Your choice of wording itself exposes the fractures in the idea that we “can’t” have this conversation with terminology that is accurate to it’s grim realities, and maybe the truth that you haven’t properly read or thought about the information presented in my article yet: “there are examples where African Americans were on the side of the oppressors”. While white supremacy & colonialism are the root of these unfortunate dynamics in Indian country, I am not here to argue that Natives have “taken the side” of any oppressor because I find that perspective not very relevant to my experiences as an Afro-Native today. This is a discussion about a racially oppressive structure that is, today, fairly independent of white systems of racial oppression. I will reiterate: this is about a racial hierarchy & it’s resulting discrimination that is contained in specifically Native-controlled governments & communities. This exploitative system & the experiences of the people targeted by it perfectly mirror racist oppression in broader society (as demonstrated by the examples & explanations given in the article). By definition, this is oppression and there is no similar structure within Black communities that targets Native people.

If we cannot possibly name the systemic anti-Blackness that takes place on tribal grounds as oppression, we would not be able to call any racism oppression at all. To take one step further, as I’ve pointed out in another reply, we would have to apply the logic that instances of violence from oppressed peoples towards their oppressors (Natives had long enslaved Black people & transported those slaves on the trail of tears by the time Wounded Knee took place, already “qualifying” as oppressors) can equalize those two groups indiscriminately. This would mean removing “oppression” from the conversation about Natives’ experiences with white people, because we too have been violent towards our oppressors at times. This is a dangerous & unnecessary approach that I find much more harmful than simply acknowledging & addressing ongoing injustices among Natives.

I implore you to examine why you would perceive a Native American person bringing awareness to centuries of discrimination, and worse, perpetrated by their own ancestors & living community as being more divisive or unjust than a call to action against discrimination. Ask yourself if you truly believe that a productive form of support for Native American peoples is telling a large group of us that if we seek the basic rights afforded to our families & denied to us, based only on our admixture or the dark tone of our skin, and why you feel that way. Ask why you consider Black Natives, whether we are mixed-race or Freedman or adopted, to be separate from Natives. We are not. We are Natives, we are not “pit against” ourselves- we are seeking allies in surviving an already troubling Indigenous existence that is made even more difficult by being denied basic resources & rights by other Natives, we are seeking to end a fight that we did not start, and if our suffering as Natives is not a priority to you then you cannot claim that Native liberation is a priority at all. I can’t imagine that picking & choosing which Native American people are worthy of safety or freedom does much good, either.