Within Lakota Woman, by Mary Crow Dog, a Lakota woman speaks of her story about growing up in the 60s and 70s and shares the details of the difficulties she and many other Native Americans had to face throughout this time period. Although Native Americans encountered numerous challenges throughout the mid twentieth century, they were not the only ethnic group which was discriminated against; African Americans and other minority groups also had to endure similar calamities. In order to try to gain equality and eliminate the discrimination they faced, such groups differed with their inclusion or exclusion of violence.
The goals of the Native Americans in the 60s and 70s were similar to those of the other groups during that time. Gaining equality
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was a big goal shared by both the Native Americans and the African Americans. They wanted to, among other things, be able to freely live where they pleased, to get a job and not be discriminated against just because of their race, to not be sterilized against their will and to sit wherever they wished in a restaurant. “She went to the BIA hospital where the doctors told her she needed a cesarean. When she came to, the doctors informed her that they had taken her womb out. In their opinion, at that time, there were already too many little red bastards for the taxpayers to take care of” (Crow Dog, Mary 78-79). This quote exemplifies the discrimination which non-WASPs (White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants) faced at this time. Having life-altering surgery which prevents one from giving birth was just one example of choices taken away from not only the Native American’s but all minority groups at this time. Another goal shared by both Native Americans and African Americans was the desire to stop being discriminated against because of both their race and the fallacious rumors and beliefs of the white people about them. This goal falls under gaining equality but practically every goal can be related to these groups’ fight for equality. In order to gain such equality, Native American’s are the minority group who used violence the most in order to protest the discrimination they faced. The Native Americans felt that fighting back against those who discriminated against them in a physical form would raise the most attention and give a larger chance of success than a peaceful protest might. The strategies that the Native Americans used to accomplish their goals included stand-up protests and fighting. They would fight back against those who fought against them; they knew they would be blamed whether they fought back or not. For example, the quote “Wherever we saw a bar with a sign NO INDIANS ALLOWED, we sensitized the owners, sometimes quite forcefully” (Crow Dog, Mary 79) exemplifies just how physically abusive the Native Americans were willing to get, in order to get their beliefs across. “We pushed the police and guards out of the building. Some did not wait to be pushed but jumped out of the ground floor window like so many frogs” (Crow Dog, Mary 88) displays that this minority group was not only violent to the general public but also caused fights with law enforcement. They believed that if the law was not on their side and did not aid them in achieving equality, then they should not be required to follow the rules which were set in place by it. Further proof of the physical abuse Native Americans caused in order to fight back can be seen through the quote: “Some brothers piled up heavy typewriters on windowsills to hurl down on the police in case they tried to storm the building” (Crow Dog, Mary 89). Like the Native Americans, the African Americans also protested for their rights. However, unlike the Native Americans, the African Americans generally had a less violent approach. The protests that the African Americans participated in included lunchtime sit-ins and boycotts. Instead of fighting back, the participants would just fill in after another colleague was taken out of their seat by either the restaurant owner or the police, never backing down, but never physically fighting back either. This method may not have seemed as immediately effective as the methods of the Native Americans, but over-time it made a greater contribution to gaining equality than violence did, in my personal opinion. A second strategy both of these groups used was ‘power in numbers.’ The more of them that participated in the protests, the harder it would be for the law officials to diffuse it and shut them down. Though African Americans, as a minority group in general, were seen to use violence as a method of protest less than Native Americans did, there was a slight segregation within this ethnic population itself. This is because of the conflicting views of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Both men were and still are known as very prominent African American individuals who fought for what they stood for but in many different ways. King grew up in a middle class family and was well educated, which may be why he was always against violence and though he was often physically attacked himself, he never reacted with physical revenge. Malcolm X grew up in an underprivileged environment that was hostile and included little schooling opportunity, making one wonder if this is perhaps why he was more supportive of fighting back physically. His most famous line was “By any Means Necessary”. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. both wanted to gain equality for African Americans, yet they created a divide within the African American community. Those who supported King’s non-violent methods sided with him, while those who wanted to physically fight back would support Malcolm X. I believe King’s method to be most influential in the long-run; King is more well-known currently and Malcolm X eventually converted to nonviolent methods of protest after switching his religion. Though the majority of university students in the US during the sixties were white and fairly privileged, many of them protested for what they believed in.
Such students differ from the minority groups of Native Americans or African Americans in that they were not so much fighting because they were being discriminated against, but more because they wanted to change what was at that time “the norm.” The civil rights movement was created around this time, and many individuals were beginning to find a voice. African Americans and Native Americans were protesting in order to gain equality and their rights, as opposed to fighting for political reasons. Yet, some of the students at this time were beginning to change their views and believed that it was time for racial equality to exist. Primarily, students formed organizations and clubs, protesting peacefully on their campus and within the college towns to get their beliefs across to others. However, as it became apparent that peaceful protests did not have a big enough impact, as a result of the Vietnam war, the most extreme activists argued that only violent protests would lead to real social change. The Weathermen, a revolutionary group which formed in 1969, proposed an armed struggle to overthrow the U.S. government. This group of radicalists were responsible for a number of bombings during the late 1960s and 1970s. Though the majority of students in America during the sixties and seventies did not face the same racial …show more content…
segregation or discrimination that minority groups such as Native Americans and African Americans did, they eventually protested in a violent manner which can be seen as of a similar style to the Native Americans and some African Americans. Within Lakota Woman, the Native Americans were worried about the violence their people faced due to their race. For example, If a white man wanted a fight, he could go up to a Native American and throw punches; even the police officials would join in on the action. The “South dakota police are notoriously trigger-happy when dealing with indians, especially AIM people” (Crow Dog, Mary 71). The law officials would kill without remorse, making Native Americans feel unsafe even around law enforcement. “They are killing our people, they are butchering them! It was only two miles or so from where Grandfather Fool Bull stood that almost 300 Sioux men, women, and children were slaughtered. later grandpa saw the bodies of the slain, all frozen in ghostly attitudes, thrown into a ditch like dogs” (Crow Dog, Mary 7). Lakota Woman speaks of personal occurrences which took place and showed the physical abuse which Native Americans were subject to from both the general public and the police. No matter what the circumstance, the situation which arose always seemed to be the fault of the Native American, when it was between a white individual and a Native American. This concern was also present in African American communities and both groups were discriminated against while being placed into racial stereotypes. A person of colour could be beaten for even looking at a white woman too long - even if the person of color had no intention of doing anything to the woman. Because of the violence which these minority groups were subject to, it is understandable to see why some of these groups wanted to stand up for themselves through using acts of violence and protesting in a physical manner. They themselves were being physically abused, so why shouldn’t they be allowed to fight back in a similar manner to how they were discriminated against? The Native Americans sacrificed many things to achieve their goals. They sacrificed, in many cases, their lives. This was also true for the African Americans during this time. Racism and segregation played a big part in the daily lives of these two groups. “There is always the danger for us that one little incident will set off a major confrontation” (Crow Dog, Mary 72). There were many cases of Native Americans and African Americans being killed because of their race, and they were beaten everyday for no reason. Another thing the Native Americans and the African Americans sacrificed was being beaten, and their overall safety in general just to fight for their rights. Though we like to think that today all ethnic groups have reached equality and discrimination no longer exists, there are still many places and groups in society who still face racial segregation.
African American’s still are thought to be discriminated against by law enforcement, according to recent scenarios which have occurred. For example, Eric Garner was seen to have been physically abused by police and many of the public believe this is because he was African American. Though racism is less common today, it is still relevant and apparent in society. Violence is still used by both individuals and law enforcement, as well as as a form of protest in some circumstances. Though there is still some violent-protests present today, for humanitarian reasons this form of protesting has become less common throughout all of the ethnic
groups. Ultimately, every group in the 60s and 70s had to endure many hardships to conquer the struggle for their rights. A plethora of sacrifices were made by many people and there were many strategies used in the fight for their rights.
Native Americans have been fighting till this day for freedom. Millions of Native Americans have lost their lives fighting for freedoms and their lands. So far, not much have been done to the Native Americans and they have not achieved everything they had hoped for. Most Native Americans are still living on reservations and government are doing little to help them. A book titled “Lakota Women” by Mary Crow Dog takes us into the lives of the Native Americans, her childhood, adulthood, and her experiences of being an Indian woman.
In the words of Ross, her focus and goal for writing this book was to write “…about the racialized and gendered experiences of incarceration, with a focus on Native American women and the loss of sovereignty as it is implicitly tied to Native criminality…” because there was little information on this subject. This means that Ross studied wo...
Lives for Native Americans on reservations have never quite been easy. There are many struggles that most outsiders are completely oblivious about. In her book The Roundhouse, Louise Erdrich brings those problems to light. She gives her readers a feel of what it is like to be Native American by illustrating the struggles through the life of Joe, a 13-year-old Native American boy living on a North Dakota reservation. This book explores an avenue of advocacy against social injustices. The most observable plight Joe suffers is figuring out how to deal with the injustice acted against his mother, which has caused strife within his entire family and within himself.
During the American Indian Movement, many Native Americans tribes came together as a unit and fought against the injustices that were thrust upon them by American governmental polices. The fact that many Native people were ?whitemanized? through Christianity and other things that such as boarding school played a role in shaping Native peoples identity. However, the involvement in the American Indian Movement shaped the identity of Mary Crow Dog by making her accept who she was ?an Indian woman, and by making her more willing to fight for the rights of Native Americans.
Lakota Woman Essay In Lakota Woman, Mary Crow Dog argues that in the 1970’s, the American Indian Movement used protests and militancy to improve their visibility in mainstream Anglo American society in an effort to secure sovereignty for all "full blood" American Indians in spite of generational gender, power, and financial conflicts on the reservations. When reading this book, one can see that this is indeed the case. The struggles these people underwent in their daily lives on the reservation eventually became too much, and the American Indian Movement was born. AIM, as we will see through several examples, made their case known to the people of the United States, and militancy ultimately became necessary in order to do so.
Mary Crow Dog uses her own experiences growing up as an Indian woman to beautifully explain the roles woman played, and how Indians tried to maintain tradition against assimilation. Mary Crow Dogs Lakota Woman is an autobiography of her life explaining how she, as a mixed Sioux Indian woman, grew up facing the harshness of boarding schools, absentee fathers, the second Wounded Knee, and the assimilation of Indians. Her autobiography is centered around the 1960s and 1970s, where she talks about reservation life, following the American Indian Movement, and the struggles that Sioux women had during that time frame. As an Indian woman, Mary Crow Dog explained the certain roles they were expected to maintain, and the roles they actually maintained.
These stories have a continued overlapping influence in American Fiction and have remained a part of the American imagination; causing Americans to not trust Native Americans and treat them as they were not human just like African Americans. In conclusion to all these articles, Mary Rowlandson and John Smith set the perception for Native Americans due to their Captivity Narratives.
Police brutality has been an apparent mark on the struggles, trials, and tribulations of people of minorities for years, primarily Black people. From the times of slavery to the present unlawful targeting and murders of black citizens with no justification, police brutality has been an enema in Black American culture for hundreds of years. Seen both in James Baldwin’s “Going to Meet the Man” and in the current happenings of the United States. The hashtag “#BlackLivesMatter” has been a focal point in the current struggle for equality of the races. The current outpouring of support for black lives and
In the early 1990’s in Los Angeles, California, police brutally was considered a norm in African Americans neighborhoods. News coverage ignores the facts of how African ...
Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Since there is a mass incarceration of African Americans, it is believed that African Americans are the cause of the severe increase of crimes. This belief has been sent out implicitly by the ruling class through the media. The media send out coded messages that are framed in abstract neutral language that play on white resentment that targets minorities. Disproportionate arrest is the result of racial disparities in the criminal justice system rather than disproportion in offenders. The disparities in the sentencing procedure are ascribed to racial discrimination. Because police officers are also biased, people of color are more likely to be investigated than whites. Police officers practice racial profiling to arrest African Americans under situations when they would not arrest white suspects, and they are more likely to stop African Americans and see them as suspicious (Alexander 150-176). In the “Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in Public Places,” Michelle Fine and her comrades were inspired to conduct a survey over one of the major social issues - how authority figures use a person’s racial identity as a key factor in determining how to enforce laws and how the surveillance is problematic in public space. Fine believes it is critical to draw attention to the reality in why African Americans are being arrested at a much higher rate. This article reflects the ongoing racial issue by focusing on the injustice in treatment by police officers and the youth of color who are victims. This article is successful in being persuasive about the ongoing racial iss...
In 2014, the death of Eric Garner in New York City raised controversial conversations and highlighted the issues of race, crime, and policing in neighborhoods that tend to be poor and racially isolated. Garner, an unarmed black man, was killed after being tackled and held in a “chokehold.” According to the AP Polls in December 2014, “Police killings of unarmed blacks were the most important news stories of 2014.” The problem is that young black men are targeted by police officers in which they have responded with the misuse of force and policy brutality. It is evident that this issue affects many people nationwide. The civilians do not trust the police department and the justice system because they hold the perceptions that police officers are immune from prosecution despite their actions. In particular, black individuals, specifically black males, do not feel safe in the presence of police officers because they are not held accountable for their mistakes.
All men are created equal (Declaration of Independence). Yet, the Native Americans continue their fight for decades since colonization. There is a constant struggle to urge for equality from William Apess in his 1833 essay, An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man. In modern day, the fight continues after his lifetime. Equality and freedom is the goal for most Native Americans. Although securing the rights of the Native Americans are progressing, it is slow. Therefore, the inequality continues at a faster pace, as opposed to major changes that would impact the Native Americans positively. Throughout history, they are exploited for their land and natural resources and severely underfunded. As a matter of fact, the common theme seems to be that the Native Americans are continuously suppressed by the “superior race”, which showcases the prevalent thoughts in America. William Apess and
Officers are trained and taught different polices that require them not to be biased towards any gender or race. Such officers include Sunil Dutta, if you don’t want to get shot, tasted pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you.” (Dutta) uses policies to their advantage. Lack of African-American officers, mainly in communities with citizens of color, can lead to an inquiry that there is a bias in law enforcement agencies and their policies. With recent events in the news displaying the misconduct of officers in an African-American communities like, in July of 2014, where the death of Eric Garner because of “chokehold” by a police officer hit home for many African-Americans and made them question the legislative decisions on policies causing a distrust and lack of confidence within the police departments, shying away citizens from
Discrimination was a tremendous concern in the nineteenth century, as slavery was still in place, and Native Americans were being moved across the country. Mark Twain’s book, Adventures of Huckleberry Film, consisted of a main character who faced discrimination due to the fact that he was a black slave. Not only was discrimination against Blacks prominent, so was discrimination towards Native Americans as depicted in Kevin Costner’s film Dances With Wolves. It is important to look at the experiences of the people within these examples to grasp a better understanding of discrimination in the nineteenth century. Minorities were thought of as inferior to white people, but experience with these people changed the way they were viewed, which led to Whites believing that minorities were just as equal.
Protests around the world have taken place to fight for justice in the black community. The immense number of deaths of unarmed black men and women is a clear sign that they are more likely to be killed by police than white people. Physical violence and excessive use of force by the U.S. police towards African Americans are seen in the news regularly. “People, including police officers, hold strong implicit associations between blacks, and probably Hispanics, and weapons, crime and aggression," said Jack Glaser. Police brutality statistics show that African Americans are three times more likely to be murdered by cops than any other race. Racial disparity in the United States is a coherent reason for the increase of criminal injustice in the United