The systematic injustice that is present in my day-to-day life is the way that Indigenous Peoples in America are treated with lesser respect and have been removed of many of their previously hard fought, established justices throughout the history of North America. This has a detrimental impact with the way that our current society and citizens view and treat Indigenous Peoples because of they way that our recent scholars and government officials have presented them to the public. The first reason I can distinguish this as a systematic injustice is from my context research project that related colonialism to the treatment of Native North Americans before Britain colonized the United States. Our current government has stripped Indigenous People of high quality land, land that is rich in resources such as; fresh water, fertile land, vitamins and minerals, etc. This puts them at a systematic disadvantage when trying to become financially successful to raise a family and live a prosperous life. I believe for this change to be righted, we would need to not only give back a lot of the land that has been taken over time, but to allow their current land to be OWNED and not BORROWED from the government. I realize that there are a lot of systematic injustices to be found in America, but this injustice lies at the very heart of America’s democracy and should be more relevant in our news and media.
This can be related to Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe because of how Okonkwo’s colony was colonized by European settlers, just like how Indigenous People in America were colonized by Britain and eventually their own American people. I think Spivak’ subaltern theory works well too. The Indigenous Americans went from being the ‘One’ before any one outside of America landed and then became the Other once Britain colonized America. They became Subaltern in America once Americans decided to marginalize them.
Below is a link to a website that covers the challenges Indigenous People in America face today.
Very interesting! It was nice to learn more about the topic especially since indigenous peoples day was just a few weeks ago. It is amazing how little recognition these cultures receive.
Great post. I thought it was especially interesting how you pointed out the injustice towards indigenous peoples involved in the founding of the United States. Not only has this topic been neglected when learning about/teaching American history, it has also been neglected and even forgotten by some in modern America. I think it is very important to learn from history and improve upon mistakes made in the past.