I really got mixed feeling after his talk and
I didn't feel he talked about racism and how it is in our lives especially for people who have lived it. How
it can affect people to be defenders of their own identities. I can say it changed me to be more defending of myself
and to look at my self worth. He smoothed over what racism is and mentioned it only very quickly at the beginning of
his talk. I asked him to please repeat the questions that were asked because there were alot of us sitting
in the back of the room and we couldn't hear them. Did he do it? No! I say no more.
What I really got out of this talk was 'white
privilege' and why it is and how it came to be. This is white people running everything and having the money to do it
and people looking up to them because of all of this. He justifies it by saying it was passed down from generation
to generation and it began to form at the beginning of our country when white men owned the slaves and owned the
lands (which belonged to Natives).
My evaluation of Mr. Allen is he thinks he can
say he experienced racism because he is white trailer trash but he has never lived my life and any life of any Native American
in this country. We are prejudged as being drunken stupid good for nothing Indians. We all live in Teepee's and
wear feathers in our long braided hair. Stereotyping of this kind is stupid knowledge. I hated to go shopping
because I knew a store clerk would follow my sisters and I all around. I hated to go to a restaurant because we wouldn't
get served or we would have to wait hours for service. Things like this could make anyone hateful of whites but I had
to raise above this and learn to accept myself and work with what I have right now. One of my sisters is still very
vengeful of people stepping on her toes and she will defend herself when necessary. Mr. Allen probably has put alot
of time into studying this subject but he needs to study what racism is about not just white privilege.
This is what racism recreates and it's takes a
long time to get over and through the feelings that have built up. I
am not going to use any of the information given by Mr. Allen because I want to hear both sides of the story. I want
to teach children to be proud of themselves. To never be afraid of what others think of them and to do good to
others. Don't let words stop you and learn to accept one another and be respectful of differences.
Cultures make differences and we can learn to be accepting of others because I want them to be accepting of me.
Some questions could include: How can we change the attitudes of our youth today toward minorites?
You talked about things being passed down from generation to generation how can this be stopped? An innocence little
child doesn't know anything about the world until they are taught, so the adult must change, but how?
