Harlan McKosato. Photo from Facebook
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been disparaging indigenous people for decades and radio show host Harlan McKosato wants him to know we don't all look the same:
“They don’t look like Indians to me, and they don’t look like Indians to (other) Indians.” This was a statement by Donald Trump at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill concerning Indian gaming. He went on to say, “I think I might have more Indian blood than a lot of the so-called Indians that are trying to open up the reservations,” he said in a radio interview with Don Imus. He was referring to tribal people in Connecticut who were cutting into his own casino profits. First of all, Trump looks more like a giant Oompa Loompa than anything else. I haven’t seen any orange-skinned Indians in all my days. But I have seen really dark-skinned ones and really light-skinned ones. Which brings up the question, “What does a 21st Century Indian look like, or what are we supposed to look like?” I’m sure many non-Indians have an image in their minds of a traditional Indian Warrior with brown skin, long dark hair, dark eyes, muscled up, clean shaven and very handsome – kinda like me (aaaye) – sort of like the Indian Warriors they see on the cover of those Indian romance novels at the grocery store. But that stereotype was never reality. Native people come in all shapes and sizes; and these days all skin tones. What the people who hold on to this image don’t realize is that being Native American is not what you look like. It is a cultural identity, but it also has political implications.Read More:
Harlan McKosato: What Does an Indian Look Like? (Indian Country Toady 10/25)
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