Settler Colonialism
One of the points that I found interesting in this lecture was the difference between colonialism in general and specifically settler colonialism. As the US's colonies were settler colonies and I was taught equating colonies to the 13 American colonies, I tended to associate any colonialism with settler colonialism. Hearing about how settler colonialism is characterized sounded very familiar to me for this reason, especially the part about acknowledging native people only for nostalgic purposes. My high school's mascot was the chieftains, and for this reason we learned a bit more about local tribes, but there was very little acknowledgement of Indigenous people until very recently.
I also really liked the quote "Invasion is a structure, not an event." It really encapsulated the ideas that I see from many modern Indigenous activists on social media. People tend to think of colonialism as something of the past that doesn't really happen in America anymore. However, colonialist structures are still in place, forcing the loss of Indigenous cultures through assimilation, forced learning of English, and banning of certain practices. Although today's America is not as openly colonialist as it used to be, the long-term effects of the practice are still in place.
I also learned about the important distinctions between settler colonialism and colonialism. It's important to remember that the injustice is still going on in the United States. It's cool that you made a personal connection to this topic through your high school mascot.
ReplyDelete