From: pattisan@midiline.la.ca.us (Patti Hayes)
Newsgroups: alt.native
Subject: Re: Degree of Blood?
Date: 2 Oct 92 21:02:52 GMT
Organization: MIDILine BBS - Altadena, CA - (818) 797-3285

beaver.cs.washington.edu!gnosys!selway.umt.edu!demeler (Borries Demeler/Biophysi writes:

> 
>       I would like to comment on David's contribution, because he said many
> things I believe are very important.


> 
>       In my experience it is exactly this misconception about the significanc
> (or better: the lack of significance) of "degree of blood" which causes racis
> attitudes. People like Mary Crow Dog and Peter Matthiessen fall victim to thi
> misconception, as does the government in its effort to separate Indians and
> non-Indians on the basis of their degree of blood. When my Indian friends cal
> themselves "proud Indians" I don't think they mean that they are proud of the
> amount of Indian blood they have, they are proud of their culture, language
> and history or whatever they have retained of it despite adverse
> circumstances.
> 
>       There is a long history of this misconception, with tragic consequences
> all along: The Nazis in the Third Reich killed people on the basis of their
> degree of jewish or gypsie blood, in America is is the discrimination of
> Blacks, Hispanics and Indians (or any degree thereof) etc. In reality, the
> upbringing, language, social environment, cultural ties, religion, education
> and political persuasion are the factors determining an individual's position
> in society. What credit could ever be derived from ones ever so accidental
> genetic makeup?
> 
>       Often, there is some sort of correlation between the "degree of blood"
> and the position, which by no means is the cause for the position an
> individual has in society. But that correlation is not the rule. For example,
> I know of a Sinti (gypsie) lady who was adopted by the Crow in Montana as a
> girl and she is every bit as Crow as her friends and relatives (not blood
> relatives - of course). I'm one quarter Sinti myself, grew up in Germany, wen
> to "white" schools and now live with Indians. My position is a clean mixture
> of all these cultures, and definitely not derived from my degree of blood
> of this or that ethnic group.
> 
>       Certain aspects of the social position, often the political persuasion
> and religion, are not understood or tolerated out of ignorance by other group
> of society, which then causes resentment, fear and racism. In my experience,
> people prefer to look for differences rather than for similarities (why?),
> prefer to borrow a cheap slogan rather than think for themselves (why?). I
> found all stereotypes about Indians, Hmong, Sinti etc. to be non-
> representative, untrue and misleading.
> 
>       Racism - just like reverse racism - is an ugly thing, and nobody should
> foster it, it is a useless concept, it has no merit whatsoever. Earlier this
> year, in "Science", I believe, there was an article in which a team o> molecular biologists compared the genetic makeup of all different peoples of
> this world. Their findings, in brief, were that the genetic variation among
> the many groups of people was too small to warrant classification into
> different "races". Sounds familiar? Indians (without any fancy genetic
> analysis) have been saying for a long time that we are all brothers and
> sisters. Well, I'm sure glad we have "scientific proof" now!
> 
>       Let me close by saying we should all look for common ground, common
> interests and try to understand inherent differences among us, rather than to
> emphasize them. There is a lot more to be learned from the uniqueness of an
> individual or a group than to be feared.
> 
> In good spirit,
> -Borries
> 
> *****************************************************************************
> 	Borries Demeler
> 	University of Montana
> 	Division of Biological Sciences
> 	Biophysics
> 	Missoula, Montana 59812
> 	(demeler@selway.umt.edu)
> *****************************************************************************
> 
> 
   HO!  I couldn't agree with you more!  If all blood is the same as we are 
told by the scientists except for the type...I see it as still another tool
used by "white eyes" to divide us.  
  I am multi-ethnic myself but this gov't choose to pick just one and label
me with that..I see no need to deny the "rest of me" so lately I have been
putting multi-ethnic on things...Sure get's people upset! 
   Bonne chance
Newsgroups: alt.native