Just for anyone still thinking the civil rights movement was “SO long ago!”
Fred Hampton would be 51 this year if police hadn’t executed him at age 21.
Ruby Bridges is 65.
MLK would be 91 (he was assassinated at 39).
Malcom X would be 95 (he was assassinated at 39).
Claudette Colvin (the first Black woman known to refuse to give up her seat AT 15) is only 80.
Mary Louise Smith is 83.
Fred Gray is 89.
EMMETT TILL WOULD BE 79 (he was murdered at age 14 because of a white woman’s lie).
Ask yourself how old your grandparents are. Hell, how old your PARENTS are. How old are the people in most government seats right now?
Miss me with that bullshit of “It’S sO lOnG aGo. Things are better now.” These people and so many more who aren’t able to be here would be distraught at what is STILL fucking happening today. To say things like that is just willfully turning your head away from the injustices that we see today! That’s the that on that.
“How old are people in most government seats right now?” <-!!!! THIS!! People don’t fully digest THIS! MANY many people in the most powerful positions in government WERE alive to hate MLK. They were building early political careers in opposition to the Civil Rights movement, actively oppressing Black people in lower positions of government, fighting to keep segregation alive, etc. And they’re STILL doing it!
AND ALL THE PEOPLE WHO WERE KILLED AREN’T AROUND TO RUN FOR OFFICE
AND ALL THE PEOPLE
WHO WERE KILLED AREN’T AROUND
TO RUN FOR OFFICE
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
For those of you aren’t aware and aren’t involved in NDN circles, the Supreme Court just declared that tribal territories and reservations are part of states and are under state jurisdiction, including in regards to charging someone and putting them on trial in state courts for crimes related to the tribe (as opposed to this being left up to tribal courts), undoing decades of precedent for the separation of tribal and state governments.
In a few months, the Supreme Court is also going to be giving a verdict on whether or not the Indian Child Welfare Act, the only thing keeping indigenous children with their families and communities instead of being “adopted” (trafficked) to white Christian families at every chance, is unconstitutional. This act is also dependent on the belief that tribes are sovereign nations and that giving our children to people outside of our tribes is akin to the US government taking Canadian children in the Canadian foster system and trying to adopt them out to American families.
If the ICWA falls, we’re going to see a modern Sixties Scoop, with Native children being stolen from their tribes and families and cultures and assimilated into white Christian society. This is not only traumatizing for the children and their families, it’s also a form of cultural genocide that has been used against us before and has devastating effects.
There are family members I never knew because they disappeared into the foster system as children.
This is the beginning of what’s going to be wave after wave of attacks on indigenous sovereignty and tribal governance. The Supreme Court, even with a Democratic majority, has historically decided against upholding indigenous sovereignty and tribal protection. We’re seeing genocide and forced assimilation become federal policy again.
To be clear, the court today holds that Indian country within a state’s territory is part of a state, not separate from a state,“ Kavanaugh wrote in a decision that scholars of Native American law said was a major departure from longstanding precedent.
Just to reinforce the reality of this, this isn’t some small potatoes, only once in a while relevant ruling. This affects the sovereignty of Native lands.
Not sure what I can say aside from the fact that this shit is disgusting.
Professional insomniac. Actual alien left here 29 years ago. Tawney. Non-Binary.