Updated April 21, 2014 with screen captures and extra commentary to combat some spurious claims.
Rumors had been flying around Indian Country that Dan Snyder, Washington Redsk*ns owner, was on a "poverty-porn tour". I feel he had avoided over 500 tribes that wanted to talk with him in favor of 20-some Tribal Nations among who are some of the poorest or might be sympathic to his mascot. Even they aren't backing him in any real way and just a rare few individuals made statements of support. Could his secret talks only been a ploy to cross off Tribal Nations that have a strong stance against the Washington Team mascot? Everyone I spoke with around me emphatically shouted, "Yes". So we weren't surprised into shock by his "OAF" or the shill foundation that he sat up called "Washington Redskin's Original Americans Foundation." The level of outraged rumbling I heard ranged from deep sadness to very profane. My own outrage that had been lurking came to the forefront. As we, some of EONM's most active members and spokesperson Jackie Keeler, were talking in our seemingly endless strategy sessions our conversation led up to the #Not4Sale campaign that was in the Washington Post. The campaign was also in AJ Stream and in Indian Country news outlets. Finally, I thought the nation was waking up to the outrage I felt as a mom and a human. That was gratifying in itself because most of us got little to no sleep that night and on into the following evening.
The profound sense of validation that floated on me only grew as more and more articles and social media users mocked Dan Snyder for a change! I hoped by the time the weekend was over there would be so much pressure that we could see movements from the NFL to end Snyder's reign of Native American ignorance. I didn't want, and don't want, Snyder to feel as if he caved in when he changes the mascot. I am not playing a game with him so I can prance around in joyous victory. I would probably collapse in grateful tears and hug him. Send him all the best wishes I could. I would go buy some merchandise with the new mascot on it and let my children watch football on TV.
Amongst ourselves we were busy being out there and contacting people. We kept sharing more exciting developements like the feedback we got from fellow members, other Natives, and prominent leaders. Also, deciding how to capitalize in the momentum and build an even stronger allied community. We wanted more. We launched #Potatoes4Dan that had been suggest to us.
Then suddenly, like a tornado, Suey Park's tweet calling to cancel Colbert Report came through and pushed all of our efforts into a storm shelter.
I should make clear that I've never really communicated with Suey Park, but I know Jackie Keeler had communicated with her. We would always ask her things like, "does Suey know about this Twitterstorm? Do you think she could give a few tweets for us?" At the beginning of EONM, Jackie had approached her since the hashtag we had agreed to go with for our first big twitter event was #NotYourMascot.
Suey Park had agreed to help with some twitter promotion and suggested we not use it until the time she suggested. We agreed with her as a group. Something Jackie later wrote about in DailyKos breakdown where she credits so many of the contributions made to #NotYourMascot (including Suey Park, Danielle Miller, and Toby V.)
Unfortunately, Danielle Miller did use it after we let her know what we were planning through an email chain Jackie started. We had invited Danielle several times to join us on Facebook, but she never responded to the Facebook requests. Later, she would claim she started the hashtag and bemoan what little credit she got in a #NotYourTonto article.
When that happened, it saddened us all. We tried to ignore it. We even reached out to her to help subdue her emotional feelings. No one wanted to expose who the members of our closed group were in order to refute the bashing on twitter. Additionally, we thought attacking other activist is not what we are about. We were about attacking Native Mascotry. However, as more time passed Jackie started to get death threats. We addressed the confusion and moved on. Sadly, it was not without some delusioned twitter users being convinced that we somehow only wanted to build reputations and get in the news by acting like prima donnas. It was total hogwash.
The reason this plays in what happened in the aftermath of #CancelColbert is that it was those same people, and I believe Suey Park herself either believing them or encouraging them, that would come back at us with a catastrophic effect to Native Americans.
During #CancelColbert several EONM members/supporters noticed several of us tweeting under the hashtag. So they jumped in thinking this was about Native Mascotry. I myself thought that Colbert had actually done something to support Dan Snyder. I hadn't seen the skit. I stopped early on believing that I needed to get back to addressing the very real problems with Snyder's organization. Also, after I watched the skit and became aware that many,many Native Americans were feeling betrayed. After those events, EONM released two brief tweets stating that we would be supportive, but keeping our focus on #Not4Sale.
"Why is she sidelining what happened to us? Did she know about #Not4Sale? Is she dumb? I thought she was a friend, but this isn't supportive? Does she work for Snyder now? This is childish, if twitter users want to address satirical organization over a real racist organization what has the world come to." are just some of the things I heard and got direct messaged about. This was followed by so many stunned that Suey Park was on Native Trailblazers instead of not one of all the Native Americans angered by "OAF"! Jaw-dropping was a pretty common theme. Was that how far Native Rights activists had been eclipsed, that they weren't even on a Native show?
A tweet Jackie Keeler had made was featured in a Wall Street Journal article by Jeff Yang. It was not making light of Suey Park's actions. Her tweet was only expressing the disparity and proportionality of the response to #CancelColbert vs "OAF" and other Native American rights hashtags. Suey Park attacked the criticism a fair and balanced take on what happened. She called for Jeff Yang to be fired.
After that, it wasn't long before Sueyites, as I call them, came after Jackie Keeler and EONM. The predominant twitter users being the same ones that were previously delusioned were now accompanied by a mob. They attacked me as well. One even suggested I didn't care about rape or murder threats. Immediately, we were being told what we should've been doing, supporting Suey "obviously" and how we should've been doing it. I felt censored as a Native American about how I should be an activist on twitter. Meanwhile, Jackie was actually being censored by Sueyites. Every time Jackie reached out for support, another user attacked her personally in every twitter thread. I had enough and tweeted my feelings under #SueyCensored. When, I encouraged other members to join me. They balked. They didn't want us to feed into the childish behavior. I felt it would only get worse for Jackie, as it had in the times before. Instead, it got worse for Native Americans as a whole. Because, one of the brightest and best people in the world, that could be brave enough to lead such an awesome new way for Native Americans to be a force in social media has stepped away from EONM. She didn't want to be a lightening rod. I left the leadership level, for the time being, so I can defend both Jackie Keeler and EONM. Because, this is not what they are about. They are not about addressing the reactionary and childish tactics that Suey Park has not put much thought into, by her own admissions. They are about weeks of 24/7 social media presence on well thought out events that support what Native Americans have been fighting for.
I refuse to let this go unheard. Because, it is wrong. It is a deliberate attempt to dismantle a Native American rights group and throw mud on innocent and great people who I admire very much. #EONM4ever!
It has come to light recently that known Native-racist Michelle Malkin boosted #CancelColbert with undisputed support of Suey Park-until just a few hours ago!
Malkin supporting controversial Anti-Native Washington team star!
I have to wonder since Malkin has come to the media aide of Dan Snyder in the past-was she deliberatly side-lining EONM by supporting outrage over a faux racist foundation?
Is Dan Snyder the man behind the #CancelColbertCurtain since #CancelColbert 's greatest achievement thus far has been damage done to Native Americans!
Actually, I gave my email to Jaqueline Keeler-as did all the other people in that email thread. All of them refute this claim by Danielle Miller. Please do not attack Ms. Miller. I seek only to stop false criticism of both EONM & Jaqueline Keeler.
Excellent writing and clarity of thought. As a Serbian immigrant, I was not too familiar with the current struggles of the Native community. Thank you for bringing light to this issue. It's truly awful that Suey Park's attention grab attempt and the overwhelmingly racist and disproportionate assault from her detractors has diverted attention from the real issue.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to believe that in 2014 in the "land of the free" the original peoples of the Americas are still treated as 3rd class citizens and their issues neglected.
All the best,
Dejan
All I can really say is, I am about as white as it gets; how can I help? I want to actually help, not in the "Aid Africa" force-myself-on-you sort of help, but real assistance. Surely there is something, even if it's just continuing to pay attention or spreading the word. I just definitely need some direction and don't have any local Native communities.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to let you know that even though no one really reads my stuff I have posted the following comment to Racialicious regards their piece titled "On Cancel Colbert And The Limits of Liberal Pass. http://bit.ly/1gy3Kxx
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Park's actions she is not being called out for the damage she created to the original cause of EONM movement. She was not collaborating with the members of EONM the group she originally was asked to help out and never reached out to them to ask for their feedback after her initial tweet. Instead she made the tweet about Asian culture and not Native Americans. She never asked her followers to curtail their nefarious rhetoric either. There was shit being thrown on both sides and your pieces fails to point that out. Suey Park has more privilege and agency than the people she was asked to help (that's why she was asked in the first place) and decided to use her power to divide people and show just how asinine and narcissistic one is willing to be in both defending and criticizing lazy thinking.
May I suggest a new hash tag. #CancelDanSnyder . A great damage was indeed made to the Native cause. Suey Park will probably blame Colbert for that damage. I hope she can see her contribution to that damage, too. In her desire of taking the opportunity to protect Asian-Americans, she neglected to protect Native-Americans. Her desire is noble, but the timing and occasion was sadly and definitely neglectful of Native-Americans on whose behalf she had been advocating. It seems like she wanted to have a nihilistic and undisciplined emotional revolution. She does not seem to be interested in a strategic and progressive struggle. She is only 23 and we hope she can see her errors and be wise and strategic and tactical in achieving goals instead of just having a cathartic emotional vent (which she is entitled to). I believe a disciplined struggle is what will help all people of color in the end.
ReplyDeleteAlthough she seemed to be protecting Asian-Americans from a fake satirical organization in this instance, I really do hope that her larger message on behalf of Asian-Americans has seeped into people's minds. Otherwise, it would all have been for nothing. I will still be happy to have a win on Asian-Americans issues and come back to fight the native issues since she has made that choice.
As an Indian from Canada, I am still wondering what the whole fiasco is about. What is there to be upset about regarding the Washington Redskins? Sure, Redskin was used as a racially motivated way to identify Indians, but that was well over a hundred years ago.
ReplyDelete1. Redskins in this instance has been associated with a longstanding American Football franchise. Infact, the football franchise itself has been the number one motivator for people getting over the perceived racism associated with such a name. A similar situation occured as well, but for the opposite reasons: Nazism perverted the Swastika (Or Manji Symbol) from its original meanings. Now anybody who see's a Swastika is reminded of Hitler, 3rd Reich, etc etc... and not what it was originally meant for.
For the majority of people out there, do you honestly think of all the negative history, racism and tragic past associated with the term Redskin or do you just think of the Washington Redskins, American Football franchise? We as a culture, and a people, have the amazing ability to transform language and their words and meanings into something completely different amongst generational lines. This is what separates hippies and hipsters, and so on and so forth. What I am getting at (in my typical long winded, asinine fashion), is that the term "Redskin" lost its racist under/overtones with the continued presence of the Washington Redskins Football team. A vast majority of people associate it with football, not racism. So why do a select few people refuse to let go?
2. Read up on the Washington Redskins on wikipedia unearths this nugget of gold "The trademark was registered in 1967. American Indians successfully convinced the court to reconsider, based on one of the plaintiffs, Mateo Romero, being only one year old in 1967 and turning 18 in 1984." ... The first initial lawsuit was filed in 1992. What were they doing for those 25 years inbetween?
3. Wikipedia again.. "Supporters also refer to a public opinion poll published in 2004 in which 90 percent of those that identified themselves as American Indians answered that they were "not bothered" by the name "Redskins" being used for the Washington football team."
Ok, so lets look at some population.. Wikipedia states there is roughly 5 million American Indians in America. 90% said they did not find it offensive. So that leaves us with... half a million people being offended by a name they would rather associate with racism than moving on as sensible people and letting bygones be bygones. Another perspective would be half a million people wanting to dictate the meaning of a word to over 300 million people who more often the not associate it with football rather than racism.
Well, great, while all of the internets is getting their knickers in a twist over whether to support such grassroots movements to eliminate such offensive, uh.. mascotry, for our fellow Indians south of the boarder.. I myself am wondering when the internets and fellow Indians in America will turn their lazy eyes northward and look at some real issues that are still being wrestled with my our fellow Indians. Rampant sexual abuse, drug abuse and alcoholism on reservations, all perpetuated under the guise of Indian Affairs, the majority of whom seems to keep getting richer and richer while the actual Indians living on reserves are still in destitute and abject poverty. But keep bashing them offensive mascotry! You do, uh,... someone proud!
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