Just a quick post to let ya’ll know that I was on Another Round on Buzzfeed again, and had a lovely conversation with Heben (she’s back!). In addition to talking Standing Rock and #NoDAPL, we played a game where I had to identify Pilgrim names. I failed. But shout out to Godbert Godbertson. Listen here, and enjoy!
Two quick clarifications for things I said, cause I want to be accountable: I’ve been really, really trying to cut out ableist language, and I caught that I said “crazy” at the end of the episode. Serious apologies. I usually say “wild” these days. Also, I made a comment about Nixon being a good president for Natives. Just wanted to clarify: He was a big proponent of self-determination for Natives, ended the termination policies of the previous administrations, and his administration ushered in a new era in Federal Indian policy that was largely good for Natives. BUT he also was president during Wounded Knee and was responsible for the large military response to that siege, and overall was not a fan of the American Indian Movement and was responsible for the heavy surveillance and monitoring of folks involved in AIM. Just wanted to be clear about that. Also, as always, remember I don’t speak for all Natives on anything, and the words in the episode are based on my experience and perspective. If I said anything else that might be problematic, please feel free to let me know.
Thanks again to Another Round, it’s really a lovely episode to get to hear some of the protectors on the ground and their perspectives in addition to my hotel room rambling. The Pod Squad are masterful editors–they took a long conversation and made it coherent and beautiful.
For those of you looking for resources or ways to support the movement, check out my update post here.
Comments
You know, as a person who would probably qualify as the audience that could be expected to be offended by ‘crazy’ (long history of depression/suicidal thoughts, a family history of mental illness and suicide), I’m not really offended by the word and personally use it myself in some contexts. I think it’s only offensive if it’s used to insult/dismiss actual people with mental illness (“Oh, Britney’s being so crazy haha”), dismiss women (“she’s just being crazy”), or in offensive portrayals of mental illness (“come to our fright night and watch out for the crazy patients at the haunted asylum!”). It’s not like the r-word– which implies that intellectual disability is something to be ashamed about. Doing ‘crazy’ things suck– it sucks for you when your head clears and you have to deal with the consequences of your actions and it sucks for others that care for you. And ‘sane’ people do crazy things all the time– they go on a drinking bender and rack up big charges on their credit card, they attempt parkour due to dumb teen hormone-addled bets. It’s a way of talking about things that don’t make sense.