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June 22, 2004Race is a funny, murky
Race is a funny, murky subject, made all the murkier with each passing generation as racially homogenous cultures slowly go the way of the dodo bird.
A friend of mine recently received an award from my university's African Student Union for having the highest GPA of any African-American undergrad. As said friend is a melange of races, and doesn't look the slightest bit African, he opted to skip the awards ceremony. An ostensibly white guy walking up to accept the ASU's GPA award would not have gone over well, or so he figured.
Now, I read this article from Yahoo! News, which explains how some Native Americans are opting to switch out of their current tribe in favor of another one--usually one in better financial condition. One of the men mentioned in the article, Charles Leno, has switched into a tribe that will cut him a $5,000 casino profits check each year just for being a member--as is his newborn son, who will have quite a hunk o' cash waiting for him by the time he reaches adulthood.
This sort of thing bothers me. Don't get me wrong; the Native Americans suffered mightily at the hands of those who came here after them, and I'm not going to begrudge any of them their cut of some boorish tourist's gambling losses when held up against the broken treaties and promises, disenfranchisement, biological warfare (smallpox-infested blankets, anyone?) and all-out genocide to which Europeans subjected them. Still, this tribe-swapping for the sake of filthy lucre seems like a slap in the face of the ideals of cultural stewardship that I associate with tribal identification.
As the article explains, "Tribes set their own rules for membership. They usually require one-quarter tribal blood for membership, but the requirement sometimes is as little as one-256th." It goes on to mention that "there are 1.8 million enrolled members in 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States."
I did some math, and unless I erred somewhere, meeting that 1/256th requirement would require a person to have had no stronger blood tie to a tribe than a sole great-great-great-great-great-great grandparent. I don't know the details off the top of my head, but from what I've heard, I have enough Native American blood on my dad's side to more than meet that requirement. I think I'll do a little research this summer and find out which tribes I'd be able to join based on nothing more than my racial makeup.
The way things are going in the world, I wonder how long it will be until the old battle-lines of race have been largely set aside for differences of religion, which seem to be much more bitterly divisive as of late. At the rate things are going, we'll end up with a bunch of Mulatto Christians fighting a bunch of Mulatto Muslims.
Speaking of which, I wonder about those children who were between the ages of eight and 12 when 9/11 occurred. What will they ever know of Muslim culture, save what an increasingly pandering media tells them at the behest of an increasingly crusaderesque U.S. administration?
These kids aren't going to read the hanged poems or look through books to find photographs of Moorish architecture, or order jallab on a whim at a Middle-Eastern restaurant, only to find out they like it. The Middle East is full of terrorists, or so they're being passively/actively told, with no positive examples/contributions of Muslim culture being presented in the name of equanimity. But as long as we have plenty of Buschjugend chafing at the proverbial bit to go blow away the towelheads as soon as they're old enough to enlist, nobody cares that they're being indoctrinated to throw the baby out with the Ba'athwater.
Posted by patrick at June 22, 2004 01:55 AM
CommentsYou know what, if you can trace your lineage back and prove you've got Native American blood flowing through your veins, no matter how small the amount, go ahead and do it. If they're willing to dish out cash over silly racial pride, take advantage of it.
I always hate those questionaires that ask you to choose your ethnic background. You're only suppose to mark one of the boxes. Well guess what, I'm half Korean and half Caucasian (German and Swedish if you'd like to get technical). Which the hell box am I suppose to mark for those stupid people?!
My dad always jokes around with me about going after Asian American scholarships. I would, if they didn't require so much effort. I don't have the time, patience, and motivation to write all those silly essays explaining why I deserve their money over some other candidate. Or to track down half a dozen college professors to write me a letter of recommendation, who can't even differentiate me from another student in their quarterly large-lecture classes. Besides, as much as I complain about college tuition, I really don't have it as bad as students from other colleges.
Actually, my dad wants me to join the NSDAR, or DAR for short--'Daughters of the American Revolution'. He's been able to trace our lineage back far enough to find quite a few ancestors who've participated in the American Revolution. It doesn't sound like such a bad idea. I just haven't had time to look through everything yet. For the most part though, my dad thinks it'd be really neat for me attend one of their meetings, only to see the look of shock on their faces at the fact that they had actually accepted an Asian. Of course, being as how I'm only half, my features aren't that strong, so they may not even notice. Usually it's only other Asians who can pick me out of a crowd.
Posted by: Steph at June 23, 2004 01:24 PM
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