« Fan Mail | Home | Wordless Wednesday »
She Didn’t Mean It
By Nancy Lindquist | July 3, 2007
She is a dear friend and the joke was sent to me to make me smile. It spoke of intolerance and fear and it was not just about a far off people’s, someone who I would never meet, it was about Native Americans, only the joke called us, Indians.
Most of us don’t really care what you call us, as long as it’s not late to dinner. There are a few radical types, but I know that the word, Indian, does not make me someone from India. It’s not meant to deride me, most of the time. It’s what we were called for years and I call myself an NDN, when I’m too lazy to type out some logner version of a name that’s pretty arbitrary anyway. Labeling me any race does not define me. I’m not political about my heritage. Just very proud of it. Still, this joke, it was beyond upsetting. It talked about wiping out the Muslims like the, “cowboys did the Indians.”
I am not a radical. Not by any means, but if I worry about the world I am handing my boys. If my life would end this intolerance and misunderstanding of others, I would gladly lay it down. One life won’t make a difference. Many have died for being different. Many more will, because fear of the different has been almost encouraged in our world. Jesus was different. Ghandi was different. Who am I, compared to them?
“Call the black man the N word. They use it. Anyone can, if they use it.”
”All them sand devils are terrorists, blow them up.”
“How kind of you to adopt two Spic boys, like that.”
I’ve heard all of those comments, in the last year. IN THE LAST YEAR! In Ann Arbor, MI.
It’s not acceptable and it should not be allowed. The woman who sent me the joke did not know how deeply she hurt me. I sent her a letter and I hope our friendship will survive it. She is a good and decent, loving woman who should not and will not be named. She did not mean to hurt me. The joke struck me like a blowm, anyway. Still, after all this time, after everyone and their uncle is coming out of the woodwork and claiming to be, “indian” we hear this.
It’s not acceptable and it must stop.
