BIPOC

Oh, you thought the #BIPOC you keep seeing is just a new thing? Think again. The history of America abusing and finding an ‘other’ is not new. And it has always led to misery. Debra made me think about this with her post on Canada Day about the atrocities committed by the government and the Catholic church (quel surprise!) against First Nations:

"Most non-indigenous Canadians of settlor and other immigrant heritage have, of course, heard of the shameful racist and colonial history of residential schools prisons and concentration camps, historically used for about 100 years throughout much of the first century of our modern Canadian state since 1867 to take steal and kidnap using the services of the RCMP indigenous children from their parents and communities without any legal rights, process or recourse to be schooled forcibly stripped of their family ties, culture, language and identities run by church and state so that they would be assimilated into Canadian society subjected to years of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and sexual abuse and then released into the wider unwelcoming, racist society."

DEBRA

Just like in Canada, the United States shares a shameful legacy of racism against the people that the settlers found when they invaded the what is today known as America. Because America was not 'discovered'. There were peoples here already when Columbus arrived. If you look at a map of what the United States' Native American population probably looked like before 1492 or even before 1776, it would look very, very different to what it is today. 

The amount of land taken from Native Americans is astounding. The atrocities carried out against them boggle the mind. It is unbelievable how little most Americans know about the injustices committed against Indigenous Peoples in the United States and how they were chased out of the land they had owned for centuries to benefit the white man:

While the time-lapse function is the most visually impressive aspect of this interactive, the “source map” option (available on the map's site) offers a deep level of detail. By selecting a source map, and then zooming in to the state you’ve selected, you can see details of the map used to generate that section of the interactive. A pop-up box tells you which Native nation was resident on the land, and the date of the treaty or executive order that transferred the area to the government, as well as offering external links to descriptions of the treaty and of the tract of land.

Yes, the discovery of the mass graves in Canada is gonna lead to a reckoning there but what about America? How can people in America have an opinion on what is going on in Canada if the Mormons were messing with Native American Lives until very recently? The amount of abuse that has been bestowed upon BIPOC communities in the United States never ceases to amaze me.

That speck in the neighbor's eye does not let people notice the log in their own eye. I hope reparations are made and a reckoning be at hand.  

XOXO