Include the Invisible Americans in Race Debates

As most of us knew from the very beginning of this political season when a black man and a white woman entered the final leg of the presidential contest, gender and race would also enter the arena.

Since day one Sen. Hillary Clinton has taken her lumps for being a woman. Sen. Barack Obama started to get his lumps last week on the heels of the comments made by his pastor Jeremiah Wright. But in the case of Obama, the Republicans chose to attack him more for what they called his lack of patriotism rather than his race. Attacking him for his race would have been much too blatant and would have been seen as overt racism.

However, the comments by the Rev. Wright about America really steamed Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and the Glen Beck of talk radio. Of the attacks on the twin towers on September 11, 2001, Wright said it was the "Chickens coming home to roost." Instead of "God Bless America," Rev. Wright said it should be, "God Damn America." Now that is like waving the red flag of anti-patriotism in the faces of the conservative talks show hosts.

Their main despair was if Barack Obama sat in the pews of this church and heard these attacks upon America, which he admitted doing, why didn't he leave the church? Or, according to many white Americans, why didn't he cast the Rev. Wright out of his life?

The gender thing started early in Sen. Clinton's campaign. For instance, have you ever heard anyone on television or radio comment on the suit worn by Obama or about his hair style? There have been plenty of comments about the clothing worn by Sen. Clinton and about her hair styles. In fact when she wore a yellow pants suit it was called her "Bumble Bee" outfit by Ingrahams. Does this say something about bringing gender into the race?

Let's get back to the issue of race. Americans, black and white, seem to think that racial discrimination only involves African Americans. Even in his speech to dispel doubts about his connections to the Rev. Wright, Obama talked about Hispanics and Asian Americans, but he did not mention American Indians.

When it comes to race relations, Native Americans are the invisible people. Any Indian living in North or South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Arizona or even Washington, has felt the pain and the shame of racial prejudice. It has come in the school yard, in the search for decent housing, in restaurants and department stores. When I was publisher of Indian Country Today, the paper covered the story of an Indian man suspected of shoplifting at a department store in Rapid City and how he was wrestled to the floor and humiliated by the store's security only to find out that not only was he not shoplifting, he was also a minister in the Episcopal Church. By reporting this story my newspaper lost a very valuable advertiser. The local daily did not carry the story.

There are still many issues about race that arise nearly every week in the states I mentioned involving Indians and Whites. Several school districts in South Dakota have taken the issue to court and won. The ACLU has stood up for the rights of the Indian people across America because the state and federal courts have often been so lopsided in dealing justice to Native Americans. In many Western states there is a dual system of justice when it involves Indians.

But even in the face of bigotry and discrimination, Native Americans have continued to be among the most loyal and patriotic of any ethnic group. According to The American Legion Magazine, 181,000 Indians have served in America's wars. 21,947 American Indians and Alaska natives are now on active duty. 3,868 American Indians and Alaska natives are currently deployed in combat zones. 47 American Indians and Alaska natives have been killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan since the war on terror began.

For several days last year our local daily newspaper printed the names of individuals with outstanding arrest warrants. Starting with A and running to Z the daily list was tedious, but it was noted immediately by nearly every Native American reading that newspaper that the vast majority of the names listed each day were those of Native Americans. This brings up the question: Are all Native Americans prone to criminal acts or is there an awful lot of profiling going on here? Although Indians make up only 10 percent of South Dakota's population, nearly 33 percent incarcerated in the South Dakota State Prison are Native Americans.

I have no doubt that if either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton is elected president there will be a solid review of race relations in America. I only hope that they also include the long history of racial prejudice and discrimination against America's smallest minority, the American Indian.

Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, was born, raised and educated on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in the Class of 1991. He can be reached at [e-mail]

Comments

[digoweli]

I've already commented and because this thread is basically dead it doesn't make much sense to write more but I believe this is a very important point that TG is making. So this one is "for the record." People who reduce it to politics miss the uniqueness of the situation as well as the continuing disgrace for the American Nation. We should remember that no group in America has more Veterans, relative to the population size, than American Indians and that no group in America has more crime instituted against them by people from outside that group than does American Indians and finally that until 1978 it was against federal law for American Indians to pray in our traditional religions with traditional Native Priests being jailed for praying by the American Government until Jimmy Carter had the law revoked. Now that is real patriotism. We honor the fallen. TGs point is well taken and it is up to all other groups to make similar sacrifices before they speak against the first nation peoples of this country. Digoweli

[RayEvansHarrell]

In 1999 a study was published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the statistical branch

[RayEvansHarrell]

The study was published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the statistical branch

[RayEvansHarrell]

I found this in my records: Part I of II. REH

[ndolomar]

Dear God, when will the blogosphere and the msm wake up? The "Chickens coming home to roost" comment was a quoted statement originally made by Republican Ambassador Ed Peck -- who said those words on FOX News in 2001. Although the YouTube clip of the Rev. Wright so conveniently begins after he said what he was about to read was said by Peck (it also conveniently leaves out that he said after those words that he disagreed with them), the media and many anti-Obama bloggers refuse to publish this fact, and it's a sad testament to just how much Democrats and the media "care" about the public -- so much so that they deliberately perpetuate something to the chagrin of those of us who actually want to truth. The Internet has the power to make liars out of a lot of people on all sides, and I'd like to think none of the bloggers here at HuffPo would liken themselves to members of a lying majority.

[Bertrude]

He also left out Vikings from Greenland, which made me sick. He had my vote until his speech that left out Vikings. Give the guy a break.

[OverIt]

Please do your research! It is your responsibility if you are going to present a learned view. Obama said clearly that he WAS NOT there when those comments were said. He'd heard other controversial comments over the years but NOTHING to the extent of the comments with which we are now familiar and certainly not those comments themselves.

[GonzoBum]

Most people don't want to think about the American Indians becasue it would be admitting this country is not only founded on the ideals of slavery but of a stolen land covered in blood and that would be too depressing to contemplate genocide so frequently unless of course your referring to those facist nazis, so instead some people seek to demonize these brutally oppressed people to justify their fear of the Other.

[iswearington]

when the american indian and the hispanics stop turning their nose up at african americans...we three peoples will be the majority population in the united states. even though the aforementioned are treated better and have less to fear from african americans than whites...they like the waves of racist immigrants that have sought refuge in a nation built with the blood..sweat...tears...deaths..and free unrenumerated labor of african americans have always taken the easy road...and have help circulate the coin of the realm in america...racism against blacks.case in point...if the hispanics had not voted for hillary in texas...the race would be over and obama could be preparing to defeat mccrazy in november.i dare any native american or hispanic...or white person to prove to me...that they would be better off with hillary clinton who is owned body and soul by the special interest lobbyists and big corporations...whose interests are diametrically opposed to everyone elses.

[redbow40]

What an interesting comment. American Indians earn 50 % less on average and have a shorter life expectancy than African Americans, period. We have little or no real political power. Everything you enjoy in this country was once ours. To suggest our contribution to this country was sitting down, sipping ice tea while passively watching black people work is asinine. With your permission I would like to forward your comment to Rush Limbaugh to see if he can top it.

[digoweli]

A study was published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the statistical branch
of the Justice Department, using data gathered .... by the National
Crime Victimization Survey, which asks a sample of American households each
year about crimes they have experienced. The survey measures the violent
crimes of rape, robbery, aggravated assault and simple assault. To supplement
the survey, the justice department added data on homicides gathered by the FBI
from local police reports.

The victimization survey is considered a reliable measure of crime by
criminologists.

According to the survey, the average annual rate at which Indians were victims of
crimes -- 124 per 1,000 people, ages 12 or older -- is about two and a half times
the national average of 50 crimes per 1,000 people who are above the age of 12.
The average for whites was 49 per 1,000 people; for blacks, 61 per 1,000; and for
Asians, 29 per 1,000.

Separately, the report said that the murder rate by Indians in 1996 was 4 per
100,000, below the national average of 7.9 per 100,000, and less than the white
rate of 4.9 per 100,000.

Digoweli

From 1991 to 1996, the murder rate by Indians fell 20 percent, faster than the
overall national decline of 15 percent.