According to an article in the Washington Post, the Australian government is planning to make cash payments that actually amount to something (ca. $55,000 per person) to some of the native peoples who were/are mistreated by the dominant white culture. This idea has been discussed, with no action that I know of, in the US (“The case for reparations”, by Ta-Nehisi Coates), and there have been commissions set up by the Canadian government too; I think they took some action.
The reason this is significant is not because these payments are really a fair compensation at all, but because doing something that takes more than a token effort is a necessary step to heal the culture which did the damage. America is carrying the burden of two original sins: genocide and slavery, and both are historical sources of our material success and spiritual challenges. The “land acknowledgement” statements now being used are a good step, because knowing our history is important, but at the same time they are token, too easy.
(If you go to https://land.codeforanchorage.org and put in your zip code, or text 855-917-5263 with it, you can find out what your acknowledgement should say)
After World War 2, Germany paid reparations to the new state of Israel for its genocidal actions. But it seems some members of the Israeli government didn’t want to accept them because mere money is so token, or they wanted revenge instead, according to the Coates article linked above. But we can’t undo the past, nor hide it. Faulkner is often quoted — “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
(When I read Faulkner in college, I completely couldn’t understand his novels — maybe I’d have a better chance if I reread them now, time permitting)
This is a preachy post, but I wanted to say that I don’t think America is terrible or wonderful, it’s both (just like the current internet, actually) — we have to replace either/or with both/and and move forward from there, all together. I think we have a lot to learn from the indigenous cultures among us once we get through this. One little-known book I come back to on this topic is “Faith, physics, and psychology: rethinking society and the human spirit” by John Fitzgerald Medina.
One other link — an angry song from the sixties by Buffy Sainte Marie, “My country ‘Tis Of Thy People You’re Dying”.
Categories