Day: November 25, 2017

Horse facts?

facts-i-just-made-up:

HORSE fact- 

In grade school they used to make us play a game called HORSE. A lot of people reading this are probably thinking, “oh, me too” but the thing is, my teachers didn’t make us play the game everyone else calls HORSE. I only learned this recently when I saw some kids playing basketball with weird rules and asked what they were doing and they said they were playing HORSE. I was like, “That’s not HORSE” and they asked what I thought it was so I told them what the teachers had us doing. They looked at me with wide eyes as I explained.

We played HORSE mostly in 4th grade. It was kind of like Duck Duck Goose, only instead of chasing each other around a circle, we were tied to a horse and dragged around the school yard. Several of my friends were injured as a result of this game, which I knew was cruel but figured it’s just another game kids play, many of which are pretty harsh. My friend Jesse broke his foot, Andrew broke both arms once, and Rebecca never regained consciousness. I don’t know if they still keep her alive anymore, it was years ago.

So after learning what most people think HORSE is, I went back to my school and asked the teachers why they didn’t just teach us to play HORSE the way everyone else apparently did. No shit, the principal and teachers said they’d get back to me and they disappeared all together the next day. Never heard from again. It turns out they were just this sadistic band of monstrous people who went from school to school posing as faculty and teaching kids to play their own sick version of HORSE.

So by all means, if your kid comes home some day saying they played HORSE in school, ask them how it’s played. You could save a life.

Scholar Debbie Reese On Why Native People Should Tell Their Own Stories

full-time-n8ive:

Native identity is something that many non-Natives really struggle to understand. What has made anti-Native sentiment so difficult for people to talk about and confront?

Several thoughts come to mind. First, people are surprised we’re still here. They’ve bought into the idea that we no longer exist, so to suddenly find a Native person in their midst is a shock to them. If/when they get past that shock, they often go to their next idea—that we have to look a certain way. If we don’t, then we cannot possibly be Native. The expectation of what we should look like reflects predominant stereotypes.

Moving past that—trying to get them to understand that we’re sovereign nations and our identity is primarily about citizenship or membership in a specific nation—is beyond what some can handle in one sitting. All of this speaks to the power of stereotyping, bias, and misinformation in textbooks, children’s books, television, movies, etc. On top of that, when they finally are ready to believe we’re still here, so many move to the “Oh, you’re so wonderful,” which is icky because that sentiment is based on even more stereotypes. 

When you try to gently move them out of that space and [ask them to] just accept us for who we are…well, that doesn’t go well. And those who believe you from the start, but then move to “I’m part Native” and go on and on about what they know…that’s rough, too. So many don’t know what nation. What they know is similar to what the senator from Massachusetts knew: a family story with not much factual information to support it, and no interactions with a Native community either.

Scholar Debbie Reese On Why Native People Should Tell Their Own Stories