by Kerry Thomas
December 25, 2007
It saddened me to read the racist
letter from the Lac du Flambeau students in the December 21 edition of the
Lakeland Times newspaper. I use the
term ‘racist” because that’s what it was, racist, classicly defined as a belief that people of different races have different qualities and
abilities.
The Lac du Flambeau
students were writing in response to a December 7, 2007 Lakeland Times
editorial by Richard Moore titled “LUHS
Study Describes 'Toxic' Culture Toward American Indians.” In a
subsequent letter to the editor, one Lakeland Union High School teacher, Shawn
Umland, even went so far as to blame herself, the entire school district, the
community at large, and the reades of her letter for fostering racism toward
the Lac du Flambeau students.
Shawn, you couldn’t be
more wrong.
Being students,
I don’t believe the students who signed the letter realize just how racist their
views are. It’s what they’ve been
taught to believe, by other racists, by others who believe that people of
different races have different qualities and abilities, by people who still
judge others based on their ancestry.
Throughout that letter, the students used terms such as tribal
sovereignty, and “cultural diversity and pluralistic nature of American
society.”
But the term that broke the straw for me is “Native American.”
I am a native American, born and raised. When the government asks me for my ethnicity, I say “American.”
I have no problem when a school district chooses to teach the
history and culture of any People, as a means of helping students to identify
and understand differences between people in their community. But, why do we mandate the teaching of
Tribal culture here, but we don’t mandate the teaching of, say, Hmong
culture? Why not German culture? Why not Polish culture? Why not Mexican culture?
America is a diaspora of cultures, creeds, heritages and
ethnicities. But there is a distinct
American culture, an American heritage, an American history, and an American
language. We are all united, as
Americans.
I have one additional thought to share here:
“We should
insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American
and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with
everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man
because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.”
“But this is
predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing
but an American.”
“There can be no
divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else
also, isn't an American at all.”
“We have room
for but one flag, the American flag. We
have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. And we have room for but one sole loyalty
and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
Those words were
written in 1907 by President Theodore Roosevelt.
God bless
America.
[see also follow-up
letter of support]