Ariana’s Reviews > Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism > Status Update

“What we do know from figures published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that Native people are killed by police at a rate higher than any other racial or ethnic group in the country.”

“Black students are almost four times as likely to receive out-of-school suspensions as their White peers.”

“Part of the gospel of intellectual inferiority is the assumption that only White people's knowledge is worth knowing-indeed, that only White people's knowledge counts as knowledge at all.”

In reports of educational statistics, it's common to see an asterisk in lieu of results for Native students-which means
"not enough data." "The absence of data on Native American students reinforces our invisibility, where our presence is hidden by the ever-present 'asterisk, and further marginalizes Native people," write the editors of the book Beyond the Asterisk.

For these local leaders, an individual having "gifts" was deemed notable only insofar as they used those gifts to serve others—a contrast to the popular Western notion of genius as highly individualized, even to the point where being abusive or cruel to others is an unavoidable part of the package.

A brief recap:

-the SAT test literally comes from eugenics testing!

-one of the many arguments for eugenics was “if they didn’t control the Black population they would have a nuclear war??”

-people pay $64,000 for their kids to go to school. to get in? racists tests!

-an asterisk in studies signify there wasn’t enough native people for “significant findings” aka the erasure of indigenous peoples

“Offering cash awards to pastors delivering the best eugenics-themed sermon”

White supremacy 🤝 religion always and forever

“In 1994, a researcher at the Santa Fe Indian School conducted a study exploring the ways that tribal members in the surrounding Ke-resan Pueblo community defined what it meant to be "gifted." For these local leaders, an individual having "gifts" was deemed notable only insofar as they used those gifts to serve others—a contrast to the popular Western notion of genius as highly individualized,”

“Speedy entrance into the pale of American civilization, or absolute extinction”.

“We do not believe it’s possible, from the past history and present aspect of affairs, for our people to live in this country peaceably, and to educate and elevate their children to that degree which they desire.”

Has the attempt to assimilate - the attempt to build lives in a country founded off black and native pain & suffering ever going to be just? Or was it always doomed?