Analysis Of Kyle Whyte 'The Continuing Struggle Against Genocide'

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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

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