The reply I wrote and didn't leave

-
I started to reply to some post on Reddit then thought better of it because I'm White and I have been told I shouldn't mention that I'm part Native according to oral family tradition and etc. This is what I wrote:

It's the internet, not a face-to-face conversation. Downvote and do not reply, consider reporting if it breaks some rule. 

I feel that Native people are "too conversational" and respectful. These people aren't respecting you and your space and your time and energy.

A lot of white people are really awful about feeling entitled and your cultural practices of trying to take them seriously etc gets interpreted as kowtowing to them.

Trolls crave attention and don't care if it's negative attention. Giving them any attention fuels their bad behavior. 

I am all for referring people to r/askanative whether anyone actually starts such a sub or not. "This is not the purpose of this sub. Try someplace else."

And don't apologize. 


Popular posts from this blog

Dogwoods, Pine Trees, Magnolias and Clam Gardens.

-
My American father grew up on a farm in Indiana. My German mother grew up in a large and cosmopolitan European city known as Danzig (a "free city") at the time, currently known as Gdansk, Poland. I grew up between their two worlds, where their worlds met. I grew up on the edge of town where sprawling suburbs ended and trees and undeveloped lands began. When I was a child, behind my childhood home there was a patch of undeveloped woods. After I grew up and moved away, it was turned into more housing. Studies show that Indigenous or Tribespeople who move to cities remain much more aware and knowledgeable about flora and fauna in their environment than average AND they pass this heightened awareness onto their kids. They and their children are much more likely to know the names of the tree species and bird species (etc) around them even while living in the city than other residents. Daddy was like that and it took me a while to attribute it to his Native heritage
Read more

Why, YES, I am always this paranoid

-
I think I was probably 37 when I met Tom Fejeran. I had gone to GIS school. I was trying to pursue education pertinent to plans to have a career in Urban Planning. I was a homeschooling mom -- aka the teacher for a two-student private school under California law -- and military wife and facing a divorce that I knew would happen though the paperwork would not be filed for some time. Tom had been an urban planner in Guam for some years until shortly before he met me. He was retired military and he had recently left his planning career to begin working as a school teacher. I think I was involved with him for over a year. Sometime during that relationship his youngest child was eight years old. I remember because we were talking about our kids and he was listing their ages, maybe in parentheses, and it created a musical note on screen and we both laughed about it. He was legally separated and had been since that child was something like three years old. So his divorce and mine w
Read more

A Legend in My Mind

-
My father was a two-time decorated veteran. He had a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, having fought in both World War II and in the front lines of Vietnam. You will notice that skips a war. Dad did not fight in the Korean conflict. He had orders for Korea and was packed to go. The night before he was supposed to ship out, he got a call informing him that he was the only man in the Battallion (about a thousand people) who had all the schools required to teach ROTC at some college, so he was being held back to fill that slot. They needed two guys and they also held back some officer -- who likely had a college degree -- with less stellar military credentials. My dad was an NCO, not an officer, and a high school drop out. Dropping out of high school was common at that time. At age fifteen, he was big enough to earn a man's wage for a man's work, so that's what he did. Dad originally joined the Army as a teen to fight in World War II. My recollection is that he was seve
Read more