We need to talk…Again…

Shevone Torres
Nov 5 · 2 min read

Psst!!! Hey, I have to talk to you for a minute. I came across a disturbing post on Facebook by someone I thought was a Native American ally. They were ranting about how black people should go back to Africa and how we don’t belong here. Remarkable how they sound exactly like white supremacists? Sounds like they’re playing oppression olympics while omitting atrocities Native Americans committed against black folks and failing to consider nuance.

Black folks aren’t your enemy. We are the closest people here even remotely close to understanding your struggle. You tell us to go to Ghana (not all of us if from there so that shows how little you understand our history and its erasure) and yet you’re quick to co-opt Black Lives Matter to Native Lives Matter? You didn’t read up about the Seminole Wars, where Africans, African Americans and Native Americans fought side by side.

You bring up Buffalo Soldiers (who were forced to fight), but fail to mention the black women who provided aid to the injured Native Americans. You omit any reference to the 1960s and 1970s, when the American Indian Movement unified with the Black Power Movement.

The first slave rebellion in 1522 was both Native and African slaves. Eighteen percent of those on the Trail of Tears were African Amercians. (As slaves, but we are not ready for that conversation yet are we?)

The Civil Rights Act gave full rights (well, as much as possible in a white supremacist country) to Native Americans, who were supposed to get the right to vote, but were subjected to the same obstacles black folks have encountered.

Before you start to complain about how black folks aren’t there for y’all, maybe consider it’s your anti blackness that is pushing the ones who understand you the most away. Facts: we have shown up for you.

If you enjoy my blogs and would like more, please consider my patreon: Shevone Torres

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