Racism against 'The First People'

By Cody Perez

Why does blood determine how we are treated?

The lack of empathy and sight makes us feel so defeated.

One percent of the population and it makes a lot of us feel useless

while most of the schools still decide to be truth-less.

We are now known for our casinos, and no longer for our culture

and when we are in public, we are looked at as vultures.

Circling around just to pick up the scraps

of what we once had when we were still on the map.

Although we were broken, left with little to none,

we continue to raise our youth with the right to have fun.

They won't go through all their ancestors' pain and despair.

They will slowly change the world with the goal to make it fair.

The racism, the hate, and the stereotypical notions

can all be solved with persistent devotion.

It can't just be us, the country needs to be kind.

The citizens can no longer choose to be racially blind.

We are very small in numbers, but never in our spirit.

We are willing to educate any of those who are willing to hear it .

For those that think of Natives and it makes them want to scatter

we bleed the same red blood, and that's what really matters.

Don't base us solely on the contents of our skin.

If you take the extra second just to look within

you would see that we are normal, and that we are scared

because our families were LUCKY to be the few that were spared.

Historical trauma is with us each and every day

and the community doesn't help because we are ridiculed in every way.

We are slowly growing numb because outsiders have appalled us.

Remember, "merciless Indian Savages" is what our own government calls us.

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My project challenges the representation of Native Americans, or misrepresentation I should say. I am Native American, and it always bothers me when people view racism as white to black, black to white, white to brown, brown to white, and so on. Racism towards Natives has been going on since 1492, and some people act like they don’t want to acknowledge the truth. Native Americans are harmed by this, of course, because it excludes us from getting what we deserve, which is equality. Even the Declaration of Independence states that we are “merciless Indian Savages."

I hope whoever reads this can have an open mind no matter what their beliefs or their family’s beliefs are. I haven't lied about anything here, so if they react positively, then that is a huge upside, and if they react negatively, it might just be the unwillingness to accept the sad truth of history and even present day.

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Cody Perez is a second-year student at CSUSM, majoring in American Indian Studies.