angus
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« on: September 03, 2014, 09:53:46 AM » |
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haha. I know what inspired this. It's fun to poke fun at the expense of our favorite poster, and it's good that he has a self-effacing sense of humor and can take it, but seriously we are far too hung up on ethnicity. Who is what and who isn't. Tiger Woods catching grief from the "black community" for not claiming to be black. Obama catching grief from the brothers for being too white, and from the robber barons who run the country for being too black. Now Bushie catches grief for not being Native enough to call himself native. There's no point in arguing about this.
I was sitting in a bar with an Italian woman once, in Boston, about 20 years ago, when some local guys I knew came in and started in with the "You're Eye Talyan? I'm Eye Talyan too. My mutha's Eye Talyan. My fatha's Eye Talyan. We're all Eye Talyan." She then asked them something in Italian, and of course they just looked confused.
"So do you don't speak Italian?"
"Well, no. I mean, a few words, like dago and getouttahere and fuggadaboutit but not really. I'm 100 pacent Eye Talyan, though. All my family is."
"What is your favorite part of Italy?"
"Well, let's see, thez Rome. And, um, thez... Let's see. Where's that guy from that paints those pictures? You know, like the roofs of the chapels and stuff. Um, Ithaca, right? Yeah, Ithaca. I like Ithaca too."
"I think Ithaca is in Greece."
"Oh. Yeah, Rome's in Italy, right?"
"Yes, Rome is in Italy. Has been for a very long time. Have you been there?"
"Eh, well, I neva been to Italy. but I'm Eye Talyan. All my family's 100 pacent Eye Talyan."
... (Italian girl doesn't quite know what to say at this point so I change the subject... We later discuss this and I tell her that it is quite common for Americans to claim to be American and something else as well, and not to make distinctions between foreigners and themselves, when those foreigners are citizens of a land from which at least some of their ancestors hail.)
Anyway, we obsess over this stuff too much. Maybe that's the collateral damage naturally occurring in a nation of immigrants. The Cherokee and the Apache and the Potawatomee are descended from immigrants too. Long time ago their ancestors came from the steppes of central Asia chasing game, or grain stock, or escaping the harsh winters.
Bushie gets medical insurance in a legit way. There's no problem there. We talk all the time about how it's a "moral imperative" that we insure everyone, and there's no shortage of supporters here for the asinine, short-sighted PPACA. People ignore the fact that it redistributes wealth from the many to a few and exacerbates the problem of overpriced goods and services, precisely because it means fewer uninsured and "underinsured." You'd think that a forum that so worships the idea universal medical insurance, with a demonstrated willingness to support bad policy if that means getting to that goal, would applaud someone who manages to obtain medical insurance legitimately. The tribal council should be the ones to decide what fraction of amerindian ancestry constitutes the insurance eligibility. Not me. Not this forum. Not President Obama.
I have known several people who very proudly claim amerindian ancestry, even though they are several generations removed. I don't think they're doing anything unethical or silly. We don't make fun of people who claim to be descended of Thomas Jefferson or of the Spanish Royalty or of some famous general, even though only 1/32 of their ancestors was this famous person. We don't start polls about them. Such a poll really isn't justified here either, in my humble opinion.
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