For their April Zoom meeting, Deconstructing Whiteness will focus on the topic Pioneers as Celebrated Figures: What are the Stories We Tell Ourselves?
From Deconstructing Whiteness:
“As we contemplate sayings such as “the last American frontier”, “pioneers had it rough and persevered”, “pioneers made something of this land, they foraged, and shaped it from nothing”, “the founders of the U.S. were great men”, “how the american west was won”, “let’s play cowboys and indians”, “last person on the totem pole”, etc……let’s look at deconstructing these white colonists’ phrases.
When we think about Euro-American settlers/colonizers and the way they have been romanticized for future generations, we ponder this for at least two reasons:
1) Why past and current white generations did and still continue this practice to this day, and
2) What keeps us believing in the white-centered, brainwashed stories?
What stories have we told ourselves, as a people, that live in us as “truth?” With some research, we find they [stories as truth] are not based in fact. What in our white supremacy assumptions have we inherited from WAY back, and live with us today?
Prep Materials for April 2022:
- Andrew Jackson – (Through colonizer history)
- American History Told Through Native Lens – NPR
- We Shall Remain – There are 5 about 30-75min episodes – PBS – (These are not free unless you have a subscription through PBS or pay through Amazon prime)
- Essential Understandings of Native Americans in Oregon – Oregon Department of Education and the Nine Tribes of Oregon
These prep materials are optional, but we encourage you to look at them with the intent of planting the seed of curiosity and self-education, not as a “prerequisite” for attending. We start each of our sessions with a mutually created foundation.
