Indianz.Com > News > Ivan Star Comes Out: America has never provided freedom and equality for all
“… With liberty and justice for all…”
Friday, July 9, 2021
Native Sun News Today Columnist
America has never provided freedom and equality for all. Most of us has to pledge our allegiance to the flag of the United States daily in school. The aim of those government “Indian” schools was to erase Native cultures under the banner of “education” and to “civilize” the Natives. They did so, with some success, in ways that bordered on barbarous.
This coerced “pledging” proves there are huge inequities. It means this nation has not embraced the fact that it has not done enough to advance inclusion and diversity. It has fallen short of the traditions, institutions, and ideals of the U. S. Constitution. We had to either conform and forget our ancestral ways or endure exclusion, omission, and erasure of our culture.
As Natives, we have been led to believe we were pledging our alliance and support to the idea of loyalty and pride in the United States. At the same time, as Native people, we bore the unpleasantness of racial superiority. This pledging had often been defined as patriotism by the far-right nationalists. In other words, what may have been a customary American trait has now turned to coercing people to stand for the flag, which is fascism.
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Ivan F. Star Comes Out can be reached at P.O. Box 147, Oglala, South Dakota, 57764; via phone at 605-867-2448 or via email at mato_nasula2@outlook.com.
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