turning autonomy, land rights and ongoing occupation into a theoretical mind game/debate that throws into question people’s ancient ties and links only works as a liberal ploy because it’s based on very real violent colonial occupation and ongoing threat of genocidal destruction.
it funny how whenever i talk to white liberals about land, occupation, theft of people, genocide and how they are implicated, how they benefit…
they invariable find a way to sigh and roll their eyes and sort of wave hands in the air and completely negate any narratives that lead back to others who are not them talking about blood that isn’t going to wash out, wash away any time soon. they are able to do this kind of compartmentalized blocking of consciousness because they live on a steady diet of denial and privilege.
i’m encountering a lot of white liberals who are framing the israeli occupation of gaza in a way that says both sides have responsibility, both sides need to concede, the palestinians are perpetuating terrorism and need to acknowledge israel as a true state, not a racist occupier.
when i point out that we’re also occupiers and that the two governments of this continent, situated on occupied native lands need to locate themselves when they talk about gaza and the occupation you should hear the disengagement, the indifference, the dissimulation. denial stinks up the air like a fart as they attempt to avoid seeing the similarities, as they attempt to avoid knowledge of what it means for all of us to be here.
to my ears they often sound like this as they scramble to spin doctor hundreds of years of horror so they don’t have to draw links between the palestine and north amerikkka, between the israeli zionists and manifest destiny and all settler occupied territories on these lands…where i sit squatting and type.
“i take the detached moral high ground re conversations about the land because my people do not claim to have a religious claim on these lands. we just came and there wasn’t much going on. we didn’t see signs of there being any government…we’d recognize as legitimate.
so, we set up shop and ended up inheriting a bunch of free workerbots from overseas who spoke in weird tongues and sort of reminded us of animals…because they didn’t look or dress or sound like us. so, they couldn’t have been human. it was great because whenever they ended up dying in the fields, we could just send word for more from wherever it is they came from. market times when the ships pulled in to shore were always so festive! 🙂
then some other people who were here hiding in the woods when we got here, just sort of wandering around the land and not building any big cities or monuments about themselves, literally waiting to adore us as if sent by the one and only true god, who were nice enough to put us up and feed us when we thought the winters here were gonna massacre our asses…
these folks started getting cranky about sharing land. sharing land meaning we could choose to move and set up farms wherever we wanted over here because we needed the space and they did…not.
well, they didn’t seem to be using it consistently like we did. they would stay somewhere for a bit, then up and move to somewhere else and then do the same thing all over again. we could never figure out why they wouldn’t just stay where they were and suck the land dry of all it was worth. what’s up with that?
so, anyways, they were complaining and trying to not move over when we tried to nudge them to one side so as to get more comfortable in our new territories. we just conveniently got rid of them.
how? oh, let’s not worry about that. just rest assured that our claim to the land is solid because we make the laws here and now. our claim is solid because we say so. our claim to the land is solid because these people and anyone else who has come here since to help us take up all this big, big space and use the land to its limits, does things our way, behaves as we do, follows our rules of engagment now or else.
we’re a peace loving people. we don’t want any trouble. so just stay in line and behave or else, we’ve got guns and bombs and agents and nice courteous descendants on websites who will explain to you exactly what we taught them in nice civilized terms.
you should listen. really, you should listen.”
so….
i was surfing around this morning and came across this link to a documentary about one of the most pivotal moments in kkkanadian history. it happened relatively recently, not far away from the university i went to when i was a young dyke still putting political pieces together, starting from center, not still clear about what all was center.
i didn’t understand why i was supposed to be sending good energy and standing in support of these people and their struggle.
continuing to develop my understanding of the intersections between my oppressions and my privileges, i’m developing a better understanding now. conscious comes…slowly…
if what you’re reading here grips you, holds you, fascinates you, provokes you, emboldens you, pushes you, galvanizes you, discomfits you, tickles you, enrages you so much that you find yourself returning again and again…then link me.
