I’m quite surprise that I would have to say this…yet, we should be weary of the popularization of the word “colonizer” on social media.

Two reasons: lack of understanding of relations to settler colonialism AND the weaponization to silence BIPOC.
I’ve noticed that those who use “colonizer,” generally don’t have a foundational understanding of settler colonialism nor have they reflected on their own positionality within or relationship to settler colonialism.
The 2nd point, weaponization - because there is that lack of foundational understanding and lack of reflection, I’ve noticed the word “colonizer” has been simply reduced to someone isn’t Indigenous AND in some cases to everyone within the US Empire, including Indigenous Peoples.
There is a danger with that reduction, because it ignores the histories and instances of violence that were required to create the US Empire, and not to mention there are consistent attempts for “move to innocence” (Tuck & Yang, 2012), simply to deflect accountability.
Not to mention, that simply reduction situates Indigenous Peoples of the so-called “Americas” as colonizers because of those ongoing archaic theories (ex: Bering Strait), and this flawed definition, which doesn’t include an understanding of indigeneity.
Also, please know that I’m focusing on the US Empire.

These are some of the emerging issues I’m noticing on social media as “colonizer” becomes more popularized on its usage.

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More from @GrandmaSaidNo

25 Aug 20
I’ll never get over the fact that for centuries. CENTURIES. Colonizers thought and convinced the world that Indigenous Peoples were uncivilized and unintelligent.

And now, they expect us to save the world.
A lot of knowledge and ceremonies were explicitly banned until a few decades ago.

Many practitioners literally had to survive imprisonment and death to salvage what we know.

And a lot of y’all just expect us to freely share this knowledge?
No.

The internet may be free, but our time and livelihoods are not.

Return the land that your colonizing ancestors stole.
Read 4 tweets
16 Aug 20
Colonizers will really have you believing Indigenous Peoples were uncivilized and unintelligent.

Then like 500+ years later, they “discover” these amazing inventions and appropriate our knowledges.
Like when y’all were burning witches and against hygiene, many Indigenous communities were proficient in what is now known as math, astronomy, botany, urban planning, sustainability, etc with thriving and sustainable cities. 🤷🏽‍♀️
When folks say that Indigenous Peoples already experience an apocalypse, we mean that.

Like many of us are literally existing in our dystopia forced to witness an ongoing assault against our communities, language, and culture.
Read 7 tweets
24 Jun 20
Non-Black Natives, especially white Natives, benefit socially from anti-Blackness, both contemporary and historically.
Ex: Academia.

Non-Black Natives were “allowed” to attend prominent universities before Black folks were.

Granted non-Black Natives were used to acquire financial support, yet we were seen as “worthy” of an education when many Black folks were not.
Also, American citizenship was extended to non-Black Natives once we renounced our tribal affiliation. Many non-Black Natives could check white if they wanted to once their process of “assimilation” was “complete”.
Read 5 tweets
14 Jun 20
I totally missed posting this on #LovingDay2020, but Mildred Jeter was Rappahannock, and their marriage license has her listed as “Indian,” this case has significance for understanding blood quantum given Virginia’s archaic one drop rule.
The one-drop rule was used against anyone with Black ancestry to showcase “impurity” whereas, blood quantum for Indigenous Peoples was used against us to showcase “purity”.

Blackness was/is considered expansive. Yet, indigeneity was/is not.
These are important to understand give anti-Blackness within the colonizing US, especially among Indigenous communities. The one drop rule has been used against Black folks, especially mixed Black folks, to continue their enslavement and disenfranchise them.
Read 8 tweets
6 Jun 20
Anti-Black Natives really think that most of their movements in the last century were on their own, when really Black solidarity, Black scholarship, and Black theories influenced how we engaged in the public sphere around liberation.
A lot of y’all love to bring up AIM, when that happened post-Civil Rights Movement, which arguably influenced how people resist and challenge colonizing government structures, especially during a time many people were grappling with unlearning anti-Blackness.
Black Lives Matter, as an org and movement, has always included Indigenous sovereignty and has always been in solidarity with many Indigenous social movements since their founding.

And what have we, as non-Black Natives done in return?
Read 6 tweets
3 Jan 20
I’m waking up this morning learning more and more about what the colonizer’s president just did and -

1. the settler colonialism that is just being reinforced and recycled as “America” continues to expand its colonial skewed understanding of democracy.
2. the violence being reinforced against Muslims is terrifying and something to be conscious of as colonial propaganda increases against them.

3. the (failed) concept of unity among “Americans” and the erasure this will have globally on Black and Native experiences.
4. the lack of // minimal awareness of how this will impact the Middle Eastern Indigenous Peoples and the colonial violence they’re still experiencing since the last few US colonizer’s presidents refused and did very little to reduce the presence of war in their lives.
Read 4 tweets

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