Thread by @sunnshiiny

How many more times do I need to be subjected to asinine stupid comments about indigenous issues from people who think they mean well, but they’re actually as clueless as a door knob!

JFC this is pissing me off more than I thought it would!

https://twitter.com/BermanNDP/status/1400603481816416267

Not that I expect everyone to read my threads, but I did write a very important one a couple days ago.

In it I said people would immediately move to solutions to avoid feeling difficult emotions about the discovery of a mass grave of indigenous children.

How characteristic of complicit humans to avoid feeling responsible for any part of this genocide. How ‘Good German’ of you!

I hoped for better self awareness. But nope. Same ole same old.

I also said the experience of horror and shock you feel as a settler is infinitesimal to the pain and anguish experienced by the indigenous community every day of their existence.

I knew this would happen.

People actually realizing that previous governments have given state approval for genocide can’t handle the truth.

I’m watching people squirm in discomfort and move to immediately offer simplistic solutions and poorly thought out virtue signals to indicate their absolution.

Pointing fingers at the current government.

Incidentally, the ONLY federal government that has made a commitment to work with First Nations, Métis, Inuit and non status FN to develop culturally appropriate, COMMUNITY led interventions.

How exactly do you think the mass grave in Kamloops was discovered? Using a grant provided by the current govt. It took a few years to find the gravesite.

Other communities are at different emotional stages regarding looking. Finding a mass grave is traumatic.

So a community has to be emotionally ready to search and be prepared to deal with the grief when the graves are found.

But let’s push FN communities to search & find their missing and disappeared children.

Maybe the community should decide themselves now funding is available?

Do you honestly think you know better than the people who have lived this trauma their entire life?

How fricking egocentric and condescending can you BE trying to push for immediate action? I’m gobsmacked how oblivious virtue signallers are being right now.

And the utter disrespect to use this discovery as a political weapon is unforgivable in my eyes. It disgusts me. How do you rationalize using people’s sorrow and grief to win political support?

How dare you misappropriate indigenous people’s experience for political gain!

It’s morbid and profoundly insensitive to people who are reeling in shock and devastation at what happened to their children.

For settlers to think they know what’s best for indigenous people is another massive insult & racist!

How dare you not recognize your hubris.

People need compassion, not to be told what they need, how they should vote for a different party to take over governance and be subjected to a bunch of disinformation about legal issues pundits clearly do not understand and hope others won’t either.

Using this situation to polarize fellow progressives into entrenched indignation is hardly the response required from the settler community.

I’ll be clear.

Shut up, sit down and listen to what people need. This isn’t your issue. You’re the perpetrator, not the victim.

That some indigenous people are using this as political fodder is also reprehensible.

The settlers assuming those demanding immediate action speak for everybody show how little they understand indigenous issues & people.

But it obviously demonstrates how political opportunism isn’t limited to settlers.

There are people within the indigenous community that like power or attention as much as any settler.

It’s disappointing, but expected since our culture has been literally brought to its knees.

People with political agendas are found in every culture. That includes indigenous cultures.

The fact some settlers treat indigenous people like some panoramic single minded hoard of people with little to no diversity is about as racially biased as it can get.

That some indigenous people willingly and openly use other indigenous people’s pain to make political gains is ghoulish and shameful.

Thousands are struggling emotionally right now. And people they thought would understand are using their pain for political manoeuvring.

That’s an extra stab in the back.

There’s a reason I can’t bring myself to trust NDP. I knew Singh, his MPs & pundits would exploit the pain of people who lost children, grandchildren, siblings & friends & are now reeling in grief knowing they’re likely buried in a mass grave.

Discarded like a diseased herd of culled barn animals.

Let that sink in. This is a mass grave. Not a grave yard. Not neat rows of evenly spaced plots with markers denoting dignity and respect for the deceased.

A mass grave. Just like was done in Eastern Europe to the Jews.

It’s a mass grave. Meaning those children suffered and were discarded without dignity, without regard for their humanity.

Not all at once over a few short years. No, these were over 150 years, many from disease, abuse, neglect and suicide.

The Jewish community is coping with the Holocaust. They receive acknowledgement for the persecution of their community.

That’s all that’s needed at this moment. Acknowledgement.

Not meaningless attempts to exculpate yourself.

Indigenous people already know the truth. It’s settlers that need to process it.

@threadreaderapp please compile.