JACOB-RITZERTPODCAST-TRANSCRIPT (1)

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.

https://pages.nativehope.org/native-american-life-today

Achebe’s Things Fall Apart challenges ethnocentrism, colonialism, and the arrogance of exploiting colonies through integrating into the socioeconomic structures. There are many strong themes throughout the novel; Power, masculinity, gender roles, wealth, respect, religion, and family are all described in detail to deliver as much insight about Okonkwo’s village as possible. Because Achebe is so successful at delivering sympathetic, meaningful character and cultural development that the reader can actually share some of the misfortunes and destruction to the Iglo culture and language once the Europeans become increasingly established in the West Africa village. Initially, the Europeans seem to be interested in land that the village people perceive to be cursed by their gods and the villagers believe that they will be free from the early colonist before any realm implications and influences of European culture become integrated into their respected and inherited ways. Ultimately, this clash between economic and religious belief drives Okonkwo and his son into disagreement allowing for Achebe to symbolize each character who embodies the qualities of both the traditional beliefs and the colonists newly implemented Christianity. Not long after Christianity becomes more prominent, the European leader becomes replaced by a more radical and forceful leader that really drives Colonialism deeper into the socioeconomic and religious structure and beliefs. Achebe successfully captures the viewpoint of the village becoming colonized rather than the European’s ethnocentric viewpoints.

This lead me to become interested into Colonialism within the United States and around the world, in which I found a very interesting and informational video that helps describe the current status of North America’s Indigenous peoples. The video describes how the United States government were successfully able to deprive North American Natives by taking their resources and driving them into less fertile and resource depleted land, and as we know from reading Things Fall Apart, farming and agriculture are a means of survival, status, power, and currency. The Dawe’s Act gave Native Americans a defined amount of land, however, the government still owned the land.

PLEASE WATCH THIS QUICK VIDEO ON COLONIALISM IN AMERICA.