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I ain’t gonna lie: I felt some kind way about this. It’s obvious the online social justice community, even in this age of cyber-wokeness, doesn’t care about Natives. Three very similar incidents, all terrible and involving young people & their hair: one story involved an African American young man who was unjustly forced to cut off his dreads for a wrestling match. Horrible. That story became front page news of @cnn & other national publications & all the usual suspects tweeted/instagrammed that thing to death, as they should & the referee who forced the Boy to cut his hair was fired. Good. One story involved a young European American student who’s teacher cut off that boy’s hair while singing the National Anthem. That story likewise made front page news of CNN & other national publications & all the usual suspects tweeted & instagrammed that story to death, as they should & that teacher was criminally charged & fired.
Good! The final story (which actually happened first in time) involved a Native student & the teacher who cut off that student’s braid is STILL collecting a paycheck from the school district, there have been no criminal charges in this case, I spoke with the attorney last night and the local folks organizing are freakin warriors even tho there’s barely support for the case. Moreover, there was no coverage from CNN or scarcely even a local publication (shout out to @kobtv4 & The ALbuquerque Journal for actually covering it) and the usual suspect just skipped past this story...shouts to @ijessewilliams & @kendrick38 & @mattmcgorry & @queenyonasda and all my folks who shared this story...anyway, hell yeah, I felt some kind of way..you get tired of explaining to your kids why Natives are valued less than everyone else when the same things happen. Literally happens all the time. Look, if you folks are trying to be allies or accomplices, you need to understand that your blind spots/hipsterism becomes very apparent when you rush to support the high profile cases but never rush to support those who are easily invisiblized and ignored (usually Native people, immigrants and Muslims). I haven’t met one Native person who says “We want those other folks to get LESS justice...” No, almost every one I talk to just wants Natives to get more justice. It’s only right & if you ain’t with that, you’re just faking the funk.