I'm half way through Fred saskamouse biography. He was the first indigenous to play in the NHL and he survived a residential school.
Chapter three took me 3-4 tries before I could get through it. Him being raped by other kids at the school, blood dripping down his legs, walking with his brother frank through the wilderness to go home, they almost died trying to swim across the sask river in the freezing winter
So instead they walked down to the ferry crossing, and snuck over to the ferryman after a crossing for help. He fed them jam and bread and warmed them up in the shack. Maybe they found an ally... No the ferryman had a deal with father rousell and while they were warming up the priest was warned and came to get them. But no, he didn't drive them back. He made them walk all they way back and the last mile he made them take off their shoes and socks.
When I'm presented with "they should get over it", and "Fred played in the NHL even with all of this pain" Im starting to get furious about that. We celebrate Fred's accomplishment in order to shame the 99/100 that didn't play in the NHL.
Instead of using Fred as a cudgle we should be trying to help the 99 learn how to better live or parent, or supporting their journey to whatever success and happiness is available to us all.
When I loudly tell these things to my republican right leaning misogynistic rasist boss and don't get fired.... I today acknowledge that if I wasn't a white haired cis man I might eventually have been fired.
I acknowledge my privilege and I understand that my activism goes unpunished for more reasons then I am aware if.
mic drop.
ReplyDeleteIn my therapy I am learning about feeling and naming my emotions -- maily the ones that you might characterize as "negaitve" emotions. Mostly I don't like how uncomfortable they make me so for 40+ years I've been bottling and ignorming them as much as possible. One thing I am finding is that, of course, when I have these uncomfortable feelings, it is not must one feeling, but several smooshed together. Your post Richard has brought up a lot of emotions in me and I'm gonna try to name them. Thanks for helping me with my therapy work today.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, mic drop indeed. I love you.
ReplyDeleteI check my post for comments and for you information, when I saw that there were three comments I made an audible 'YES!'.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I need to buy this book but at the same time I also want to not buy this book. The former is better though, to feel the uncomfortable feelings, put a name to them like Mary said, and move forward with a richer life filled with diverse experiences and knowledge of others' experiences.
ReplyDelete