Waking Up a Buried History that Gave Way to an Epidemic

I recently read an opinion piece by Henry Louis Gates Jr., someone I have long admired. He addressed the divisive attempts to erase Black history. This is clearly an important topic that racism, politics and privilege have been able to suppress for many years, and anything that works to reject the current dark environment mired in hate working to erase critical race theory and the words of so many important people in our history is a good thing in my book.

It also got me thinking about the plight of women and how many analogies can be drawn and how the governing powers and the all-mighty, starchy literary canon have managed to keep marginalized women and their words buried under the concrete pillar of racism and behind the gates of convention for generations, their voices drowned out by a loud rhetoric whose buzz has numbed a population.

The gatekeepers of language have for so long buried the words of women in the name of the literary canon, that bastion of purported truth that deems which books should be read by students. From generation to generation, this canon dominated by white male writers has been handed down, ignoring those unconventional voices like Stevie Smith, Elizabeth Bowen, Rebecca West, writers of color and those writers who explored subjects outside of the post-Victorian playbook like LGBTQ. Fortunately, I was introduced to these wonderful authors when I took graduate courses in intermodernism, a term coined by Prof. Kristin Bluemel. It opened my eyes and ears!

In the Native American communities, those racist trenches are even deeper for the women living there.

From addictions and domestic abuse to suicide and mental illness, insufficient reparations and holes in the justice system have taken their toll on Native American communities for generations despite efforts from others in the community to emphasize that you are not what happened to you. The pull from the past has proven to be much stronger in far too many cases.

Today, Native women are murdered at a rate 10 times the average, and it is estimated that four out of five have experienced violence in their lifetimes. Many of these women and girls are lured into human trafficking. This crisis of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) has deep roots in colonization and genocide and can be attributed to the lack of legal protections as a result of the systematic erosion of tribal sovereignty stretching back more than 500 years.

There are many people who still try to suppress this truth, or even rip the pages out of history books—literally in some cases, when you consider how books are being taken off shelves. They express racist and homophobic beliefs, would like you to believe there was "nothing here," because if there was “nothing here," then the blood on the hands of their ancestors would not exist, and they could absolve themselves of their complicity.

By erasing Natives from their history, they seek to render them invisible, and they smother their voices as well as the hearts and voices of the children. For the Native American communities, the tears never stopped falling. And those tears have soaked through generations of families.

MMIWG is a movement that advocates for the end of violence against Native women. It also seeks to draw attention to the high rates of disappearances and murders of Native people, particularly women and girls.

It’s everyone’s responsibility to support their efforts.

Yesterday’s children and their legacy, today’s children and the children of the future deserve better. They deserve a choice. They deserve a voice and a place in our history books.

For more information, visit www.niwrc.org/resources/pocket-guide/when-loved-one-goes-missing-understanding-and-responding-crisis-missing-and

--Heather Mistretta

WAGE Response to Affirmative Action Ruling: When “Let-Them-Eat-Cake Obliviousness” Echoed from the Supreme Court Chambers

“We live in a world which respects power above all things. Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom. Unwisely directed, it can be a dreadful, destructive force…World peace and brotherhood are based on a common understanding of the contributions and cultures of all races and creeds.”—Mary McLeod Bethune, an American educator, philanthropist, humanitarian, womanist and civil rights activist who founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935 among many other things

When Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson uttered these words, in normal circumstances, it might solicit a sigh. But on the sad day of June 29, 2023, which happened to be the same day when 59 years earlier the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed after an 83-day filibuster in the U.S. Senate, two rulings of 6-3 and 6-2 at University of North Carolina and Harvard University were handed down to strike down affirmative action, thereby eclipsing years of progress for equity and building rich, vibrant institutions. In its supposed attempt to adhere to the Constitution, the court effectively overturned the 2003 ruling Grutter v. Bollinger, in which the court said race could be considered as a factor in the admissions process because universities had a compelling interest in maintaining diverse campuses.

WAGE believes that the Supreme Court's decision is deeply disheartening and misguided. Affirmative action was never about providing unearned advantages or handouts, never a zero-sum game as many have been misinformed. It was about recognizing the need for diversity and representation and ensuring that opportunity is open to all. It was an effort to level the playing field and provide a fair chance for individuals who have been excluded and underrepresented in our society. It was about giving institutions of learning a chance to offer the best educational environment possible.

Affirmative action enables college recruiters to find kids who might not otherwise know that the opportunity exists, and not kids just because of the color of their skin but those who deserve to be there because of their academic record.

Our youth battling discrimination and exclusion deserve opportunities and a door open to a thriving future, and institutions need diversity in all facets, including race, so that they can grow and continue to foster growth in all their students. The truth is that everyone benefits from this.

“Honestly, it feels like we are taking a huge step backward in our journey towards equality and social justice,” said WAGE Board Member Art Howard, who is all too familiar with struggle, growing up Black in the projects of Newark, NJ. He has since earned several advanced college degrees.

Their justification for what they did? Both programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution and are therefore unlawful. And much like placing a bandaid on a hemorrhage, Chief Justice John Roberts further said, “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.”

But this ruling will significantly impact People of Color and their ambitions to pursue an education and a promising future.

It’s not about being color blind; as the dissenters said; it’s more like being blind to history, erasing all the work that has been done over the past 100 plus years.

Former first lady Michelle Obama, the first Black woman in that role, said, "It [affirmative action] wasn’t perfect, but there’s no doubt that it helped offer new ladders of opportunity for those who, throughout our history, have too often been denied a chance to show how fast they can climb."

Justice Sonia Sotomayor echoed that sentiment when she said, "The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment enshrines a guarantee of racial equality. The Court long ago concluded that this guarantee can be enforced through race-conscious means in a society that is not, and has never been, colorblind."

WAGE believes that education is the means to prevent violence and abuse against women and girls in every corner of this world, from the urban areas of New Jersey to the rural areas of Indian reservations to the impoverished neighborhoods of Kampala, Uganda, and everywhere in between.

All the different colors and ethnic backgrounds need to be embraced and celebrated, not ignored and masked by white privilege, those threatened by the progress and a conventional dogma that only gives a voice and vision to a select group.

At WAGE, our eyes are wide open, and we believe that the door leading to a better world should be wide open to all. We will now work even harder to ensure that happens, offering a bigger hand to those in need.

“These rulings stress how important it is to not become complacent because we need to definitely continue the fight for equality and social justice - to make sure America is indeed a place where everyone has an equal chance to thrive and succeed,” said Howard.