Racism from a Canadian perspective, what are the statistics and what do Native experts think?

By Larry Adams

(These three articles examine racism in northern Minnesota from from several different perspectives. The first is from a Canadian First Nation Anishinaabe, the second is on racism statistics from Minnesota and the third presents solutions from a Turtle Island perspective.)

      While growing up in Whitefish Bay and on the Northwest Angle First Nation, # 37, in Manitoba, Canada, and enrolled in Nett Lake, Minnesota, explained Beemus Goodsky, there wasn’t really a lot of racism until he moved to Kenora, Ontario, in 1999, when Beemus would go shopping. “The racism in that area was sort of moderate to me when I was growing up. The Sioux Narrows town is just like 15 minutes from the reserve,” Goodsky noted. It was there in the stores when Goodsky would notice he was being followed around. Apparently, there were only a few stores and it was a summer town, so, according to Goodsky, when the tourists came in, “they’d bring that racism with them … makes it a lot harder, especially during the summer.”

      For most Native or Indigenous people in the United States, racism is a reality that has to be dealt with on a daily basis. Basically, the only people in a capitalist society like America who can be racist are Euro-American people. Most Native people are not racist because they do not constitute a considerable unified majority group like the Euro-Americans, much less any kind of group at all in any category. Racism is used by the Euro-American status quo to maintain that very same status over Native people. Unlike their Black, Hispanic or Oriental counterparts, who have overcome the racial divide in America, the “divide and conquer” technique still keeps Native people from advancing up or through the American-built system. The few successful Native people that have succeeded have not unified for the good of the whole because they’re too busy with their own lives to make any considerable differences. Also, emotional, mental, physical dysfunctions from alcohol, drug and physical abuse, America’s violent past toward Native people prevent healing while character defects such as jealousy, anger and unresolved issues also prevent political entity cohesion of Native people. Also, America’s past violence at building this country through the Americans’ self-manufactured “Manifest Destiny” keep the men from healing emotionally, mentally and spiritually, permanently stagnating any growth and preventing the men from realizing hope or achieving any dreams they may have while effectively keeping Native men spinning their collective wheels, stuck right where they are, never to progress because all that is seen is the individual’s own treadmill of daily life, which isn’t much, as far as Native males in today’s society are concerned.

      To clearly illustrate such points concerning overt racism in America as well as Canada, as Goodsky got older, after he started realizing what racism really was, it started to become more noticeable just the way people talk and act in front of other people. What Goodsky noticed is that certain people he befriended changed for the worse, that the town is what did it, according to Goodsky and there’s a lot cliques and social groups in that town that could change a person’s mind about everything.

      “Why do I think racism exists?” Goodsky reiterated. “More or less, I believe, it’s for ownership of everything. That would be my main focus, would be, Native Americans, for instance, we don’t believe we own everything. We don’t believe we own the land, we don’t believe we don’t own pretty much anything. We take what’s given to us. I hate to say it but [the] white culture believes they have a hold on everything, such as land.”

      Moving from Kenora to northern Minnesota during the spring break, 2001, Goodsky hung around the campus in Bemidji. “I was hanging around the university [when] I decided to go to BSU, I mean, the Council of Indian Students is a pretty cool group, that I noticed and everyone I was hanging around with most of the day. I figured I’d try to get in there.”

      In 2002, Goodsky start attending Bemidji State University and is currently an undecided sophomore, although he is leaning toward Indian Studies at this point.

      Comparing and contrasting his native homeland to the climes of northern Minnesota as far as racism is concerned, “I would think so, yeah, I mean, Kenora was mainly Native American and non-Native American, I mean, there wasn’t really that much different cultures there such as Asians and African-Americans,” imparted Goodsky. “When I came down here, that was, I shouldn’t say, noticeable but you could see there was a difference. It was different ethnic groups and races down here. As far as racism, yeah, that was the issue when I first moved here. I mean it was more noticeable than it was where I lived, like in Kenora. It wasn’t that much noticeable as down here, I mean, there are some people that really don’t care for Native Americans and other racial groups … and there are some that actually are embraced by our culture as well as other peoples, other ethnic groups’ cultures.”

      What exactly is racism? What are its definitions? What are the effects of racism? Most people probably don’t know a lot about it. Some may even care less or even at all about racism simply because it doesn’t affect them. However, two entries concerning the exact definitions of racism are as follows:

“1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.”

“2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.”       The Minnesota Department of Human Rights policy on racism and discrimination explains that the [Minnesota] Human Rights Act “declares that certain types of differential treatment are unfair discriminatory practices.” Categories include employment, housing, property, public accommodations and services, education, credit and business services. Similarly, aiding and abetting another to committing illegal discrimination or to take reprisal against a person for filing a charge, participating in an investigation, or opposing illegal discrimination are against the law. Finally, to take reprisal against a person because of their association with [people] who have disabilities or who are of a different race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation or national origin” are also considered illegal in America.

      With over five million people living in Minnesota, statewide, there is an approximate Native population of 54,967, according to the 2000 U. S. Census Bureau. Of the 40,399 Beltrami County residents, approximately 8,071 are Native people.

      So if it’s illegal to commit racism and discrimination in Minnesota, the statistics should reflect enacted legislation against racism and discrimination, right? Wrong.

      Statistic-wise, “Part 1 crimes” are defined as more serious, which include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, car theft and arson. 203 “Part 1” crimes were committed by Natives in Beltrami County than “Part II crimes,” which are less serious, remarked Jim Ramstrom, from the Minnesota Department of Administration’s Land Management Information Center. Disproportionately, “Part 2 crimes” totaled 828 by Native people in the Bemidji area.

      Surrounded by the Red Lake Nation as well as the Leech Lake and White Earth reservations in northern Minnesota, in Bemidji, “Part 1 and 2 crimes” committed by Native people make up an estimated 53 per cent of the total crimes committed in Beltrami County in 2000, yet Native people comprise only about 19 per cent of the total population in Beltrami County. The statistics are there in black in white for all to see.

      Statistics such as these points to a more serious problem of Bemidji law enforcement officials committing racial profiling of Native people from Red Lake, White Earth and Leech Lake. Yet nothing is being done about these illegal activities committed by local law enforcement officials from a local, regional, state or national level or even from the legislative levels of American government. It appears that these Native peoples just simply accept the discrimination and racism that runs rampant in northern Minnesota and elsewhere, without even doing anything about it to try to rectify their situations.

      What will it take for Native peoples in Minnesota to stop racism and discrimination? Here are some possible solutions. All Minnesota Turtle Island Nations should form a political entity consisting of all 10 reservations and Red Lake. Next, document all forms of racism as well as discrimination in Minnesota against Native peoples, file complaints and follow through with them until the desired results are achieved. Awareness needs to be created concerning racism and discrimination to try to understand what their causes are and how to prevent racism as well as discrimination in Minnesota and the U. S.

      Guidelines to complaining about racism include writing letters to the editors to tribal, local, regional and national tabloids and newspapers, holding peaceful demonstrations and finally, approach the Minnesota legislature as an officially recognized Native political entity to make proactive changes in law enforcement procedures to stop racial profiling and put an end to racism and discrimination in Minnesota. Legislation may need to be enacted to enforce monetary fines for those committing documented acts of racism and discrimination, should illegal overt and covert racist activities continue here on Turtle Island.

      Racism. It’s only one word. However, the word in and of itself provokes many discouraging and negative emotions such as anger, denial, even fear and violence. What seems to be clear is that racism is a subject most Euro-Americans would rather not talk about at all or care about even less.

      Will racism ever be eliminated in American society? As far as Dave Larson, human relations expert on racism living in St. Paul from the Lower Sioux reservation is concerned, “I hope [that] it will but I just can’t see it happening right now because so doggone many people, the people who are the racists are making sure that we don’t discuss racism, they always give us other issues to talk about. We don’t talk about what’s really happening and that’s kind of what happens with racism. Whenever we talk about undoing racism and we’ve seen this when we’ve started doing it, the people who are benefiting by the racism throw other issues in front of us, so we can’t go on undoing it, so we can’t concentrate on doing it, so it never gets totally worked on.” As far as the societal and psychological effects of racism on society are concerned, continued Larson, “It maintains the status quo [for Euro-Americans], it means that people of color will never be seen as equal, no matter how well we do or how intelligent we are, because racism is a way of keeping us separated from systems that are sanctioned by the state [of Minnesota] and control the state, so if we never have access to those systems, nothing will change.”

      Likewise, examining what caused racism and what is causing racism today, “I think it’s the insecurity of the people of European descent, in America, that’s American racism now, I think it’s essentially covering up their own true history of what they’ve done in the past and one way to do that is to be in complete control what’s taught and even the systems that do the teaching, so that’s one way of being okay or even a little superior, racism maintains that,” Larson added.

      In what role does racism play in who’s hired and who’s fired in Minnesota and across Turtle Island (north America)? “Very, very big, very much. Because in racism, we’re always seen as somehow not being up to people of European descent and racism, over many, many generations, encourages people of color to accept that. There are a number of things that we accept, because of the many, many generations of, you know, internalizing the effects of racism. One of those is that we accept being treated badly. We’ve been told [for] so many generations that that’s what it’s supposed to be, that we’ve come to accept that,” concluded Larson.

      Another proponent in the fight against racism is White Earth’s Audrey Thayer, the local Green Party vice-president in the Bemidji area. “I think the whole thought of even recognizing us [Native people] in the state or even recognizing our existence is still very [much] forgotten,” Thayer explained. “We get attached with the terminology ‘forgotten Americans,’ I still think we are. … Why haven’t we penalized organizations? I think because it’s rampant in the state. You know, the reality is, [the state] would probably go broke and it takes an amount of work to develop policies and procedures in the system to do that. Any legislative body is looking to put their money and dollars in [to] something far more important, in their minds. When I look at law enforcement as an example, that is a business in this community, Bemidji. Capitalism does not function without poor people, so Bemidji has people of color who are poor. So how [does Bemidji structure] law enforcement, [they] feed off the poor and it creates a business, it creates jobs. In order for them to continue and to maintain what they have now created, in their empire of building and when we attempt to stop that, they fight us, because that is a business, it keeps the whole system employed: social workers, judges, attorneys [and] law enforcement agencies,” observed Thayer.

      An expert in law as well as racism from the Red Lake Ojibwe Nation in northern Minnesota, attorney Shirley Cain feels that there are some white people who are well intentioned and clearly not racist. “Those kind[s] of people, they need to tell other [white] people who are in positions of authority and who are open to making it right. When we can have Native American judges, when we can have Native American people that are legislators, when we can have Native American probation officers, Native American doctors, Native American writers, Native American everything, in all positions in our society, then to me, we’ll be on the road to making the system less racist. To me, I’m not advocating for any other race, except the Native Americans, because to me, we are the forgotten race. Because we are forgotten, I will make our voices heard,” Cain expounded.

      Next, host Chris Spotted Eagle, of the “Indian Uprising” show on public radio station KFAI in the Twin Cities, took his turn broaching the subject of racism and why the Minnesota legislature hasn’t levied monetary fines on racist perpetrators. “Well, on the short answer, you know, nothing technical, they’re arrogant, they’re ignorant, [and] there’s institutional racism,” exhorted Spotted Eagle. “We’re talking about an institution. Institutions are 99 per cent run by the dominant society and they are run according to their values and structure, which is not overly or even a little sympathetic to people of color, especially if the numbers are low when the total population, like we are only 2 and a half million in the whole United States [of 288 million].”

      “To determine what racism is,” Spotted Eagle noted, “for instance, the one I favor [concerning] racism is prejudice plus power. If someone is prejudiced and they have the power, for instance, you go to rent an apartment and the landlord or caretaker refuses you or even like banks, they institutionally redline sections that they feel that they’re not going to make a profit on in a particular neighborhood,” continued Spotted Eagle. “Another term of racism is the inability to empathize, that’s another, the empathy on the part of the dominant society is near zero, yes, there’s exceptions. The acknowledgement of First Nation people is practically zero. The U. S. government, way back, instituted the policies or the formulas for Indian people to identify themselves by blood quantum. What peoples in this United States have to identify themselves by blood quantum, other than indigenous peoples?” “You know what? There are other beings that have to do that, you know who they are?” I asked Spotted Eagle. “In the United States? Who’s that?” Spotted Eagle asked. “Dogs,” I said. “Who?” Spotted Eagle asked again. “Dogs,” I reiterated, with both of us busting a gut at our realities in this lifetime.

      Speaking from a comprehensive point-of-view, admitting that racism even exists in America, from a Euro-American standpoint, will be a momentous and immense admission. However, it could be the impetus for looking at and eventually trying to understand what racism really is, what causes racism and how do we solve this covert, very significant, yet massive problem? To pass this problem on to the next generations is not being responsible as well as being unfair to future generations. Overcoming racism should be a priority for the Euro-American government and its people. It is crucial to make the efforts to mend the social fabric that holds this nation together. Also, most Turtle Island people would like to see racism end in this lifetime, so that Native people can finally start to solve their own unique societal problems, so that future generations can finally start dealing with and healing emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually, for the good of Turtle Island as a whole.