For context this is a part of a "Dialogue on Race " with Jim Lehrer hosting during the Clinton administration. The exchange is between President Clinton and Sherman Alexie, a Spokane Native and writer. The first comment is early in the show. Sherman Alexie's comment was near the end.
THE PRESIDENT (Clinton): Let me ask you something. I'd like to start, because I think this will help us to get to the race issue you talked about. Let's just talk about the Native American population.When I was running for President in 1992, I didn't know much about the American Indian condition, except that we had a significant but very small population of Indians in my home state, and that my grandmother was one-quarter Cherokee; that's all I knew. And I spent a lot of time going around to the reservations and to meet with leaders and to learn about the sort of nation-to-nation legal relationship that's supposed to exist between the U.S. government and the Native American tribes.
MR. LEHRER: How do you get people to talk about race?
MR. (Sherman)ALEXIE: Just walk into a room, I think. People are always talking about race. It's always coded language. They call it"class," or they use coded language. Nobody actually says, well, that's a black person, let's talk about being black, but it always ends up coming up. Usually what they'll do to me is come up and tell me they're Cherokee. (Laughter.) So that's usually what it amounts to.
Garrett, if you're going to be writing about "Yellowstone," you should watch the fifth episode of the second season of the Peacock sitcom "Rutherford Falls," which parodies that series: "Adirondack S3." It was cowritten by Jana Schmieding, a Lakota actor and writer. (It's also very funny!)
This captures so well the *yearning* that underlies so much of this phenomenon. You (appropriately!) don't excuse the behavior, but this is a really empathetic take.
I really appreciate the work you do in digging into all of the different ways white people try to claim our difference from other white people, and the ways that the most extreme examples of these phenomena connect to the smaller and more mundane examples.
Jan 11, 2023·edited Jan 11, 2023Liked by Garrett Bucks
Sigh. Thanks or taking the emotional energy to write about this so I don't have to. When I first heard about yet another and started seeing the reverberations in the community peripherally, I just felt like a deflated balloon.
I think it might have been in the Madison365 piece where it talks about Madison so badly wanting "diversity" without any of the *difference* that comes with diversity. Like: be diverse but act like a White progressive from Wisconsin, which was definitely a tough thing to navigate as a first-gen immigrant growing up there!
I also appreciate when these stories center the people most caused harm rather than the poser, which was refreshing in the 365 article.
For context this is a part of a "Dialogue on Race " with Jim Lehrer hosting during the Clinton administration. The exchange is between President Clinton and Sherman Alexie, a Spokane Native and writer. The first comment is early in the show. Sherman Alexie's comment was near the end.
THE PRESIDENT (Clinton): Let me ask you something. I'd like to start, because I think this will help us to get to the race issue you talked about. Let's just talk about the Native American population.When I was running for President in 1992, I didn't know much about the American Indian condition, except that we had a significant but very small population of Indians in my home state, and that my grandmother was one-quarter Cherokee; that's all I knew. And I spent a lot of time going around to the reservations and to meet with leaders and to learn about the sort of nation-to-nation legal relationship that's supposed to exist between the U.S. government and the Native American tribes.
MR. LEHRER: How do you get people to talk about race?
MR. (Sherman)ALEXIE: Just walk into a room, I think. People are always talking about race. It's always coded language. They call it"class," or they use coded language. Nobody actually says, well, that's a black person, let's talk about being black, but it always ends up coming up. Usually what they'll do to me is come up and tell me they're Cherokee. (Laughter.) So that's usually what it amounts to.
This was fucking incredible, thank you.
Signed,
A Mexican-American who lived in Madison and experienced there the most confusing and laughable forms of racism I’ve ever received
Garrett, if you're going to be writing about "Yellowstone," you should watch the fifth episode of the second season of the Peacock sitcom "Rutherford Falls," which parodies that series: "Adirondack S3." It was cowritten by Jana Schmieding, a Lakota actor and writer. (It's also very funny!)
This captures so well the *yearning* that underlies so much of this phenomenon. You (appropriately!) don't excuse the behavior, but this is a really empathetic take.
A particular recent Taylor Swift line is coming to mind very forcefully.
(I cannot bring myself to watch Yellowstone. But my father, who emigrated to Montana from the Soviet Union when he was almost 30, loves it.)
I really appreciate the work you do in digging into all of the different ways white people try to claim our difference from other white people, and the ways that the most extreme examples of these phenomena connect to the smaller and more mundane examples.
Sigh. Thanks or taking the emotional energy to write about this so I don't have to. When I first heard about yet another and started seeing the reverberations in the community peripherally, I just felt like a deflated balloon.
I think it might have been in the Madison365 piece where it talks about Madison so badly wanting "diversity" without any of the *difference* that comes with diversity. Like: be diverse but act like a White progressive from Wisconsin, which was definitely a tough thing to navigate as a first-gen immigrant growing up there!
I also appreciate when these stories center the people most caused harm rather than the poser, which was refreshing in the 365 article.