John Shaffer: Don't condemn White man for the color of his skin

I started reading Indian Country Today to try and keep up with Native current events. See what the issues were and what I could do about it. As I read the stories and followed the comments on Facebook, I began to notice a disturbing trend. There were many comments about white people. How they interfered all of the time. How they were no good. How they were only interested in exploiting Indians. Some openly mocked me for my views when I joined in. Not because of the views, but because I had the audacity to make a comment when I was “just a white guy." At first, it didn’t bother me much. I had seen one or two racist remarks in the Rapid City Journal comment sections disparaging Indians. But the more I read the comments in ICT, the more racist remarks I encountered.

I read hateful words from some Natives against “Christians” or “whites,” as if we are all the same. It’s not the first time I’ve had racism directed toward me because of my skin. In the Marines I went on liberty with a couple of my friends to visit their old neighborhood in L.A. Upon walking in I had to use the bathroom, and they pointed me down the hall, past the living room and next to the kitchen. As I entered the living room, I had guns drawn on me, with several people yelling “whitey!” Fortunately my friends, Chavez and DeLaRosa stepped in quickly and explained that we served together. I was definitely the minority that night, being the only “white guy” in the building. But I made several new friends, and it ended up being a pretty fun night. They came to know me as a person, not as a color.

In the age of the Internet and Facebook, it has become the norm to interject opinions after articles. The problem is that there can be misunderstandings with written words. Inflection and tone, readily identified in a real voice, are completely up to the reader of the comment to determine. Also, as I have been guilty of myself, it is easy to be snarky when you have the safety of the relative anonymity of the computer screen protecting you. It is simple to spew hateful and mean words at people without consequence. To tell someone they are inferior because of the color of their skin, or where they were born. To exclude someone who may have a good heart from standing up for justice with you, because they were not raised Indian. I wonder if some of the people commenting after the ICT stories on Facebook can see that racism is not limited to a certain color. That religious intolerance is not limited to a specific religion.