From: GC.NBA@forsythe.stanford.edu (Lakota Jester)
Subject: Re: Degree of Blood?
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 00:23:30 GMT

In article <HBc2RB2w165w@midiline.la.ca.us>,
pattisan@midiline.la.ca.us (Patti Hayes) writes:
>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
>
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...well... you know what "they" say...

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