>I guess what bothers me is that if in a reply to an African-American
>someone who disagreed with that persons post replied with a line from Amos
>and Andy like "You fo shur wrong 'bout dat masser Johnson" no one on a
>list like this would hesitate to consider than a serious breach of
>standards so why is it different for Native American stereotypes?
FTR, I would have said the same thing if you'd asked about that phrase. It would wholly depend on the context.
>I probably have a bit of a chip on my shoulder that I have been unable to
>completely eliminate no matter how hard I try.
I don't blame you at all and, from what you've said now, it _does_ sound as if the speaker intended to insult you. Depending on who it was, I'd tell 'im to fuck off, too. I did that not too long ago with my boyfriend's friend. He repeatedly says things that he thinks will get my dander up--mostly racist stuff. 'Til now, I've ignored him because it was obvious he was trying to get my dander up. Why give the guy what he wants. He finally truly stepped over the line a couple of months ago, so I told him off -- and told R that, on no uncertain terms, should he _ever_ expect me to move to Idunno (ID) and have to spend a lot of time with this guy. It grates on R's nerves, too, since his best friend is black, but his other friend is almost like a father figure to him so he doesn't want to burn bridges. Me? There are some hills you die on and some you don't.
> My family has an anglo side and my father made a huge effort to
> integrate the family into that stream. He felt it would increase his
> childrens chance for success and he was correct. I got to go to a private
> school for several years and take ballroom dance lessons and fencing
> lessons and language lessons. Stuff kids from the "wrong" sorts of
> families don't get to do. But we were still outsiders and this of course
> made us aliens in either cultural setting. I was always ashamed of my
> Native American heritage until I was about 14 or 15. At one of the family
> get togethers in upstate NY for the holidays I overheard one of the anglo
> family members refer to my father as "that little Indian bastard" and I
> literally wanted to kill him.
Boy, do I hear ya. My first serious boyfriend was American Indian -- his mother was European descent. I never heard the crazy racist stuff 'til much later in my life. For some reason, I was shielded from it and very few people said it anything in my h.s., though maybe they thought it. I didn't even hear of the alcoholic stereotype 'til much later when I worked for a little jazz club with a fabulous wine cellar. A woman mentored me into the fine art of serving wine in a fine restaurant--she was American Indian--and the owner was from the hills of W. Virginia, so she had lots of stories of growing up among the Appalachian poor. Mrs. B had to learn to shake a lot of stereotypes be/c the women who trained me was also her best waitress. I started dating the ex-boyfriend again when he got out of the Navy and I was working at the jazz club. At that point, he'd been out in the world and had to suffer through all the idiocies of racists in the Navy--in addition to whatever he'd dealt with as a kid. They didn't even associate with his mother's side of the family because they disowned her.
>It made me realize that even if I stayed with the successful white clan I
>would always be looked down on so I jumped ship when I finished High
>School. That was a mistake because it's almost always easier to work for
>change from the inside.
>Anyway I'm probably being overly sensitive to any perceived slight to
>anyone based on race because of background stuff I can't shake totally. I
>already told the poster I felt it was offensive but did so without ripping
>into her in anger. She hasn't replied so it's probably best to let it die.
>Sorry to be so long.
No worries. Sometimes, that's what this list should be for. Getting it out in the open--talking about or writing about it is important to help us sort through complicated emotions.
Big hug,
k
>John Thornton
>
>
>
>
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
"We live under the Confederacy. We're a podunk bunch of swaggering pious hicks."
--Bruce Sterling