Part of me wants to battle stereotypes. Part of me doesn’t have the energy, because the other side is doing *so much* to promote them. So I’ve finally just decided “to hell with it” and I’m just doing my own thing. Let the chips fall where they may ;)

I am usually the only Native American wherever I am, as I was adopted by a white family when I was only two.

I find myself struggling to make sense of the American mindset, and how so many of us fit into the greater narrative, full of its perceptions and fantasies. In other words, I find myself battling negative stereotypes, as well as so-called “positive” prejudices–I might not be an alcoholic on a rez, but neither am I some nature-loving Pocahantas with a guitar.

Our conversation has given me so much to think about.

Thank you.

I think you’ve possibly misunderstood me. :)

Nowhere did I say, “Blacks don’t value education.” (I, of course, value education quite highly, as do my parents and their siblings, etc.) When I talk about a narrative featuring a black character “reared in a culture that did not value education or politics”, I am not abstracting this situation to all of Black America. I am talking about a very specific narrative—a very real, very plausible narrative—of the kind Barack Obama does not fit. And perhaps these friends of yours don’t fit this particular narrative either.

Nevertheless, that narrative does exist, and the fact that I don’t like it (or that you don’t) doesn’t make it untrue. As a community in toto, blacks still more highly value, for example, athletics over academics. We still foist sports on our children before curriculum. And there are myriad reasons we do that, not all of them invalid. But to say that we have Howard and we have Morehouse and we have Huston-Tillotson and therefore education is clearly a value in the larger black community is simplistic and a bit naive, I’m afraid. We have these institutions, yes, but they are still the (growing) exception.

But of course, none of this is what I’m talking about in this piece. The abovementioned character is someone who was reared in a culture that disdained education and politics. That isn’t to say all black communities and subcultures—of which there are many—fit this description. But it is to say that many of them do, and that this narrative, while interesting, is not the one playing out before us now.

I appreciate the comment. It’s a difficult situation to discuss, rife with knee-jerk reactions and tender feelings as it is.

You once rightfully scolded me for making sweeping generalizations about Wiccans. Therefore, I find it troubling that you’ve made some generalizations about other groups.

I am a Native-American (Lakota) woman who lives in the Washington DC area. No matter where I live or work, I have difficulty dealing with people’s assumptions about Indians. (BTW, I am not an alcoholic and have never lived on a reservation.) It especially angers me when a member of the Native-American community makes negative comments to non-Indians about us. I ask myself what the person’s motivations are–self-loathing, a way to solidify a place for himself within the majority community? And is it more acceptable for the Indian to make such comments, simply because he is Indian? Not in my book. I wouldn’t tolerate hearing such nonsense from whites, blacks, Latinos, or anyone else. In all honesty, I find such assertions from Indians about Indians more harmful, as it gives the bigots I have dealt with a sense of validation for their views.

That said, I find it ironic that as I read your statements about Obama’s success possibly being based on his rejection of Black culture’s disinterest in education and politics, Howard University is only blocks away from my office. And the blacks I have met in this area who have become my friends are well-educated and quite successful, not despite their families’ apathy towards education and progress, but because their families did indeed value education and progress. (This region is full of black success stories.)

I find Obama’s story fascinating. Actually, it confronts two major issues within the American landscape–race and class. While it is wonderful that whites have embraced this black man, it is also intriguing that the child of a poor teenage girl can become such a viable candidate for president.