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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]IMO, I don't think greatx2 NA should qualify. That makes you like 1/8?  At that point, you don't even look NA.[/quote]

My great-great-grandparents walked from Tennessee to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears, a forced march instigated by the US Government in which their property was seized and they were made into internal refugees, put in concentration camps, then forced to march a thousand miles, which led to the death of a third of the tribe. It was genocide. If I got a slight admissions advantage because of my native American ancestry (my family has documented our genealogy and registered as Cherokee with the tribe in Tahlequah), I'm not going to feel any guilt.

And you probably wouldn't think my ancestors "looked NA" either....the east coast tribes have intermarried with Europeans since the 1500s and many Cherokee have blue eyes and light skin. [/quote]

Thanks, but I already know about the Trail of Tears.  I remember it from my history class in school.  What the gov't did to NA as a whole is pretty horrid.  Actually, many European colonials did the same thing to the local aboriginals, ie Australia, Canada, etc.

Unfortunately, in our society, [b]how you are treated is based on the color of your skin[/b]. So, if you look European, then you would get treated differently, and your opportunities are far wider and better than if you looked 100% Native American.

1st and 2nd generation descendants of Japanese heritage that were interned don't get special treatment either, and yet the impact of what the gov't did to them is much more recent.  Same for descendants of slaves.

Now, if the person who is 1/32 still lives on the Reservation and is abjectly poor, like many who live there are, then yes, I would think you get some special treatment because you are poor.  But if you are middle class, living in the burbs, then no, I really don't think a person who is 1/32 NA should get any special treatment.  Same for a person who is 1/32 Black, middle/upper class.    [/quote]

That is the point I made earlier. My family is middle class now because my grandfather "passed" as white. We weren't able to inherit our culture because, in the US, it is live-on-a-reservation-in-poverty or...nothing, as there are no significant Native American groups outside of the reservations, while many other ethic and immigrant groups have been able to establish strong cultural groups all over the US. I was separated from my culture by government policies that deliberately destroyed it and a racist society that reinforced it. And now people tell me my ethnicity "doesn't count" because I didn't grow up on a reservation. [/quote]

If your grandfather passed as white, and you can, too, your NA culture is only a small part of you.  The majority of your culture is now what, european/american?  Today,  there is no discrimination against NA in terms of culture.  The gov't nor the public will discriminate against you because of your NA culture.  Please feel free to practice it.  My kids have learned about NA culture in school, as part of scouts and gone to the American Indian museum.  Trust me, people won't discriminate against you.

But, no, your 1/32 or whatever NA part of you doesn't really count in terms of discrimination anymore, and if you are now middle class, you really don't deserve special treatment.

BTW, my kids are biracial, upper/middle class.  They don't deserve any special treatment either.[/quote]

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