Back in the USA and not quite sure how I feel about it
Anonymous asked: Also, just because there is still bitterness over removal of Native children from homes, does not mean that every child with any bit of Native in them belongs with a tribe on a reservation. We (the United States) are a melting pot nation. Hate to break it to you, but your "nation" is melting in with ours. Idiot.
Each tribe defines membership differently. It happens that the child in question is Cherokee and that particular tribe does not use blood quantum as a requirement. If you are a child of an enrolled member you are a member. Also, belonging to the tribe does not mean you necessarily live on a reservation and is not a requirement to be a part of the culture. Also, the term melting pot is very outdated in terms of academia and now has connotations with assimilationist policies and attitudes, which I think you would support seeing as your wording suggests you believe all other cultural minorities in the United States should be absorbed by your own (assuming white here cause I would find it hard to believe a person from a marginalized community would say it like that). Lastly, Native American cultures, and I stress the plural because you seem not to realize that there are numerous different cultures within the blanket term Native American, have been badly damaged by hundreds of years of history filled with genocide, violence, and marginalization ever since that white dude “discovered” America, but they are not disappearing. They are growing and adapting but not in the way you think or would clearly desire. Our futures and the futures of our tribes will not be dictated or judged by some asshole who chooses to hide behind the alias “Anonymous”. Do some fucking research next time and realize you don’t know shit and should just stay out of it.
Anonymous asked: UM. Nothing was "stolen" from the father. He SIGNED HIS RIGHTS AWAY. They OBTAINED rights through adopting her. When they adopted her, she became THEIR CHILD, as if they had reared her as their own. Both her natural mother and father had said goodbye to their custody and parental rights. So shut the fuck up.
First of all if you read the article you would see that the father was at minimum mislead, more like outright intentionally lied to, and as soon as he discovered what happened he filed a stay of adoption meaning that the Capobiancos had never legally adopted her. Also, the meaning of the word reared is not synonymous with birthed it means raised and so I have to assume you are in fact an idiot. The Capobiancos may have been raising her for the two and a half years, but they were doing it essentially illegally as judged by a court of law so no, I will not shut the fuck up and let morons like you continue to mouth off without doing some fucking research. And I will most certainly not be intimidated by your unwarranted and misdirected rage
white people should be ashamed and apologize for meatloaf
from one native to another I humbly disagree, meatloaf is delicious
(Source: bestpal, via taliaitscoldoutside)
Hatters Workshop: graziah: Why is no one lamenting the fact that this couple stole two...
Why is no one lamenting the fact that this couple stole two years from this child’s father? Everyone talks about how sad it is that this couple was there for first steps, first words, etc. Well what about this poor father not getting to experience those things cause this white…
Quick response, you are confusing issues, at it’s heart is the debate about ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act) an important piece of Indian legislation enacted to prevent Native American children from being unjustly taken from their families and unjustly relocated to white families not your silly views that blame feminism for a problem men created for themselves. Like, oh you wanted to always be expected to be the primary caregiver of children well why didn’t you say so.
Also, from the reading I have done on the case it seems to me that though the mother was at fault she too was being manipulated by the adoption lawyers. It was the lawyer who reported the bio dads info incorrectly to the tribe (the bio mom told them she thought that him being Cherokee would complicate things and that they needed to check it out). She testified under oath so I am choosing to believe that she had no knowledge.
Lastly, this is not just about fathers rights and their fitness for being a primary caregiver. The reason Dusten Brown was immediately judged unfit in the court of popular opinion and by the Capobiancos is not because he is a man. It is because despite the fact that he is a decorated war veteran who has proven himself to be a capable father with his other children, be they biological or not , he is a a member of the Cherokee nation and people cannot imagine anything else besides a Native American man drinking and smoking away his money while his kids go hungry, or worse.
This is about racism and prejudice that continue to plague the Native American community. A prejudice that once stole an entire generation and is now still trying to take our children away. Why is it that a Native community and a Native father were immediately deemed unfit and less worthy than this white middle class college educated family? Why is all the knowledge and support and culture that this girl will gain from growing up in the Cherokee community be inherently less valuable than a “standard” western centric nuclear family?
Why did the Capobiancos feel they had a right to this child without going through proper legal procedures and channels? Why did they feel they had a right to take this child across state lines a day after she was born knowing full well that those proper steps were missed? They felt they had those rights because in America white is right and nothing could ever possibly be better than the white middle class experience.
Also, the only thing I relish more than white tears is some good white whine.
Why is no one lamenting the fact that this couple stole two years from this child’s father? Everyone talks about how sad it is that this couple was there for first steps, first words, etc. Well what about this poor father not getting to experience those things cause this white couple thought they deserved this child without going through proper steps.
Why are these white peoples’ pain more important than the pain of a Native family, the pain of an entire tribe? Just because white people don’t align themselves in a tribal structure and don’t place value on larger communities doesn’t mean that they don’t have value and you can attack the way Indian country works (I’m talking to you Dr. Phil and pretty much every news outlet that has reported on this case).
Your white tears don’t make me feel bad so save them for someone who cares.
Today the Supreme Court heard the case Adoptive Couple vs Baby Girl, more popularly known as the Baby Veronica case. The linked piece in The Atlantic does a pretty good job laying out the history of the case and presents a rare even-handed accounting of the facts. This is important, because if you read the NYT editorial, or perhaps happened upon the “Save Baby Veronica” twitter or blog, or watched the “adoptive couple” in question on their national press tour (stops included Dr. Phil and Anderson Cooper), you may want read up on alternate perspectives/the actual intent and impact of the Indian Child Welfare Act before (re)forming any opinions.
As I fully support ICWA and the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation, I’m not going to get into an argument on the legal issues swirling around this case. My hope is that the Supreme Court will side with Brown and the Cherokee Nation and uphold an important piece of Indian law.
The discourse coming from the camp of the adoptive family, the Capobiancos, has been highly public (surely a service to the child they purport to care for!), negative, misleading, and yes, racist. Although this case is meant to be a test of ICWA and constitutional anti-discrimination law, as far as I can tell, the Capobiancos and their supporters have started a fight in the court of public opinion based entirely around the perceived fitness of Dusten Brown and his wife as parents and their relatives and friends as a family. Countless anonymous internet commenters have felt comfortable dismissing Brown’s right to be a parent based on confused and potentially misleading accounts of his behavior before Veronica was even born. They point to the (taken for granted) fitness of the Capobiancos as parents, based on their advanced levels of education, income, their faith, their desire to be parents (Brown’s desire to be a father is scoffed at as he can’t provide a clear record of the sort of beatific, always already want that most adoptive parents are imagined to possess in these sorts of stories; initial ambivalence to parenthood is unnatural and a sin punishable by the swift and permanent severing of kin ties). And, they reason, if all that stands between Veronica and some middle class dream life with a set of perfect white parents is her Indian father, they can try both challenging the laws that say Veronica is Indian, and the veracity of Dusten Brown’s identity as a Cherokee citizen. People need a reminder that anti-Native racism is more than a cartoonish mascot of a hurled slur of “redskin” and the like; the rampant misconceptions concerning who qualifies as a Cherokee citizen and why that matters is a perfect example of this. What strength does it lend your argument to mock Dusten Brown’s blood quantum (people have managed to be racist even when denying Brown’s racial identity; he’s clearly other, but that otherness should be manipulable and convenient for the white majority) when Cherokee citizenship is a legal category?
Finally, I want to say something I am sure those who side with the Capobiancos will find abhorrent, but is something I believe to be of extreme relevance not only for the baby Veronica case, but the life of the little girl in question.
It is this: having an Indian grandma is better than anything the Capobiancos will ever be able to offer Veronica (to say nothing of Indian fathers, who are great, but sadly not my specialty). Although her adoptive family clearly disagree, for Veronica, to be part of an Indian family and Indian community is an opportunity, not a life-sentence. These people are actively contributing to the marginalization of Native people so it should be no surprise that they are seeking to remove Veronica from her family and culture, that they see themselves as more fit to parent than Dusten Brown, and that they have resorted to ugly arguments about blood quantum to justify their actions. If they succeed, they will deprive this child of something they can never replace - her citizenship and her culture.
This, especially the last paragraph. Also if the adoptive family wins they better be prepared to deal with the issues the child will have regarding her identity and being denied her community. Something tells me they won’t be though, and occasionally dressing her up will not suffice.
if life be a war: Wow, round two was a short one but it looks like that's all it took.
gg tumblr
I’m fucking done. Each and every last one of you can choke on a brick until your sense of fucking humor grows back and you stop treating every single comment you read like a social justice…
Alright, I’ll admit that he can make the argument that it was not his intention to write insensitive and hurtful words. But when the general perception of his words was taken as such it would have been better if he had recognized that it was not the followers and readers fault for misunderstanding his words but rather his failure to properly communicate his meaning. He might have intended satire, but it was not successful and instead of apologizing or revising his words to be more effective he attacked his critics personally. It is a sign of immaturity to display such unnecessary aggression in the face of criticism, and hints to me that he knew he had made a mistake but was unwilling to confront it. It is my opinion that when producing something for public consumption perception is more important that intention. For example if someone says something that was not intended to be racist but a person of color is offended and perceives it as racist then intention is irrelevant you still caused damage to another person.
Wow, round two was a short one but it looks like that’s all it took.
gg tumblr
I’m fucking done. Each and every last one of you can choke on a brick until your sense of fucking humor grows back and you stop treating every single comment you read like a social justice issue.
Fuck’s sake.
It must be nice to be a white man!
And that seems like a perfect note to go out on.
Just to be clear I’m not a follower just someone who noticed your bullshit a long time ago. First you posted something that you thought sounded cultured and controversial that would impress people. Then when there was a negative reaction you tried to derail the conversation by using tired misogynist tactics such as accusing a female blogger of becoming too emotional and not thinking with her head and denying the intention of your words. Then you blame other people for the consequences of your actions instead of recognizing the privilege you own, which you frequently call out in other people. Then to finish you do the tumblr equivalent of throwing a tantrum and giving people the silent treatment as if you not blogging anymore is going to be some punishment.
