I dont have enough education or research experience in psychology to understand this and I hope someday someone can shed some light. Reading about the recent events at the University of Regina just brings back all the times Ive read the anonymous online comments about similar things here in the States. I dont understand why people cling so fiercely to things like a mascot, a chant, dressing up in their idea of an Indian costume, some kind of sports-related ritual, that are blatantly racist. They cling to their right to dress, speak, and engage in racist behavior. The bigger to push to raise awareness or to eliminate the mascot, the image, the idiotic behaviors associated with it, the stronger they cling to it...they feel threatened. What I dont get is that they cling to it like its something of great value. ????? And why would the loss of an image, a stupid ritual create such a threatened feeling? What is the value in an image (especially one that is a caricature or stereotypical in nature)? A stupid chant? A ritual? All of which are based on degrading another nation of people? The ferocity of which they fight for these things that, in their basic form, are meaningless is truly puzzling. They fight online under anonymous names, they fight in public by showing up decked out in paint, feathers, offensive signs, they fight with money (the big donors threatening to pull funding if the mascots or images are removed). All under the guise of thats their schools tradition and that we need to get over it. Seriously....the mind boggling thing to me is the VALUE that they place on these things. The only conclusion I can reach to date is that these people place such value on these things because they lack meaningful things to cling to in their lives. They dont have a beautiful language to protect...they dont have ceremonies to preserve and protect and carry on....they dont have the beautiful songs we do.....they dont have clothing and designs specific to their people or their families that they make themselves or learn how to make and take great pride in....they dont value the sense of community present in our tiospaye system. So they cling to these things that they have placed false value on. And they protect them and fight for them and call it tradition because they lack anything else. They are so far removed from anything that resembles culture in their own lives that they have no concept of how repugnant their behavior and their beliefs are. So its hard to fire back with something that will offend them or even give them pause because they are devoid of anything that has cultural or even spiritual value. I have non-Native friends who also have all of the above....who have rich histories of their people that they practice and protect. Those typically are the ones who get it. I also know people that place value in things that actually have substance. They either get it or they just stay removed from the fray. And I have friends who are just intelligent and have sense who also see that if something offends me, you dont do it. But like my friend Kevin P Tacan said, that racism, that willful ignorance, will always be there no matter how much cross-cultural education we do, no matter how successful we become. We just cant make it easy for them by being silent or giving up.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 15:13:25 +0000
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