Thread by @DNLee5

For American Indigenous peoples who are unfamiliar - Tariq Nasheed is a Hotep & charlaton intellectual who unfortunately has a huge following selling the idea of “pro-Blackness” packaged in black male superiority. He often just WRONG & his language is violent & offensive

But....his ruminations are grounded in common Black culture/community experiences/mythos/legends, etc. AND that includes a LOT of Black Nationalism-derived historinics. So he’s tapping into collective memories if you will. KIM, memories can be false, manipulated

A good deal of Hotep Histrionics includes updating & revising ALL history lessons about African people & African people in the Americas specifically via Afrocentrism. It disrupts White Supremacy by RE-centering Blackness as Superior & default.

It’s not authentically revolutionary- bc it doesn’t actually care about dismantling white supremacy or European Imperialism & Hegemony. Nope. It merely wants to trade places. And LIKE it’s template, it participates INTENTIONALLY in Indigenous erasure & settlerism

When it comes to US American African-Indigenous interactions & Black peoples identities with/proximate to/as (part) Indigenous - BIG SIGH - It’s tangly, messy, Confusing, Uncertain. So many unconfirmed facts. & HoTep Historians exploit this uncertainty - BIG Time

Declaration: I am sharing my knowledge & experiences as a US American Black person, from the South, who was raised in a multi-ethnic family (mother’s side which included Indigenous identity) & my father’s side that was SERIOUSLY Pan-African/Black Nationalist-Afrocentric

“I got Cherokee in my family” Back in The day, this was a SUPER common remark for almost ALL Black people. And it was treated as plausible if you (or a living older relative) had
- Long, wavy hair (aka “Good Hair”
- thinner nose
- hi cheekbones
- bonus for light skin

This “we ain’t black we Indian” way if thinking is deeply rooted in white supremacy. Now this doesn’t negate Indigenous American heritages of black folk - it exists. BUT that’s not HOW or WHY most black folk were so loudly declaring their (presumed) Indian ancestry.

It was a counter-narrative to Black Pride. One couldn’t deny that they were Black or of Color, so the tact was to associate with a different ethnic group, that (seemed to) enjoy better privileges than Blackness. Hence - Native-ness. But some also tried the Spanish ID, too

Where racial disparities are hella a cute, This ethnic re-identity worked/s to distinguish yourself from other Black People primarily because NO ONE knows any Indigenous people - the reference population. (Who gone check you, boo?)

And also, how colorism and within group anti-Blackness works - “mixed blacks” are more attractive. This is also how the fetishizing of Indigenous looks/culture/regalia gets picked up & propagated in Black communities.
“Oooh s/he cute with that (insert Pocahontas reference)”

A combination of intentionally bad American history, Preference for euro or exotic beauty standards, Black people being deliberately culturally severed from ALL of our ancestors (African, Indigenous, European, & Asian) people fill in the blanks - BADLY

Now enter PanAfrican & adjacent lecturers & pundits like Francis C Welsing, Ivan van Sertima, Dick Gregory & yes L Farrakhan - who asserted African dominance in Oceanic travel/trade, ancient progressive societies, education, languages, even pre-Columbian contact in New World

We (Black folk) were suddenly being taught a brand new (& revolutionary) reality about OUR relationship to these lands.
- We were 1st and in some cases - We were the “real” indigenous peoples of America/s. This is Hotep History of the Americas & a WHOLE lot of us were taught this

Coming out of the Civil Rights Movement, the Nation of Islam was still demonstrating leadership in the inner-city with Black and Brown men. And I remember the “inclusive” message of NOI that Black/Brown/ Indigenous people - “we all the same, We all Black”

And I believed this. So many of us did. Since most of us coded Indigeous people as Mexican, they were absorbed as Brown people, and they Black too.vthat meant my “Indian-ness” was black. Everybody black and Pan-Africanism (the pan part) was about everybody.

I wouldn’t realize how Wrong & violent this is until my 30s.
Erasing OTHER PoC’s identities and cultural everything under 1 more or less uniform ID is assimilation. White supremacy does that.
Plus, it’s just wrong. Despite having the same oppressor- we ain’t the same. & it’s ok

Yes, Black Revolutionary praxis May be the teacher or template or inspiration of other Liberation movements of other POC - BUT it is not the same & it doesn’t have the right to absorb & erase or invisible other peoples fighting imperialism, too.

But this lesson is still in progress within my primary Identity group. Let me be honest, it’s barely off of the ground. Even telling fellow black people that We actively participate in Indigenous erasures might get you cut out of your community.

And that’s because for Many black folk, we don’t actually Realize that Indigenous Peoples of the Americas are STILL alive and that they NEVER ceded their lands. We don’t know m/any IRL, there’s no Contemporary media representation

In absence of REAL Indigenous people to represent THEMSELVES & CHECK US ALL...well it created space for the falsehood to grow.
We are the Indigeous people. For Indigenous peoples who may have had confrontations with BP who may have said something like this to them, I’m so sorry