#read a book on this history of racism

[heartru]

some of u guys are defending a billionaire company a bit toooooo hard

[haridraws]

Excuse the format (I made this for instagram since that's what the publisher wants, rip) but this is basically a shorter, easy-to-read version of the history section at the back of my new book.

(Part 2 || The book)

---

Disclaimer: I'm extremely not an expert, and this is only scratching the very surface of complex topics that are hard to simplify. I mostly made this to EXTREMELY rec these books and podcasts, and would urge you to go check them out if you're not familiar!!

This stuff might seem obvious to some of you, but let me tell you, I do NOT think it's widely known in the general UK population.

Imo a lot of the general (especially white) public think that the Windrush generation - Caribbean migrants brought in to help rebuild postwar Britain in the 50s - were the first Black communities in the UK. And yet there's deliberately not much focus on why the Caribbean has links with northern europe. HMMMM

(Britain loves, for example, to celebrate the abolition of slavery without mentioning WHAT CAME BEFORE IT - Britain being the biggest trader of enslaved people, with more than 1 million people enslaved in the British Caribbean. They literally just did it overseas.)

Telling the truth about history or British imperialism gets this massive manufactured backlash at the moment. There are so many ideas prevalent in UK politics - anti-Black, anti-refugee, anti-trans - based on going ‘back’ to some imaginary version of the past. Those are enabled by a long tradition of carving parts out of the historical record, and being selective about whose histories get told and preserved. Even though the book I was making is a fun rom-com, by the time I finished researching, I decided to make an illustrated history section at the back too (this is a mini version). My hope is that readers who haven’t come across these histories might get an introduction to them - and some pointers of what they could read next to get a clearer view of our past.

[charlesoberonn]

"How We Win The Civil War" by Steve Phillips is a really good history/political book about how confederates and their successors have continued to promote white supremacy in the US after officially losing the war, and how the advocates of equality and a multi-racial democracy can finally win the war for real.

Very accessible and interesting throughout. Very well sourced as well. Highly recommended.

[murfpersonalblog]

Jfc it FINALLY breached containment. 👏

Hopefully AMC sees the ramifications of what egregiously tone deaf & historo-culturally ignorant & racially insensitive behavior looks like in this fandom.

Crap like this is what Black fans in particular have been going through for the past 2 years since S1--ever since Jacob Anderson's casting was announced.

And AMC hasn't helped, when their press coverage by journalists & influencers & even the cast members themselves have deliberately skirted around topics of race, and how that affects public perceptions of not just the present IWTV adaptation, but also its 1994 predecessor.

Rolin Jones said multiple times that he didn't want his project associated with that disgusting period in American history, cuz "who the f**k wants that?" What on earth would possess someone to think it was a good idea to prop up a fictional slaveowner's effigy at an IRL plantation in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests that worked so hard to dismantle and take DOWN images that celebrated slaveowners & KKK members in this racist country? Even the UK had HUGE BLM rallies in the midst of the 2020 pandemic that went viral online & in international news--British protestors even shoved a public statue of a British slave trader into the harbor! So why are y'all UK fans acting brand new, as if y'all never heard of plantations & slavery before!? Cuz you're LYING! You just don't CARE!

This is what happens when no one is encouraged to actually sit down and THINK about what it means to have a story about a 150yr-old gay Black man; who was born barely a decade after the Emancipation Proclamation; who lived during Reconstruction, the Black Laws & Jim Crow.

No, it's not AMC's job to educate y'all about the history of slavery, racism, Jim Crow, race riots & lynchings; or how that all affected the lives of the Black diaspora of NOLA's Storyville--let alone its permutations in 1940s Paris. Read a dang history book before you come to someone else's country & step in some mess that could land you in a effing news article. Google & Wikipedia are free.

AMC, let this be a lesson to you. This is what happens when Louis de Pointe du Lac is WRITTEN color-consciously on the show, but TREATED color-blindly by the network, journalists, and fandom.

[campgender]

a Black fem (Arlette) & stud (Jodi) on racism from white butches & fems in the 1950s

from Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy & Madeline D. Davis (1994)

excerpt 1:

“When we started going in there, we found out how really prejudiced other white gay kids were. They didn’t even want to talk to us, and they looked at us with resentment. … Well at Bingo’s we would always sit in a booth. They would have the bar, a lot of them would look at us and roll their eyes. So we decided that we were going to get some of these to be our friends no matter what we had to do. One thing that drew them was the fact that we would get up and dance. Then some of them would say, ‘Hey, I like that, teach us how to do that.’” (Arlette)

excerpt 2:

Jodi remembers that the presence of Black studs made many white butches nervous: “Some of the stuff that happened was so typically racist, it was so ridiculous. I mean it was like Black studs were coming into the bar, people would just kind of put their arm around their women … [as if] they were just coming in there to snatch up their women.”

excerpt 3:

White lesbians also attended [house parties] but not in large numbers. This was resented by those Black lesbians who wanted a racially mixed community. “White kids started coming. Now they come up with, ‘that neighborhood,’ which I resent. Because there’s no such neighborhood that anybody’s gonna attack you. I get mad at that. ‘Well where do you live? I don’t want to come over there.’ What do you mean you don’t want to come over there?” (Arlette).

[the-blueprint]

The list of banned young adult (YA) books by Black authors above, was retrieved from PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans (July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022). In addition to the book titles and authors, the document lists the state, district, type of ban, date of challenge/removal, and origin of challenge. The document is being updated periodically, so check for new books added. Visit the PEN America link above for a detailed definition of a school book ban.

bcbooksandauthors.com

[canichangemyblogname]

Your National Anthem in Above Ground by Clint Smith

[barnbridges]

The Secret History by Donna Tartt // De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period by JD Salinger

[southernmermaidsgrotto]

Do you think love and light spirituality is toxic?

Definitely yes.

Now some of you will run away just from reading those two words, let me elaborate: It's not just toxic, it's actively harmful and racist, ableist, it's white cis hetero male supremacist in every way. Completely rooted in naz1 ideas from the very beginning of it. You just gotta look at the history of the whole movement and there's flaming red flags everywhere.

But even if you don't know the history and social context of how it came to be and popularized (which you should, do your research), just by looking at these people and how they move through life you can still clearly see the issues with it.

I have 3 main problems with the whole "love and light" thing that a lot of new age people spread, the first and biggest for me is spiritual bypassing. New Age "love & light" culture is not only completely incorrect (the dark is just as important, real and necessary for balance as the light, really, I'm saying it as someone with 10+ years of experience and a whole family background in ancestral traditions. The dark shit is Important and necessary, to understand all aspects of life, spiritual and not, to grow as a person and as a practitioner, to protect yourself and yours from both material and spiritual things and to fight either if needed.) but the whole "good vibes only" ends up being delusional at best and straight out abusive at worst, many times gaslighting people and denying racism, colonialism, oppression of all kinds, spiritual and physical illness, mental illness, basic history and science, all things that can have very real, physical consequences on people's mental health, overall health, and safety in general, not to mention the wider effects on society as a whole (having people running around with the emotional inteligence of a clam shell, scratch that, even clams are better than that lmao and spreading misinformation and harm like wildfire). The Second big mess is how much it promotes the complete lack of literacy and rational critical thinking. People will learn a new fancy thing and just run with it without knowing the full history and correct use of things and words, without questioning the source and context of the whole situation. Misinterpreting the little knowledge they have, either because it's something they overheard, or read in 1 book and never bothered to dive deeper into it's roots and history and true meaning, having the most shallow and incorrect "knowledge" of things, etc. It goes hand in hand with the 1st problem to create the 3rd issue: straight out willful malicious ignorance. They don't know any better and they can't be bothered to learn any better either. It's not just laziness or disinterest, it's straight out conscious denial of truth, repression of their own feelings and thoughts and identity even in some cases, to just be able to keep this facade of "love & light" that's killing them from the inside, hurting themselves and hurting anyone they come into contact with aswell, all to serve their selfish purposes and their own agendas.

All these three things feed off and enhance each other in an endless loop, that gets even worse in the kinds of conspiracy theory echo chambers these people move in. The ignorance and immaturity combined with someone who doesn't do any introspection at all and is straight out lying to themselves and others, either from a place of delusion, or in the case of most white people, priviledge. It's a huge system that only feeds white supremacy and keeps people of color disconnected from their true feelings and health, personal identity, culture and community, taking people away from any and every possible source of real power. It's keeping the priviledged in power and the disenfranchised in misery while denying the whole situation, spreading misinfo to confuse, divide and put the blame on the victims instead of the actual victimizer.

Priviledged people spread misinformation and lies because they don't know and don't care + actively benefit from keeping you in the dark, all while screaming from the top of their lungs that they have your best interests at heart and will "shine light on truths" while their actions are the complete opposite of that, then hide from the results of anything harmful they do under the "love & light positive thoughts only" thing to avoid conflict and consequences. It's bullshit. Call them out on their bullshit everytime.

[qqueenofhades]

I know you've probably gotten this question a lot, but what books do you recommend as an entry to American politics? I just turned 18 (a week after the midterms 😭) and I've tried to keep up with politics but quite frankly I was homeschooled and my mom is super conservative/conspiracy theorist, so I've never had any political influence besides Far-right and Chronically Online Leftist. I want to be able to make informed decisions but there's so much out there I don't even know where to start. Any book recommendations you have about politics, conspiracies, social issues, or otherwise related would be helpful!! (P.s. if you've already made this list and I missed it, feel free to just link back to that! I know you're busy)

Marginalized History and Narratives

A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, by Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz

An African American and Latinx History of the United States, by Paul Ortiz

How To Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States, by Daniel Immerwahr

American Military and Imperialism

Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, by Rachel Maddow

Blowout, by Rachel Maddow

Fantasy Island: Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico, by Ed Morales

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, by Naomi Klein

What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It, by Trish Woods and Bobby Muller

American Racism & White Supremacy Past and Present

Allow Me To Retort: A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution, by Elie Mystal

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi

White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, by Robert P. Jones

A Field Guide to White Supremacy, ed. Kathleen Belew and Ramon A. Gutierrez

Teaching White Supremacy: America's Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity, by Donald Yacovone

Conspiracy Theories, Corporations, and Climate Change

They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent, by Sarah Kendzior

Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power, by Anna Merlan

Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America, by Christopher Leonard

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--And Themselves, by Andrew Ross Sorkin

The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change, by Geoff Dembicki

[hotsugarbyglassanimals]

it drives me nuts how much suffering we force people to go through to meet some arbitrary idealized standard vs something that'd actually help. they're making my 60 yr old mom with fibro take pain management classes because they're too scared to put her on the prescription pain meds that she was already on before. i just read about someone with adhd talking about how the only med that works really well for them without making them depressed when it wears off or causing anxiety is desoxyn but doctors are too afraid to prescribe it to them because it's technically methamphetamine. the drug war is a complete burden on society

[aahsoka]

this is what i imagine taylor swift was thinking of when she said 1830s without the racism

[robotvitamins]

"Rhythm and blues was too good to remain a black secret for long and as the fifties dawned, certain musically adventurous white DJs started to add it to their playlists. By 1956 a quarter of the best-selling US records would be by black singers. This move was accelerated by the dramatic commercial success of some of the new black stations, exemplified by WDAI in Memphis - since 1948 the first black-owned radio station - which, as well as being home of DJs BB King and Rufus Thomas (he of the 'Funky Chicken'), was extremely profitable.

In adopting this subversive music, white DJs also started adopting black slang. This 'broadcast blackface', as Nelson George calls it, let them speak (and advertise) to both the black community and younger whites. Dewey Phillips of Memphis's WHBG was so successful at integrating his audience that the wily Sam Phillips of Sun Records chose him to broadcast Elvis Presley's first single.

The idea of the 'white negro' was still born of racism, however. George recounts the amazing tale of Vernon Winslow, a former university design teacher with a deep knowledge of jazz, who was denied a radio announcing job on New Orleans' WJMR simply because he was black. After what seemed like a successful interview, Winslow, who was quite light-skinned, was asked, 'By the way, are you a nigger?' Denied an on-air job merely because of his race, Winslow was hired for a most extraordinary job. He was to train a white DJ to sound black. Winslow had to feed a white colleague - now christened Poppa Stoppa - with the latest local slang, teaching him to say things like 'Look at the gold tooth, Ruth' and 'Wham bam, thank you ma'am'. The show became a smash. One night, frustrated by his behind-the-scenes existence, Winslow snuck a turn at the mic. He was fired immediately. WJMR kept the Poppa Stoppa name and continued using a white man, Clarence Hamman, to provide Poppa's voice. (Winslow had his revenge, though, as Doctor Daddy-O on New Orleans' WEZZ where he would become one of the country's top ten DJs.)"

- excerpt from Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton

[murfpersonalblog]

I don’t really interact with the fandom very often due to the racism that’s portrayed, but thank you for posting this because you just put into words something that I’ve been struggling to articulate regarding how Louis is perceived and treated by the fandom. Recently, some white woman on TikTok posted some “analysis” of sorts about Louis and Claudia and basically she came to the conclusion that if Claudia was not turned by Lestat, that if she survived as a human and grew older, eventually she would’ve turned out to become one of Louis’ girls/prostitutes because according to this creator, Louis has no regard for women and girls and only sees them as commodities. I wish I could find that TikTok for you, but I pressed “Not Interested” so quickly after I heard that. She phrased it like “if Claudia survived as a human, how long would it be until she would become one of Louis’ girls?”

Something about that just made me so deeply uncomfortable. It really opened my eyes up to how both Louis and Claudia as the leading black characters are perceived by the white fandom. It sort of is a reflection of how they see us as black people in real life too, but we won’t get into that lol.

Because why is THAT the first thing that comes to mind when wondering about what Claudia hypothetically could’ve been if she had the chance to grow up? She could be a wife, a mother, anything else and THAT is where their minds go? And why is Louis the only character that has his past held against him by the fandom? There is so much grace given to Lestat and Armand, but none to Louis.

I’m not saying that Louis is perfect and that he has no faults, but yeah. Thank you for making that post because it really articulated what I’ve been feeling and trying to say.

@autumn-slaves Thank you so much for sending me this! ❤️ I'm so glad that you like my metas, and that my long-winded tirades are actually articulating people's thoughts about IWTV, AMC!Louis, and receptions by this wild AF fandom.

Recently, some white woman on TikTok posted some “analysis” of sorts about Louis and Claudia and basically she came to the conclusion that if Claudia was not turned by Lestat, that if she survived as a human and grew older, eventually she would’ve turned out to become one of Louis’ girls/prostitutes because according to this creator, Louis has no regard for women and girls and only sees them as commodities.... why is THAT the first thing that comes to mind when wondering about what Claudia hypothetically could’ve been if she had the chance to grow up? She could be a wife, a mother, anything else and THAT is where their minds go?

Yeah, there's something crucial that people don't seem to realize:

Claudia is arguably the best & most tragic character AR ever created, cuz she was always DOOMED by the narrative.

Woulda coulda shouldas are absolutely pointless. Claudia was NEVER meant to grow up, cuz Anne Rice's daughter Michelle never got to grow up, either.

Book!Claudia was abandoned by her biological father, who ditched her & her sickly mom when they contracted the plague. Her mom died & she was left in the house all alone, and would've soon died of plague, even if book!Louis hadn't found her & drained her nearly dry; and Lestat Turned her to babytrap Louis.

Likewise, AMC! Claudia was abandoned by her biological father “whose daddy gave her away to a mean old auntie” after her mom died in childbirth. She was trapped in the house all alone when it caught fire, and would've soon died in the fire, even if AMC!Louis hadn't found her & caused the riots and Lestat Turned her to babytrap Louis.

Either way, Claudia was destined to die.

AMC even takes it a step further, to have Claudia be a twisted & more tragic version of book!Loustat's 2nd daughter, Rose.

AMC!Claudia was NEVER gonna get to grow old enough to be a prostitute, cuz the race riots & fires that burned down her home were gonna happen in 1917 (when she was 14) anyway.

AMC based the race riots on IRL events that happened when the racist Ordinances segregated NOLA & shut down Storyville in 1917 (the year Claudia died/Turned); kicking all the black people out of their homes & businesses to gentrify it for rich white people. AMC changes things so it looks like Louis' solely to blame for the riots burning down Storyville cuz HE blames himself (for everything). But even if Lou was never a vampire & never killed the Alderman, he'd've never been able to keep the Azalea; and Claudia wouldn't survived the fires that broke out as white people burned down Storyville to force ALL the Black people who refused to leave out of the area. Where would Claudia have gone?

"And why is Louis the only character that has his past held against him by the fandom? There is so much grace given to Lestat and Armand, but none to Louis."

Exactly. People act like Louis was the ONLY man in NOLA running a whorehouse; it's ridiculous how bad people don't pay attention.

Finn O'Shea was the one who helped burn the Azalea down, and it's HIGHLY likely that his "supper club" (ie: underground whorehouse) across the street was JUST FINE once all the Darkies were gone.

Another thing about the fire is Claudia's own dreams/what-if scenario about what could've happened if she'd never been Turned.

The whole hospital argument is moot, cuz we see half her face covered in burns in 1x4/2x7, and Lou said "she's going cold." Burns even in 2024 are dangerous, let alone 1917. She ranted about having a husband & raising babies, but IF she survived & not been Turned, she'd've been a half burned/scarred; and her throat/lungs would probably be effed up from all that smoke inhalation. Marriage & children seems highly unlikely for someone who'd've been a (possibly comatose/bedridden) hospital inmate for YEARS, slowly recovering from SEVERE burns "her body's all charred" with 1917 treatments.

Not to mention, which hospital?? 🤨 In the middle of a race riot/racial PURGE; when the whole effing district was under siege, hundreds if not thousands of people would've been all kinds of injured & dying, or just in need of shelter.

Like, I know nothing about NOLA hospitals, but Google told me:

The Flint Goodridge Hospital was for Black people (cuz segregation, and most private hospitals refused to serve Black patients), but in 1916 only had 50-60 beds. They charged "1 Penny A Day" for hospitalization, which was crazy cheap even for that time, so that poor Black folk could afford to be seen.

Maybe Charity Hospital? They had a "colored ward," but by the 1930s was notoriously racist & kept the ward in terrible conditions, with Black patients as their lowest priority & left to wait HOURS just to be seen.

"Private hospitals such as Ochsner, Mercy, Touro, and Southern Baptist" refused to integrate before the gov't forced them in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement (x x). Same with Tulane (Medical Center/School/whatever), which didn't even accept Black students till the 1960s, so I doubt they'd've taken her either.

Maybe Hotel Dieu? I don't think it was private, so maybe they would've taken in Black folk?

The French Hospital only had 60ish beds even by the 1940s (when it got shut down). IDK if they were anything like NOLA's French Opera House, which was hella segregated.

The Marine Hospital was for sailors/etc; but had a ward for kids, but only took in the mentally ill. They charged $1 per day for hospitalization.

So yeah, the odds of Claudia being seen, let alone successfully treated long-term, are rather low, esp. when so many other people would've needed care, too, and there were VERY few beds in NOLA hospitals at the time.

But even if Claudia hadn't died that night, the dream she wanted would've died, too. Granted, I'm not saying we should THANK Louis for "saving"/damning her (just like we shouldn't THANK him for taking in girls as prostitutes). Vampirism IS inherently evil. But she definitely needed a bit of reality check, too. Louis wasn't gonna risk wasting time finding a hospital that could/wouls take her, when she was "barely breathing," cuz he knew Turning her was a quicker & surer way of having someone heal her ASAP--Lestat.

Like, YES, Louis saved her for selfish reasons--his ego was SHOT, and he just needed to help save SOMEONE, to feel like he wasn't a FAILURE anymore (he'd JUST lost the Azalea & been kicked out of his home by Grace/Florence & was ready to divorce his husband Lestat who was busy cheating on him with a white woman).

It didn't matter to Louis if she was a girl or a dude ("a family of my own...no sons, no daughters"), so long as he had someone he could FINALLY feel like he "did right by."

"according to this [Tik Tok] creator, Louis has no regard for women and girls and only sees them as commodities.... "

Jfc. Oh, I'm sure Louis only ever saw his mother & Grace as commodities, yup! XD ZERO regard for women, yeees, which is why he stood up for Bricktop when she nearly killed the Alderman for raping her, when plenty of other guys would've fired her for jeopardizing his business~! And why Louis DIDN'T allow Tom Anderson to sleep with his girls for FREE so they couldn't earn any money whatsoever, the way Tom did at the Fairplay, where he treated prostitutes like fleshlights; cuz Louis disregards women SO MANY TIMES~! 🙄 Nevermind that Louis let Bricktop be in charge of the books, cuz he trusted her with his money & the legalese of running his businesses in a sexist world that thought women were only ever useful on their backs!

Nevermind that Louis was openly sobbing about how much he HATED being a pimp, cuz all he wanted was to be RESPECTED as a respectable man with a respectable business; and that he DIDN'T want to exploit women, and he KNEW it was wrong to exploit women--the show NEVER glamorized prostitution as if human exploitation of any kind is a GOOD thing. Lou turns a blind eye in the hopes of pleasing his rotten MOTHER & taking care of his spoiled SISTER; who still HATED him even as they took his dirty money. What was it all for, if not even his own family respected him?! But Lou doesn't have regard or respect or care for women at allll~!

We can acknowledge what a deeply flawed & selfish & naive idiot Louis can be; while still acknowledging that he HATES hurting people. He's NOT a sadist, and has never been comfortable or OK with being put in a position where he has to hurt people for his own benefit--hence his whole issue with vampirism & his confession booth scene. His whole thing is STRUGGLE; fighting to do the right thing in bad circumstances, when it's already too late--they're all already DAMNED. Keep up, y'all. XD

"It really opened my eyes up to how both Louis and Claudia as the leading black characters are perceived by the white fandom. It sort of is a reflection of how they see us as black people in real life too...."

FACTS. That's really all it is--antiblack racism plain & simple. You can tell every time they get PISSED whenever Black people get on their case for being insensitive, demeaning, microaggressive, hypocritical, etc. Cuz art imitates life, so if you're THAT quick to demonize the characters that the show's deliberately going to great lengths to show as sympathetic & genuine--ESPECIALLY Louis' love for Claudia--and you're saying Louis DGAF about women & only ever commodifies them, you're deliberately being obtuse & refusing to see the MULTIFACTED aspects of his character.

[coridallasmultipass]

TW for racism and genocide of Native Americans

Today I learned that the original "The only good _, is a dead _," was "The only good Indian, is a dead Indian." And it really sucks that now I know this information.

Looks like it's speculated to be attributed to one specific Union general due to his actions, but it was more likely just a common anti-Native sentiment of the time held by a lot of the settlers, not just one person.

Like I know I hear 'the only good snake, is a dead snake' most often since I love being in snake discussion groups, which also sucks because I love snakes, and they shouldn't be killed.

But I've also heard like 'the only good Nazi, is a dead Nazi.' And like, I So agree with that, fuck Nazis, but I don't want to think about the original phrase being reclaimed like that for a laugh, no matter how much I agree that Nazis suck.

It should stay as horrifying and sickening as 'the only good Indian, is a dead Indian' in my opinion. I think we should retire the phrase entirely and just note that, that was the origin of it - the continued genocide of Native Americans during the 1800s when settlers were eager to get rid of us so they could claim property for themselves while forcing us into insufficient reservations as US America expanded westward.

This book I'm reading describes that the usual retaliation for the theft of a cow would have been the execution of an entire Indian village. One specific horrifying example given, is from accounts of a traveler that joined a group of Mexicans pursuing Indians (Chumash) in possession of stolen horses. They come across a group of some old Indians, women and children, drying the horse meat. Every last one was killed, and their ears cut off as proof for the priests that they made every effort to retrieve the horses.

This shit is so sickening. They were hungry and trying to survive.

It also describes how the accounts of Indians from my tribe before the mission system were all about how generous and welcoming they were. (Though, it was through the lens of the Spanish who saw us as ideal candidates for conversion because of this.) Then after the collapse of the missions and post-assimilation, the accounts simply describe the Indians' drunkenness and disorder. What did you expect???? You assimilate a group of people so they're entirely reliant on you (the rigid structure of the mission system and the dismantling of their previous tribal villages), and then suddenly turn them out to a world without their previous villages and social order. Of course they're going to struggle and suffer and abuse the drugs (alcohol) you introduced them to.

I hate this so much.

The book also mentions how, during the mission period, anyone who ran away from the missions to go back to their original tribal lives, would be dragged back to the missions and cruelly punished with restraints, lashing, or stocks, and they couldn't understand why because punishment was exceedingly rare before Spanish rule.

Ugh. Anyway.

I'm going to bring this up any time I hear anyone mention that phrase, because the horror of that time period should not be diminished in its modern reclamation. ('Diminished,' because I, a 30yo Native American, did not even know the origin. I thought it was a modern phrase. Our local Native history was always glossed over in school to focus on the mission system. I didn't even learn of my tribe's revolt until like 2016 when I went to a lecture my tribe held.)

I get that reclamation is supposed to be like a good thing, to take away the power of its original use, but I personally don't think that's appropriate for this phrase that was used as a rally for genocide.

Maybe I'm just being a sensitive baby, though, who knows! I'm crying while reading a history book about my tribe. This shit really hurts deep, though. It always has.

[nerdby]

So you guys might have heard me mention this thing called Operation Ajax. Operation Ajax -- known as Operation Boot in the UK -- was a coup carried out against the 1953 Iranian prime minister by the US and UK governments. You can read about it in the book All The Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer, but I just found this meme and it really drove home what an absolutely disgusting racist Dwight Eisenhower -- the US president behind the coup -- was.

Cause it feels like the name Operation Ajax was chosen to show how he thought white Christians were stronger than Muslims and South-East(?) Asians.

Fun Fact: Operation Ajax served as the inspiration for Frank Herbert's scifi book series Dune -- the plot is a metaphor for oil wars🙃