societies each sent out colonies beyond their traditional bounds and often they conquered and enslaved the previous residents, but no one ever complains how the Greek colonies in Italy led to the genocide of the peoples that lived on the tip of the boot. Why? Why are they forgiven? Or how Egypt conquered Nubia, stole their resources, and enslaved their people. No instead these societies are glorified as magnificent. Well I am not so sorry to say that they were great because they were total jackasses 🙂 The same can be said with more modern forms of colonialism just cause technology has changed doesnt mean the game has.
talking about colonialism grey areas, when the spanish conquered the aztecs they were only overthrowing an opresive empire and puting another in its place. actualy the only reason an army of 200 spaniards defeated them was that they were backed by thousands of chichimecas who werent quite happy under aztec rule. weird huh?
that and smallpox XD
Not 5 flipping minutes ago I was talking to a friend and she said the same thing.
The whole smallpox blanket and intentional sharing of diseases is widely disputed among historians due to the fact that we’re overestimating our germ understanding capabilities.
We didn’t even really understand how diseases were communicable. It was more like, it happened to spread and then the spanish were also some dicks.
Speaking of dicks, know what disease Europe got in return? Syphallus.
Yeah, I’m aware of the smallpox blanket thing, hence why I didn’t specifically reference it. Europeans DID give smallpox to Native Americans, intentionally or not. They did also steal land and force them out with superior numbers and firepower.
One of the other things I didn’t specifically reference was that the pilgrims went right from friendly to hostile with the Natives they interacted with. They didn’t. The people of the Massachusetts Bay Colonies had Native American allies as well as enemies and things were, at least early on, pretty decent for everyone. Trading occurred, the colonists were taught how to live in the Americas, etc, but things did eventually turn sour as they always do when outside forces attempt to “colonize” a place where people are already living.
After having learned about that history recently, this is friggin’ hilarious.
As a half Native American (THE RED KIND) and half whitey myself… I have to say, yeah… Both sides of her heritage have always been PRETTY GOOD at killing and/or maiming each other. I MEAN, HOW CAN I PICK A WINNER? 😀 People are people, and we are all pretty terrible AND wonderful… Most of the time. (Wow, I could be a politician! Smooth.)
ill pick for you. natives are badass killers, but peacepipe smokin hippies. im a puyallup native, so i know my shit lol
Or MY heritage. Damn typos.
There is debate over whether syphilis actually came to Europe from the ‘new world’. My mate was working on a dig in the North of England where he found two children buried about 1300 (I think- it was at least a couple of hundred years before syphilis was supposed to have arrived from the Americas), and there was evidence of them having had syphilis. A lot like how AIDS is now seen as having been around for much longer than we thought even ten years ago.
I think the settlers on your side of the pond I have most sympathy with were the lot that left their hideously badly adapted settlement to live with the folk who were there before them and left the note ‘Gone to Roanoke’.
Q. Who discovered America?
A. The natives.
im sorry, but with the knowledge of how much vaccines little kids are pumped full of at that age i find it very hard to believe that K could spread smallpox in such a manner.
I FIND THIS COMIC INVOLVING SASQUATCH AND CAT-GOD TO BE AN UNBELIEVABLE FABRICATION.
I lol’d 😀
Maybe their parents were afraid the shots would make their kids autistic?
Mr. Sass Squatch – father of one, ladykiller.
I’m taking a Native American history class right now and it’s really, really depressing. Every day is pretty much just a historical recounting of people being awful to each other =(
There’s a difference between “great” and “good.” The ancient Roman Empire was great, but definitely not good. What I find unique about America is that we strive to be good. Are we successful? Not always, but the fact that we strive for it is encouraging. I think the key is having good kings. If you read the book of Proverbs in the Bible, its full of verses like this: Proverbs 29:3 “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” The good kings are selfless and care for the weak, but the bad kings are selfish for power and crush the weak under their rule. We’ve had more good kings than bad in America. We should pray for more good kings.
i like this blog. usually when someone blogs about anything that even REMOTELY has to do with native americans, they always break out the fact that they shouldve known better than to trade their lands for a few trinkets. the fact is, they werent greedy, and they probably didnt even understand what the traders wanted in return. also, to answer a question that surprisingly ALOT of people ask me: YES, i do pay taxes. even we pay taxes. the only place we dont pay taxes is on our reservations, which includes gas stations, casinos, maybe some stores, and i think thats it.
Sorry i have a bit more to say. ocassionally there’s a section in history books that talks about the same old bullcarp you hear about natives, and the stealing of the land, and the genocide, blah blah blah, but what they should include is what the beliefs were back then, the stories that were passes down to generations, the family system, etc. And even though the generations of natives from about the 1900s and up have been stricken by the poison of alchohol, natives can be reallly nice people. i know, i havent really ever seen pics of natives smiling either. but heres some if you wanna smile 🙂
ttp://www.google.com/imgres? imgurl=http://www.corbisimages.com/images/67/781DDB54-0E54-45B7-B5D0-A1630AACCA64/WD001273.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/WD001273.html&usg=__BzZ0BCES6ov2H2Wkb_4VItaw9MY=&h=427&w=640&sz=103&hl=en&start=43&sig2=HITHNl0hBjfDq-yC0vF65A&zoom=1&tbnid=OzOtXgMKlH4AGM:&tbnh=149&tbnw=235&ei=VsWGTa6YM4uWsgOXlPnrAg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsmiling%2Bnative%2Bamericans%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1C1CHMO_en%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D667%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C884&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=1050&vpy=331&dur=3087&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=44&ty=199&oei=P8WGTeSJI4zGsAONoNXyAQ&page=3&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:43&biw=1366&bih=667
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2549118334/
that flickr one didnt work
this will work haha
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3038/2549118334_d75965f1ac_b.jpg
OMG Sasquatch in clothes! He looks somewhat normal! XD
Somehow this reminds me that the Americans have only won a single war, and it was their War of Independence (which I’m fairly certain they only won because Britain was far busier with France at the time). Just seems like it’s relevant based on how America seems to fondly misremember things.
This is brutal but funny, and the sort of thing my little brother Malcolm would do.