It can. It can also give you a wider perspective instead of being stuck in one culture's One True Way.
The best description of my race came from a black friend in college: "Yeah, you can pass for white -- until you open your mouth."
>> I'll be real; it pretty much means you fit nowhere. <<
Often true.
>> I'm too white to be Indigenous for most folks, except when they need a token Native to do their land acknowledgements at events or they have an ignorant question about fry bread.<<
*snort* So give them one of the original recipes made with cornmeal or masa and sunflower oil or bear fat instead of wheat flour. They make entertaining faces.
>> I'm consistently pigeon-holed and scrutinized. Do my Ojibwe cheeks make me look more Native to you? <<
0_o
>> What even is "Indigenous hair"? <<
Usually they mean straight or barely wavy black or dark brown, that being typical in most tribal heritage. But some tribes have a bit different background. Ojibwe is typically in the straight black/brown range ... except that's one of the tribes that dealt with a lot of mostly French trappers, so sometimes you get lighter shades or more curl, and it varies from one tribal community to another how people feel about that. Some embrace it. Some are vicious. If you're particularly unlucky, they do both and every powwow turns into a bitchfest.
You might like to explore African-American hair politics. Different details, but a lot of the same issues. They have some great material on how to love the hair you have.
>> I haven't grown up on the rez, no. However, I am learning Ojibwe, and its soft and sweet vowels sound like a song through the tops of pine trees.<<
Go you! Ojibwe is a lovely language.
>> I am denied culture by other Indigenous people, for fuck's sake. How the hell can I reclaim what was ripped from me and my family by the colonizing government of Canada when not even my own people are okay with the way I look and sound? <<
I'd go with learning Ojibwe. That way, when they say you're "not Indian enough" you can argue back in Ojibwe ... which many them won't know. It'll make them look really stupid.
... I still want to learn how to say "If you want to speak English, go back to England" in either Lakota or Cherokee.
>> Am I Indigenous? Do I serve my community, in whatever way I've been gifted to do? <<
Much better perspective.
>> I told her that he refused to speak about being Native to any of my family members, except me. I told her it's an honour and a curse to be the only one in my entire family who is able to speak about things he taught me, because they simultaneously hate me and love me for being the knowledge keeper.<<
Huh. That seems to be a pattern; I've heard similar from other folks. My guess is that some elders were picking the best listener or otherwise most receptive person in their family.
>> And being the token Native in every job is the same damn thing, because I'm condescended to about it, but hey, can you please have this version of the district land acknowledgement edited and submitted by five? Oh, and the white CEO is going to read it. You don't mind, do you? <<
0_o I learned very young to say "Do your own fucking homework." If people aren't nice to me, I won't do favors for them. So if people aren't respectful of your heritage in general, they shouldn't get to call on you for heritage work. They don't get to have their cake and eat it too.
Tokenism sucks. The best way to avoid it is to try keeping people at least in pairs, so nobody's stuck being the only one of whatever. You get a wider perspective that way.
>> working in a school district that is over 70% children of colour, many of whom are Hispanic and Indigenous. I struggle with how to serve them and remain myself. How not to project. How to be the adult in their life that I didn't get to have, and how to be supportive.<<
For a while, I designed and graded coursework for adult remedial education in prison. Yep, the guys were almost all brown or black. So I told them to write about things from their experience, and I gave them things to read from Robert Hayden, Joy Harjo, Lorna Dee Cervantes, etc. Somebody would always try to tease me by writing how to hotwire a car. I'd grade it and hand it back. Most of them were just there for something to do. But one or two each semester would just catch fire with it -- they'd never seen anything by writers of color, never realized that people could write about the things that mattered to them. It remains the most seditious thing I've done in this life. Nothing scares the shit out of white people like a black man with a book in his hands.
So listen to your students. What are their interests and concerns? Then try to find some materials that relate to that, preferably by writers of color. Talk about people of color you admire so the kids know they can grow up to be someone successful. Teach multicultural skills, you need those in a mixed group and not everyone learns them by osmosis. Teach peacework and activism and problem-solving. Just because the deck is stacked doesn't mean you can't get your hands on it and reshuffle the thing. And just be there for them, as a person of mixed heritage, embracing your whole self. They need that. You're in a position to do great things that probably won't be obvious for a decade or two.
Thoughts
It can. It can also give you a wider perspective instead of being stuck in one culture's One True Way.
The best description of my race came from a black friend in college: "Yeah, you can pass for white -- until you open your mouth."
>> I'll be real; it pretty much means you fit nowhere. <<
Often true.
>> I'm too white to be Indigenous for most folks, except when they need a token Native to do their land acknowledgements at events or they have an ignorant question about fry bread.<<
*snort* So give them one of the original recipes made with cornmeal or masa and sunflower oil or bear fat instead of wheat flour. They make entertaining faces.
>> I'm consistently pigeon-holed and scrutinized. Do my Ojibwe cheeks make me look more Native to you? <<
0_o
>> What even is "Indigenous hair"? <<
Usually they mean straight or barely wavy black or dark brown, that being typical in most tribal heritage. But some tribes have a bit different background. Ojibwe is typically in the straight black/brown range ... except that's one of the tribes that dealt with a lot of mostly French trappers, so sometimes you get lighter shades or more curl, and it varies from one tribal community to another how people feel about that. Some embrace it. Some are vicious. If you're particularly unlucky, they do both and every powwow turns into a bitchfest.
You might like to explore African-American hair politics. Different details, but a lot of the same issues. They have some great material on how to love the hair you have.
>> I haven't grown up on the rez, no. However, I am learning Ojibwe, and its soft and sweet vowels sound like a song through the tops of pine trees.<<
Go you! Ojibwe is a lovely language.
>> I am denied culture by other Indigenous people, for fuck's sake. How the hell can I reclaim what was ripped from me and my family by the colonizing government of Canada when not even my own people are okay with the way I look and sound? <<
I'd go with learning Ojibwe. That way, when they say you're "not Indian enough" you can argue back in Ojibwe ... which many them won't know. It'll make them look really stupid.
... I still want to learn how to say "If you want to speak English, go back to England" in either Lakota or Cherokee.
>> Am I Indigenous? Do I serve my community, in whatever way I've been gifted to do? <<
Much better perspective.
>> I told her that he refused to speak about being Native to any of my family members, except me. I told her it's an honour and a curse to be the only one in my entire family who is able to speak about things he taught me, because they simultaneously hate me and love me for being the knowledge keeper.<<
Huh. That seems to be a pattern; I've heard similar from other folks. My guess is that some elders were picking the best listener or otherwise most receptive person in their family.
>> And being the token Native in every job is the same damn thing, because I'm condescended to about it, but hey, can you please have this version of the district land acknowledgement edited and submitted by five? Oh, and the white CEO is going to read it. You don't mind, do you? <<
0_o I learned very young to say "Do your own fucking homework." If people aren't nice to me, I won't do favors for them. So if people aren't respectful of your heritage in general, they shouldn't get to call on you for heritage work. They don't get to have their cake and eat it too.
Tokenism sucks. The best way to avoid it is to try keeping people at least in pairs, so nobody's stuck being the only one of whatever. You get a wider perspective that way.
>> working in a school district that is over 70% children of colour, many of whom are Hispanic and Indigenous. I struggle with how to serve them and remain myself. How not to project. How to be the adult in their life that I didn't get to have, and how to be supportive.<<
For a while, I designed and graded coursework for adult remedial education in prison. Yep, the guys were almost all brown or black. So I told them to write about things from their experience, and I gave them things to read from Robert Hayden, Joy Harjo, Lorna Dee Cervantes, etc. Somebody would always try to tease me by writing how to hotwire a car. I'd grade it and hand it back. Most of them were just there for something to do. But one or two each semester would just catch fire with it -- they'd never seen anything by writers of color, never realized that people could write about the things that mattered to them. It remains the most seditious thing I've done in this life. Nothing scares the shit out of white people like a black man with a book in his hands.
So listen to your students. What are their interests and concerns? Then try to find some materials that relate to that, preferably by writers of color. Talk about people of color you admire so the kids know they can grow up to be someone successful. Teach multicultural skills, you need those in a mixed group and not everyone learns them by osmosis. Teach peacework and activism and problem-solving. Just because the deck is stacked doesn't mean you can't get your hands on it and reshuffle the thing. And just be there for them, as a person of mixed heritage, embracing your whole self. They need that. You're in a position to do great things that probably won't be obvious for a decade or two.