posted on Apr, 29 2013 @ 11:43 AM
This has been around for a long time, and it's never made sense to me. Back in the day, a role of all Native Americans was created, basically you get
an I.D. card telling your tribal affiliation, these days, this card system is used by the various native nations to assure benefits provided by the
tribe. It's a symbol of pride in one's heritage. But, when it was first implemented, many natives did not sign up for the role, some did this out of
shame. My great, great-grandmother was one of these. She attended an Indian School where she was taught that is was a bad thing to be a Native. Also,
many didn't sign up for the role because the Bureau of Indian Affairs used their race against them to take their land and possessions, deeming them
"unfit" because they were of native decent.
That was just a short introduction to a problem I see today, I use that example because it hits closer to home for me, being from Oklahoma, and having
native ancestors. However, I do not consider myself a Native, I'm white, blonde haired and blue eyed. I'm a fourth-generation American. My
great-grandfather was born in Missouri, shortly after his parents arrived from Ireland.
Every day, it seems, that I'm being told that I should be ashamed of my race. The usual reason being slavery, the other common reason being the
atrocities of the British Empire hundreds of years ago. Now, I don't know if I'm related to some of the nobles who raped and pillaged across Europe
and the world but, I do know that since coming to America, my family never owned a slave, they were poor immigrant farmers who could barely feed
themselves most of the time. I don't know what their views on slavery were, as they had no slaves, they probably didn't think much about it, or as
we like to say around here "they had bigger fish to fry".
So, why is it that society says that I should feel guilty for the atrocities of people I've never met, whose views I don't share? Why should I be
ashamed to be a white American from the South? I have ancestors who fought on both sides of the Civil War. I don't know their reason for fighting
though, that's been lost over the years, as many of them couldn't write. Either way, I had nothing to do with slavery, or conquest, so why should I
be ashamed of it?
Should African Americans be ashamed of their ancestry because they may be related to slave traders? The odds of them being related to a slave trader
are just as high as they are for me, maybe higher.
Should the Japanese be ashamed of what some of their people did in China during WWII? No, they shouldn't, they had nothing to do with it. My point
is, we need to stop being ashamed of the past. We shouldn't dwell on the past either, we should learn from it.
All those with opposing or agreeing views are welcome, I'm very interested in everybody's take on the subject.