The American Paradox: Fair vs. Melanin
An assessment of the retrospective situational advantages on how ‘race’ continues to influence the course and trajectory of my life as a white Euro-American and the life of a Native American. An interview with Rev. Shii Tuii Chadbourne, Facilitator and Spiritual Elder for the Northern River Bear Community.
Since its founding days, the United States has been made out to be a white man’s ‘utopia.’ The Federal Naturalization Act of 1790, restricted US citizenship to free white persons, of good moral character, but excluded indentured servants, slaves, and People of Color (POC) in general. The American Dream, a white picket fence that comes covered in razor wire. We pledge allegiance to “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” With hands over hearts, we sing about the land of the free and the home of the brave. Except we are the cowards on stolen lands and the brave souls who were here first are the most impoverished now, and anything but free. In the words of sociology professor, Dwaine E. Plaza, “in a nation that is roughly 300 years old, democracy is a project and a work in progress.” With foundations rooted in white heteronormativity, genocide, expansionism, forced labor, and torture; the more modern-day default policies take the shape of violent wars, racism, incarceration, and discrimination of the poor. America, we still have a long ways to go before democracy will ever prevail.
Contemporary society is riddled with the emergent property of a system of race-linked disparities, a concept that member of the American Sociological Association, Barbara F. Reskin, refers to as über discrimination, “a meta-level phenomenon that shapes our culture, cognitions, and institutions, thereby distorting whether and how we perceive and make sense of racial disparities. To understand the persistence of racial disparities across multiple domains (i.e., residential location, schooling, employment, health, housing, credit, and justice) and to develop effective remedies, we must recognize that these domains are reciprocally related and comprise an integrated system” (Reskin). My interview with Indigenous Native American, Rev. Shii Tuii Chadbourne speaks to the lived relations of differences that characterize the complex and incomplete character of Native American social identity against the castigation of white supremacy. In this paper, I will assess retrospective situational advantages on how ‘race’ continues to influence the course and trajectory of my life and the life of a Native American.
Racial privilege is the notion that whites accrue advantage by virtue of being constructed as whites. This occurs through the valuation of white skin color, although this is not the only criterion of racial distinction. I believe that white children are manufactured through institutionalization, desensitization, and naturalization. There is a seemingly manipulated and explicit social process wherein neutral children get assimilated into the white race. The making of white children has to do with how adults behave towards you, and others around you, on the street, at the playground, and the books you read and the ads you see. The white race is reconstructed, millions and millions of times, in each person’s life, growing up in America. And a defining part of that construction is inevitably a denial that it is happening at all.
My name is Jessica Ann Thompson, a plain and simple name, nothing ‘off’ about it. I am twenty-one years of age. My Mother’s parents were immigrants from the Philippines and my Father’s family is as white as they come. For this genetic makeup leads me to appear racially ambiguous, I occupy a liminal space in society. Frequently asked the question, “What are you?” My race, a biological trait deemed by society to be socially significant, on the outside, my appearance is a fair-skinned, middle-class, able-bodied, individual, and even more apparent, I am a cis-gender female, my personal identity and gender correspond with my birth sex. All of these categories give me a sense of self and cultural identity but, only because society has taught me to think this way. Taught me to think that a person’s race, class, gender, and physical capability defines their worth and immediate practical applications, this ideology can be referred to as the matrix of oppression.
The house I grew up in is situated at the top of a large hill past a prominent grade school and a few rows of modernized housing with every sixth or so house being the same model. Orange County, California is known for being extremely posh and all about fame and fortune. Living in this social situation immediately surrounded me with assets that continue to stratify my position in society. Our family was welcomed into the neighborhood upon arrival. We quickly connected with friends and formed social circles that provided insider access to job opportunities, church, carpools, fine grocers, extracurricular programs, poolside BBQs, music lessons, etc. During my years of primary schooling, I subconsciously noticed people of different racial groups didn’t mix. The white kids hung out in the upper quad and the Hispanics hung out in the lower quad and that’s just the way it was. They propped pretty girls like me up on stage (literally I was a Thespian). This was the essence of sheltered Southern California living, it indoctrinated me to a veiled lifestyle, not akin to a diverse culture. Every part of my upbringing protected me from the harsh realities of social inequality.
My experience with skin-color privilege resonates with a similar experience to the author Peggy McIntosh. Unpacking the invisible knapsack that is white privilege, I can securely guarantee that dominated images in popular culture widely represent people of my race. I can freely disparage critical opinions without it “called a credit to my race” (McIntosh, 3). My appearance will not impose on my financial reliability. These mutually enforcing patterns and assumptions undoubtedly contribute to the making of social networks that disproportionately work in favor of my race and together form a systematical hierarchy.
As much as I try to be worldly, the fact of the matter is, I am a Filipino and white and I will never be anything different. As hard as I try I will never truly experience what it is like to be Indigenous, African, Muslim, Indian, and all the other ethnic heritages far and in-between. I’ll always be a white woman when walking down the street. Brown hair and green eyes, I’ll always have a ‘pretty girl privilege’ of everyday kindnesses and passes, most of which will go unnoticed. Very few describe themselves as racist, but all white people benefit from racism. I will benefit from this when I request a loan, buy a house, and apply for jobs. With values rooted firmly in ethnocentrism, the belief in the inherent superiority of one’s ethnic group or culture, the prevailing national heritage here in American deems the white racial frame and the nuclear family as superior.
Marcus Hansen’s contention of, the principle of third-generation interest, reminds me that I am destined to increase my ethnic interest and awareness because of the educational and vocational tools I have access to. Native American oppression in the United States is a broad topic with many sides of the argument being put forth by not only myself but other people who strive to keep alive, democratic equality, a prevalent topic in twenty-first century America. My interviewee for this project was Shii Tuii Chadbourne, Facilitator and Spiritual Elder for the Northern River Bear Community in Mendocino, California. She is an active member of The Mother Earth Delegation of United Indigenous Nations and Center for Sacred Studies. I came into contact with Shii Tuii after attending the virtual Facebook event, The Harmonic Convergence, where her words moved me to tears.
In 1957, Shii Tuii (63) was brought into this world, on the army base of Fort Huachuca, Arizona. She has one brother and one sister. Her husband is a Native American from Northern California, her tribe is from the East Coast, together they have a son, bringing together East and West coast tribal customs. She currently is a self-employed spiritual healer and community organizer. Like her parents before her, she never pursued education past high school. During her childhood upbringing, Shii Tuii’s Mother stayed at home, while her Father joined the Military because that is what Native men did back then (similar to the experience of my immigrant grandfather). She grew up in the lower-middle class and moved locations frequently because of her dad’s military service. She cannot recall specific instances in which she experienced any form of privilege. However, she has experienced exploitation, oftentimes by people she confused to be her friends. These moments were hardest for her but, Shii Tuii realized that there is a pan-Indigenous movement slowly emerging. Their revitalized ethnic identity is gaining a platform because people are waking up and turning towards Native groups for insights.
From an early age, Shii Tuii’s racial features proved to have a lasting impact on her life. Growing up, she was bullied in school because she ‘looked’ different. According to schoolmates, she had a large nose and a big forehead, they called her a troll. Her earliest recollection regarding race was wondering why most of the kids she went to school with thought she was so different. As a young girl, she wondered if something was wrong with her. Shii Tuii noted that she never brought any friends home because she was uncomfortable with the fact that the interior of her house looked different than all the other kids. Shii Tuii recalled that she only had one friend, she was Hispanic. She often thinks of her friend Carmen and what became of her because they kept each other going during difficult circumstances.
My interview with Rev. Chadbourne leads me to the realization that much of the Eurocentric masculinist worldview fosters Indigenous subordination. For her experience with racial discrimination is and was entirely adverse to mine. Shii Tuii has often felt that her rights as an Indigenous woman are continually challenged. They are denied the right to many of their ceremonies seeing as they were conducted prior to contact. Their Tarkalaya, snake dance, and several others are illegal if done following original instructions taught by their ancestors. They are denied the right to use their original sacred sights dependent on where they are located (i.e., private lands, BIA lands, Forest Service lands….State Parks require to obtain permits). “Private lands,” they rarely have access to many of the sacred sights located within them.
Material cultural capital is approaching record levels, yet disturbing social problems reflect a deep spiritual discord and poverty. Our neo-colonial era is far too indoctrinated against doing anything that won’t maximize shareholder profits. Shii Tuii is disheartened to see the rights of our Mother Earth being so mistreated and destroyed. If the land they obtain becomes important to the “powers that be”, such as mineral rights, water rights, even sacred burial grounds, it is taken and used for whatever purpose the government sees as profitable. Indigenous communities worldwide face disparities regarding environmental racism and relative deprivation. They are denied access to clean water, clean air, clean soil, etc. The corporate giants share in one common vision…GREED. And really, we are all losing our human rights.
Shii Tuii spends much of her time educating the public that non-natives and Natives alike are kin. Her concerns run deep for the entire planet. Her elders have always touched on the idea that: “We are of the Human Race, we bleed the same, we each hold a piece of the whole to take care of until we all finish this earth journey. We are not separate. We depend on the health of our Mother the Earth and nature…. It is not a commodity. We are not alone on this planet or this universe and we must stop being so arrogant. Our survival depends on it. This is the most important thing in this multicultural world.”
“Burdened by a linear, progressive conception of history…Westerners have told the history of Natives as an inevitable if the occasionally bittersweet triumph of Western Ways over “primitive” ways” (Andersen, Collins, 42). The difference in racial upbringing surrounding my life and Shii Tuii’s life highlight the strikingly contrast experiences lived by Native Americans as compared to white Euro-Americans. Shii Tuii faced cultural assimilation, described by Marger as, “the disintegration of Native cultures…the primary objective of dominant political and social institutions” (Marger, 190). Legislation like the General Allotment Act of 1887, aimed to divide Native tribes into individual sub-units. Thereby accelerating the process of assimilation, to deter their participation in the political system and now “Native American’s today remain at or near the bottom of society’s occupational, educational, and income hierarchies” (Marger, 191). This dominate-subordinate narrative and other forms of social prejudice faced by Shii Tuii certainly live up to the notion of anomie, a lack of social cohesion and solidarity that can engender a sense of hopelessness and deviance. In addition, Shii Tuii also experienced multiple accounts of stereotyping, marginalization, cultural imperialism, and exploitation. Our positions residing on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Today we are adept to the all too familiar nexus of categorical identity politics, as if by merely rehearsing the mantra of “race, class, gender, body” (and all the other intervening variables) we have somehow acknowledged the multiplicity of differences at work in contemporary culture, politics, and society. Yet, the complexity of what actually happens in-between the contingent spaces where each variable intersects with the others is something only now coming into view. Race is intersectional, a social construction, a social institution, subject to change, and implicates us all as agents of its survival. We all live in this fabricated ecosystem in which racial discrimination takes on discrete, procedural, and tactical forms that often invisibly channels America’s wealth, power, and status disproportionality to white people. Uncovering the matrix of oppression between myself and Shii Tuii sheds light on the true nature of the impacts of intersectionality that influence one’s nuance of cultural capital and opportunity structures.
Works Cited
Andersen, Margaret L., Collins, Patricia Hill (2007). Race, Class, and Gender: Anthology, (Six Edition). Ahfad Journal, vol. 27, no. 1, 2010, p. 42.
Marger, Martin (2015). Race and Ethnic Relations: American and Global Perspectives. California: Wadsworth Publishing Company. P.190–191
McIntosh, Peggy (1989). “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies (1988)
https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf
Reskin, Barbara. (2012). “The Race Discrimination System.” Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 38. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-soc-071811-145508
