Community

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Thanksgiving Conundrum

 

“Justin Petrone, like me, is a mixed race person with Native American ancestry, although unlike me, initially, he never thought of himself in those terms.  I’ve always known and since I was a child, self-identified myself in that way.  Like me, Justin has spent years searching for his elusive ancestors, more often than not, hidden in the mists of time with only suggestions of who their ancestors are by words on tax lists and census records like “free person of color.”

 

Most of the time, Native people were transparent, until they became at least “civilized” enough to be counted on the census, or taxed or they did something else to bring them into the white man’s realm.  More recently, Justin and others like us have been able to confirm, or deny, that heritage via DNA testing.  So even if we don’t know exactly who our ancestor is, we are positive THAT our Native heritage is real.  In some cases, through DNA testing we can learn which of our ancestral lines is Native.”

 

…

 
See on nativeheritageproject.com

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This App Demonstrates What It’s Like To Be Undocumented

When Erick Garcia first talked to VOXXI two weeks ago about participating in a hackathon hosted by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s advocacy group FWD.us, he confessed he was nervous.

See on www.huffingtonpost.com

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Cooking the History Books: The Thanksgiving Massacre

 

By Laura Elliff, Vice President, Native American Student Association,
Republished from Republic of Lakotah

 

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“Was Thanksgiving really a massacre of 700 “Indians”? The present Thanksgiving may be a mixture of the 1621 three-day feast and the “Thanksgiving” proclaimed after the 1637 Pequot massacre. So next time you see the annual “Pilgrim and Indian display” in a shopping window or history about other massacres of Native Americans, think of the hurt and disrespect Native Americans feel. Thanksgiving is observed as a day of sorrow rather than a celebration. This year at Thanksgiving dinner, ponder why you are giving thanks.

 

William Bradford, in his famous History of the Plymouth Plantation, celebrated the Pequot massacre:

 

“Those that scraped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatchte, and very few escapted. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of, but the victory seemed a sweete sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enimie.”

 

The Pequot massacre came after the colonists, angry at the murder of an English trader suspected by the Pequots of kidnapping children, sought revenge. rather than fighting the dangerous Pequot warriors, John Mason and John Underhill led a group of colonists and Native allies to the Indian fort in Mystic, and killed the old men, women, and children who were there. Those who escaped were later hunted down. The Pequot tribe numbered 8,000 when the Pilgrims arrived, but disease had brought their numbers down to 1,500 by 1637. The Pequot “War” killed all but a handful of remaining members of the tribe.

 

An illustration from John Underhill’s News from America, depicting how the village was surrounded.

Proud of their accomplishments, Underhill wrote a book depicted the burning of the village, and even made an illustration showing how they surrounded the village to kill all within it.

 

Laura Elliff is Vice President of Native American Student Association.

 

Originally published November 22nd, 2009″
See on unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com

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Immigrants Are Being Held In “Freezers” Before Being Sent To Detention Centers

 

“Interviews and court records show many immigrants have been held for days in rooms kept at temperatures so low that they develop pneumonia and other illnesses.”

 
See on www.mycuentame.org

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Incarceration in America: The Inside Story

 

“BOOKD profiles, The New Jim Crow, legal scholar Michelle Alexander’s breakthrough book about the rise of mass incarceration in America. Alexander agues that “by targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control.

See as a Yale Law Professor, Community Activists, and hip hop legend Talib Kweli debate and discuss this provocative and important book.”
See on www.youtube.com

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Corporations Reap Billions from Mass Incarceration Pt 2

What companies are profiting off of prisoners and mass incarceration?

 

Community Village‘s insight:

 

The New Jim Crow

 

So much for freedom in America.

 

@getgln

See on www.youtube.com

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Mount Rushmore

 

“Mount Rushmore (1745m) is a mountain sacred to the Sioux called Six Grandfathers. Whites desecrated it with the faces of four white men carved into its side in the early 1900s.”

 

Community Village‘s insight:

 

Another kickazz post by Abagond.

See on abagond.wordpress.com

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A New Slant on Hate Speech

“The United States Patent and Trademark Office is refusing trademark protection to a Portland, Oregon based rock band called The Slants.Apparently, they believe the name the band is seeking to protect is disparaging to Asians.”
See on www.racefiles.com