In “Indigenous Women, Climate Change Impacts, and Collective Action,” Kyle Whyte targets the idea that the indigenous women’s roles in their communities provide them with responsibilities and motivate them to pursue leadership positions. This concept is important in a way that it frames their actual and potential experiences of climate change impacts. Whyte explains that climate-induced variations are caused by “political orders rooted in colonialism, industrialization, imperialism, and globalization to which many indigenous people are subject.” (p. 604) Because society holds indigenous women in a certain position which labels their cultural understandings as responsibilities to the earth’s living, nonliving, and spiritual beings and, more …show more content…
She claims these violations occurred due to the “sexist and racist views of federal agencies, remnants of eugenics, population-control measures, and family-planning programs that drew large subsidies from the federal government.” (p. 72) The indigenous women victimized by these policies are oppressed by a specific ultimatum which states they must refrain from reproducing or else they will lose their health care benefits and financial support from the federal government. In addition, the federal government began to prey on those who were mentally ill, poor, criminal, retarded, or simply unsuccessful, deeming them socially, as well as biologically inferior. The concept of eugenics followed up on this governmental belief, assuming that by controlling minorities and “their breeding practices” (p.74) they could improve society. Due to this unethical American mentality, Native Americans lost their independence, experienced dramatic population losses, and were forced to depend on government subsidies and health care to survive. (p. 77) Because the government maintains the responsibility of providing services and allocations for the Indian women, they would prefer to limit that number rather than increase it. Ralston-Lewis offers solutions pertinent to the consent of the indigenous women, specifically Indian women who are considered to have high fertility rates, such as restating the rules and guidelines of medical contracts, simplifying the medical jargon for those whose first language is not English, enforcing their sobriety during the signing of these contracts, and eschewing coercion, fraud, and threats by the medical
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
... American culture and the livelihood of the Indian tribes. However, there are some significant ideas that are brought up in the federal law. One of the most specific and controversial is the concept of whom is considered a parent and how might they prove their legitimacy to parenthood. Other debates examine whom may adopt or care for an Indian-American child and is it correct to deny a family from adopting or temporarily caring for a child because they are not of Native American descent? These are all broad questions that will examined in the future. As the United States Supreme Court ruled, specific portions of this law are up for further examination and analysis. This will be very beneficial to the future of the law and maintaining its relevance to child custody cases.
Bloxham's book ‘The final solution: A genocide’ has brought about much criticism and debate. In this book Bloxham “seeks to situate the mass-murder of European Jewry between 1941 and 1945 within the broader history of European genocide from 1875 to 1945” . In this, he challenges the uniqueness of the holocaust, and presents the argument that the full meaning of the holocaust and final solution can only be completely understood, if it is placed in the larger context of genocide. Bloxham argues that “the history of the holocaust is itself an international history, and international history always has comparative dimensions” . Furthermore, in the forum Bloxham states that the aim of the book was to bring the holocaust into a wider history of genocide and bridge together the holocaust and genocide studies. This analysis will look at each review in order of appearance in the forum, and the comments Bloxham reports back in reaction. However in light of this analysis, not all points that were raised will be able to be commented on, instead this analysis will focus on the key point’s aspect of each review.
Emma R. Gross, Contemporary Federal Policy Towards American Indians (New York: Greenwood Press 1989) 20.
This wave of sterilization came crashing down on Native American women the hardest. As Sally Torpy asserts in her thesis, Endangered...
Feminism and Indigenous women activism is two separate topics although they sound very similar. In indigenous women’s eyes feminism is bashing men, although Indigenous women respect their men and do not want to be a part of a women’s culture who bring their men down. Feminism is defined as “The advocacy of women 's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.” In theory feminism sounds delightful despite the approaches most feminists use such as wrong-full speaking of the opposite gender. Supposedly, feminism is not needed as a result of Indigenous women being treated with respect prior to colonization. Thus, any Native woman who calls herself a feminist is often condemned as being “white”. This essay argues that Indigenous women may
A total of 11 million people died during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was started by the Nazi’s in the 1930’s. It was were about six million Jews were killed. Misinformed individuals theorize that the Holocaust is not a form of genocide but they are misguided. The Holocaust should be considered an example of genocide based on the UN’s definition, the stages of genocide and the specific evidence provided in the memoir Night.
If ancient chaos/race were an actual reason for why the genocide occurred, the racial tensions of the Hutus and the Tutsis would have existed long before the genocide and colonization. This notion is supported by Robert Melson, author of “Modern Genocide in Rwanda”. Melson alludes to the fact that during precolonial Rwanda, the Hutus and the Tutsis lived fairly peacefully with one other. Melson demonstrates that if it were tribal chaos, it would have to involve disputes over “land, booty, and women”. Because that was not seen in precolonial Rwanda, it would be hard to attribute the genocide only to race and territory.
Problems have and will continue to exsist all over the world. Throughout history, global problems have posed major challenges for nations and regions. There are many causes to the global problems expirenced in the world just as there are many effects. Both genocide and environmental pollution have posed major challenges for nations and regions of the world.
According to Smith, Native bodies will continue to be seen as expendable and inherently violable as long as they continue to stand in the way of the theft of Natives lands” (Smith 2005, 69). That is to say, that racism plays a major role in the widespread anxieties produced by white supremacy, regarding a rise in the global population of Native Americans. Although, “some populationists say population growth contributes to starvation,” and organizations may claim that they want to reduce the size of all ethnic and racial groups, in the end, they often work to reduce populations of color (Smith 2005, 71). In the white dominated society, “black and dark may be associated with death, evil and destruction” (Anzaldúa 1987, 91). To clarify, “people of color are scapegoated for environmental destruction, poverty, and war. Women of color are particularly threatening, as they have the ability to reproduce the next generations of communities of color. Consequently, it is not surprising that control over the reproductive abilities of women of color has come to be seen as a ‘national security’ issue for the U.S.” (Smith 2005, 79). Native American women should be treated equally, like any other woman because they also have reproductive rights. According to Min-ha, “it is as if the sexual act has become virtually the only direct contact with
The abuse of children of any kind is unacceptable, regardless of one’s culture. When looking at the Native American culture, the indigenous people of this land we have come to call America, there has been a debate spanning decades in terms of what should be done to keep an abused child who has to be taken away from the birth parents, within their own culture (the Native American culture). In 1978, the United States Congress and the President of the United States at the time, Jimmy Carter, enacted a law known as the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in attempts to avoid the separation of Native children from their family, let alone, their own culture (Fletcher, 2009). How exactly does the Indian Child Welfare Act, ICWA, keep Native children taken away from their birth parents within either their family or the Native culture itself?
In June of 1924, Carrie Buck, an 18 year old Charlottesville native, was hospitalized by her adopted family for being “feeble minded” after the birth of her illegitimate child. Bucks birth mother, Emma Harlowe Buck, was reported to also be mentally ill. She and Carrie both had children out of wedlock, and were both committed to the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded, so their illnesses could not be passed on even more. This fear of eugenics caused Carrie Buck’s doctor, Albert Priddy, to request Carrie’s sterilization. While the request for Buck's sterilization was moving through the courts it was discovered that Carrie was not put away for being “feeble minded”. Her adopted family had put Carrie in the hospital in order to save their reputation after a member of the family had raped Carrie, causing her pregnancy. Carrie and Emma appealed to
Silver M. 2004. Eugenics and Compulsary Sterilization Laws: Providing Redress for the Victims of a Shameful Era in United States History. Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 72(4): 862-892.
On October 19, 1927, a “feebleminded,” young woman was robbed. This young woman’s name is Carrie Buck and her ability to conceive children was taken from her without her consent or knowledge. This decision would not only impact those already affected by unauthorized sterilization, but for those whom would later be sterilized. The Supreme Court’s ruled the sterilization of Carrie Buck to be constitutional on the grounds of it being better for society, better for the individual, and eugenic evidence.
In Gender and Climate Change, Nagel brings up “the incremental, almost invisible nature of delayed destruction” or what one researcher calls “slow violence” (103). It is interesting that the word “invisible” has been used by feminists and scholars to describe both gendered care work and the slow violence of climate change. I would argue that this is indicative of how interrelated the two topics are, as discussed above. If women’s issues are largely ignored and deemed unimportant by society, it is no wonder that climate change, in many ways a women’s issue, also so often goes unnoticed. Additionally, in Neoliberalism, Globalization, and the International Division of Care, Joya Misra and Sabine N. Merz bring up how work done by immigrant workers “remains invisible to the outside world” (114). Therefore, I think it would be interesting to look into how nationality and gender intersect in an analysis of the unequal effects of climate change, for it is at the intersection of those things that largely go unseen by the majority of society that true understanding of inequality and difference