Terese Marie Mailhot. Photo from Facebook
Writer Terese Marie Mailhot (Seabird Island Band) weighs in on the ongoing war between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts):
Trump’s a racist. He’s also an idiot. He has a limited vocabulary that boils down to “great,” “very best,” “I,” and “loser.” His troll-like attacks on Elizabeth Warren are reductive, reducing Natives down to romantic imagery, and chiming back the colonialist tale of “Pocahontas,” a Native girl white people fetishized to promote their idea of “The Good Native.” We all know the real story; Pocahontas was a victim of child sexual exploitation and died away from her people, “converted” on a boat, amidst a genocide still not actualized, but prevalent in our communities and governments again and again. I won’t save Elizabeth Warren from racist comments alluding to her misguided assumptions that family stories qualify her as Native. Trump’s limited vocabulary limited his criticisms of Warren’s claim to Native ancestry to calling her “Pocahontas.” How he offended her, while offensive to me, is secondary to the true offense of Warren. While his constant refrain of Warren’s claims to Native ancestry is in true form of a troll, he brings to light the shame she carries in her inability to produce anything substantial on her claims to being Native. Let’s face it, Warren cashed in on being Native. She checked the box, like so many Pretendians do, without living the struggle, acknowledging the struggle, or connecting with her people. To be honest, I’m more offended by Warren than Trump.Get the Story:
Terese Mailhot: Trump and Warren are Racists and I Won’t Defend Either (Indian Country Today 5/31)
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