Thread by @RomboughSunni

I’m seeing a few people angry at JWR and her nation to nation preference. And a few are extending that to all FN.

I need to clarify that secession from Canada May be the option eventually realized.

I wrote that megathread because JWR is going about it underhandedly.

I’m frustrated & resentful because it leaves no consideration for the other 3 indigenous peoples who aren’t rushing to exit reconciliation in favour of secession from Canada.

Not because FN are so mistrustful of the Canadian population. That I understand very well.

I am the eldest of 3 children by the same parents. I am the fairest. I easily pass for white. That has some benefits I’ve had the luxury of accessing through my lifetime. My brothers are much darker skinned. So they haven’t had such an easy time.

My parents produced all three of us. My brothers look far too much like my father for there to be any doubt.

Even though I’m fair skinned, I’ve been forced to endure the helplessness of witnessing discrimination towards my siblings and my mother my entire life.

When I was born, both sides of my family celebrated. My 1st brother was very dark skinned. My father’s family were aghast. Accusations that my mother was unfaithful from my father and his relatives. When my youngest brother was born, there were no accusations, just rejection.

My parents separated & eventually divorced shortly after my youngest brother was born. I was 8 when they divorced and only saw my paternal grandmother once again before she died.

It was when I was 10. At a grocery store, my mother, two brothers & I met her by chance.

I’ll never forget turning down the aisle. I was the only child that recognized her. My mother did too, but said nothing. I opened my mouth to giddily say grandma!

She saw us too. She appeared shocked and uncomfortable. She immediately turned her cart and started walking away.

I was devastated. My brothers were oblivious. They were 6 & 4 and didn’t remember her. My mother was furious. Left the cart in the middle of the aisle and we left immediately. When I attended my paternal grandmother’s funeral 3 years later, I felt indifferent. Rage came later.

That was my worst experience with racism.

I watched it happen daily to my brothers.

Being hated for being born Aboriginal affects you mentally. It makes you feel worthless. It doesn’t matter how many times you’re told by family you matter. To the rest of the world you do not.

And indigenous people live with that experience every day of their lives.

For FN it’s unbearable. Not only do strangers reject you, your government does too. I encourage everyone to read about the last 150 years and how FN have been treated. Most are unaware of the injustice

FN women lose their status if they marry outside their reserve. Marry a white man and your grandchildren automatically lose their identity. FN were disenfranchised (couldn’t vote) until 1960 provisionally, & fully in 1970.

Severely underfunded and prevented from leaving the reserve without permission, their children were apprehended and taught to hate themselves, their culture, their language & their families. For decades.

FN lived under apartheid like conditions for several generations.

So maybe secession isn’t so surprising. Or shocking.

It might come as a shock to mainstream Canadians, but considering what FN have been through, and the current global rise in white supremacy, it’s surprising it hasn’t happened sooner.

Reconciliation probably has a completely different meaning for FN. FN experience the world differently, perceive it differently and their dreams & aspirations probably are different too.

My life has always been off reserve. I can’t imagine the pain and suffering FN endure.

If Canadians want reconciliation with all Indigenous people, the fist step I was taught as a child was “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” We will never maintain a unified Canada, or reconciliation, unless we walk a mile in a FN person’s moccasins.

Complicating that effort, self serving vulture capitalists have tapped into the betrayal felt collectively by FN.

Just like Trump tapped into the severely stressed middle & working class, domestic & foreign interests have promised relief & safety in exchange for oil & gas.

Many with malevolent intent are working to create an insurmountable divide between FN & the rest of Canada.

Rhetoric criticizing demands for FN freedom from despair is interpreted as proof reconciliation is impossible.

If you truly want reconciliation, engage not condemn.

Please stop and think twice before criticizing FN dreams of living in their own indigenous land without discrimination and enjoying a comfortable lifestyle.

Of all the people in Canada who deserve that opportunity, it’s FN & the 3 other indigenous peoples.

If you don’t recognize the tactic being employed by those with malevolent intent, it’s the Finkelstein Method.

This article describes it in detail. A summary is in screen shot below.

buzzfeednews.com/article/hnsgra…

https://twitter.com/garbee7160/status/1112578799365849088?s=21