The problem is that they welcome minorities- AS LONG AS WE DENY OUR HERITAGE AND ASSIMILATE.  They also tend to parade their minorities as trophies: "Lookie at us- we're so accepting!!!"  The reality is once you're not in your nice trophy position and they have to face the racist reality of America, then they turn nasty.  The common experience that I've heard from most of the people in my tribe is that people are only sometimes nasty these days (although they usually become very suspicious that you're practicing "heathen stuff") when they find out you are Indian- but when they learn you still try to follow your heritage, they find ways to fire you or deny you.  I've been thrown out of a church for just being Indian- but I know a lot of my people who were thrown out of a church once the church leadership learned the person/family tried to follow their heritage even in small ways.  That's common- and the more conservative the church, the more likely it will happen!!!

We sometimes are allowed to keep our traditional clothing (for Thanksgiving, of course in my people's case), but that's about it.  

Racism isn't just the "Joe Sixpack saying the N word" that people like to stereotype it as.  It's the subtle put-downs, the denial of equal opportunity in the name of "best man for the job", the insistence that people give up their culture in order to live.  It's the assumption of white privilege- that most Americans don't want to face.  Tim Wise has a lot to say about it and he is a good and VERY accurate resource on racism in the US.

Don't let them fool you.  What this move means is that Latinos are being accepted more as white- but the people being accepted are fully assimilated.  By the way- if an African American tries to follow any traditions they may have, they likely will face censure just as fast as we do.

One more point- based upon minority experiences, the assumption that the more conservative you are, the more racist/bigoted you really are is valid.  People don't see the racism around themselves like they should- they're generally not aware of it.  Those of us who experience it ARE.  Like I said, it's not just "Joe Sixpack saying the N word".

Sources: Personal Experience, ethnographic accounts from tribal members (stories told in gatherings), RacistAmerica by Feagin, Two Americas by Hacker, Tim Wise ( http://www.timwise.org/ ).  There are many other good sources on this topic.


by ArchaeoBob on Wed Nov 18, 2009 at 10:42:44 AM EST