So, I brought up a few things about anti-Blackness and my upbringing. I wanna take this opportunity to give more background https://twitter.com/KimBrownLive/status/1332364259469242374

My grandparents were preachers, for a huge part of my life, I grew up in the road, traveling throughout the U.S. and Canada. For a time, we also lived in a predominantly Black community and my grandpa was a preacher at a church there.

But regardless of that proximity, it didn't keep anti-Blackness from being a part of my upbringing. We talk a lot now about how anti-Blackness is prevalent in NDN country and I can attest to that because I grew up in very anti-Black Native communities.

The attitude was basically the most shameful and worst thing that you could do was date ornmarry a Black person. Now, not everyone ascribed to this attitude but it was prevalent enough that those who didn't also didn't speak up against it.

And for the most didn't have to because there weren't Black people in our community. Growing up, I can remember only one Black family moving into town and they moved out pretty quickly, don't have to guess why.

Oddly enough, we also had some Black Native relatives who moved home and they were pretty young but I remember the older boys who were around my brother's age were in a lot of fights before being able to just be and there were folks who talked a lot of shit about their family.

You don't realize it at the time, it's prevalent you honestly don't even think about it but you know it's wrong and you can't put your finger on it when racism for the most part is taught only as outright acts of hate.

I share this a lot because what really sticks out to me now is that "racism is an insidious cultural disease" and none of us are immune to it.

For Natives, this is true because anti-Blackness manifests through our languages, the very words that we have for Black people, which is changing but also not because a lot of fixes aren't changing the actual words but just the definition.

It manifests through our very narrow and discriminatory ideas of Native identity and who is and isn't part of our communities and why.

It manifests through our lack of proximity, through apathy & ignorance and for a lot of us it continues until we are called out on it and forced to reflect, question, understand, make amends & start untangling ourselves from a lifetime of learned language, attitudes & behaviors

And people wonder why anti-Blackness is so prevalent among Natives, how did it take root? The same reason that anti-Nativeness is so prevalent. Anti-Blackness & Anti-Nativeness go hand in hand because at the root it is colonialism, it is capitalism, white supremacy & racism.

Native and Black folks have historically been pitted against another for survival, for resources and promises of liberation and sovereignty. Rifts purposely engineered to keep us from unifying.

It continues to this day but here's where it is backfiring because we now have social media and access to one another. We have folks being emboldened to speak up and call folks out and this is a good thing because I see change happening.

I see people being committed to making change happen. I see our youth leading that change and holding us older generations accountable. I have been anti-Black, I have been called out and is it embarrassing? Yes. Is it hard not to go on the defensive? Yes.

Do you understand right away? No. Do you change or know how to change right away? No. But what you can do right away is stop doing what you were called out for and listen to those who are taking the time to call you out. You don't have to understand it, defend it, etc. Just stop.

In my case, I was called out for co-opting BLM and contributing to the marginalization of Black pain and trauma through oppression olympics and at the time not understanding the power dynamics of visibility.

I'd like to say I took my own advice of just stopping but I didn't. I DOUBLED down and it took me months to really listen and start understanding what I was doing and how I was causing harm to both Native and Black movements and our efforts to build together.

I'm still unlearning Anti-Blackness, still learning how to recognize it and still learning how to be bold enough to call it out for what it is and still learning how we need to take responsibility.

And one of the ways that we can start holding ourselves responsible for our anti-Blackness is by supporting efforts of our Black Native relatives fighting for recognition and their rights.
You can help by signing this petition. https://www.change.org/p/debra-haaland-deb-haaland-stand-against-modern-day-jim-crow-in-indian-country

For Natives, especially those of us from the 5 "Civilized" tribes, we need to start demanding that our Nations honor and uphold the treaties. How we can say #HonortheTreaties if we ourselves are not honoring them and only not honoring them to harm our Black Native relatives.