Family Stands Against School’s Racist Thanksgiving Curriculum

[Coyotl]

Family Stands Against School’s Racist Thanksgiving Curriculum
Marc Dadigan - 11/27/13 - http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/11/27/family-stands-against-schools-racist-thanksgiving-curriculum-152439

The Oxendine family have long valued how Montessori schools educated their four children, especially with Montessori’s stated principles of inclusiveness and compassion.

They were, thus, thrilled when their youngest children Jada, 7, and Jase, 5, received scholarships in 2012 to the Maria Montessori School in San Diego due to their family’s Native American and military backgrounds. But now the Oxendines say an ongoing conflict over the school’s problematic, now cancelled Thanksgiving curriculum has led to the revoking of Jada’s scholarship, something school officials deny.

Red flags were raised in early November 2012 when they learned the school was planning Thanksgiving classroom activities encouraging students to dance around teepees, dress up as Indians with headbands of multi-colored feathers and give each other “Indian names.”

“Whenever we go back to [the Pine Ridge Reservation] where my wife is from, [the children] are surrounded by ceremonies and dances. They’re taught feathers are sacred and only for ceremony,” said James Oxendine, Lumbee, an information systems officer in the U.S. Navy. “And it was confusing for them to see the school doing it differently and perpetuating stereotypes in this way.”

After receiving a newsletter describing the week of potentially offensive activities ..........

[sakabatou]

1. *facepalm*

[catbyte]

2. OMFG. I am not overly sensitive, but that "educational curriculum" is jaw-dropping.

Wow, just wow.

Anishinaabe in MI

[Coyotl]

3. Nobody ever thinks "We need to call an anthropologist" before making some decisions.

[last1standing]

4. For those about to rush in here to claim these activities are harmless fun for kids...

I have to ask how harmless other racist stereotypes are.

Would there be a defense of African Americans lazing around eating fried chicken and watermelon?

Would there be a defense of Chinese Americans eating chop suey while saying "Ahso" to each other?

Would there be a defense of Latin Americans eating tacos while trying to sell each other drugs?

I understand the school wasn't purposely trying to offend Native Americans, but they did offend them. Instead of defending tired, racist stereotypes, why not take this as an opportunity to learn how to represent native culture in a less ham-handed manner?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. It's as if Native Americans are mythical creatures or characters in fairy tales

When I was a kid, it was common to use stereotyped images of Native Americans to sell everything from Welches grape jelly ("Woo-woo-woo Welches!&quot to natural gas ("Come, Minnegasco help you&quot to cereal ("Jolly-olly orange" used to be "Injun orange&quot .

Thank goodness I haven't seen any ads like that recently, but the effects of that era linger.

[Marrah_G]

5. They also have tribes and cultures screwed up

The Wampanoag didn't live in teepees and didn't wear that type of feather head-dress. They did, and still do, like to dance though


"From 1616 to 1619 the Wampanoag suffered an epidemic, long suspected to be smallpox, but recent research alternatively theorizes that it was leptospirosis, a bacterial infection also known as Weil's syndrome or 7-day fever. It caused a high fatality rate and nearly destroyed the society. Researchers suggest that the losses from the epidemic made it possible for the English colonists to get a foothold in creating the Massachusetts Bay Colony in later years.[3] King Philip's War (1675–1676) against the English colonists resulted in the deaths of 40 percent of the tribe. Most of the male survivors were sold into slavery in the West Indies. Many women and children were enslaved in New England." - Wikipedia