Source Material:
An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz:
“The history of the United States is a history of settler colonialism—the founding of a state based on the ideology of white supremacy, the widespread practice of African slavery, and a policy of genocide and land theft.”"The objective of US colonialist authorities was to terminate their existence as peoples—not as random individuals. This is the very definition of modern genocide as contrasted with premodern instances of extreme violence that did not have the goal of extinction."“Awareness of the settler-colonialist context of US history writing is essential if one is to avoid the laziness of the default position and the trap of a mythological unconscious belief in manifest destiny.""This idea of the gift-giving Indian helping to establish and enrich the development of the United States is an insidious smoke screen meant to obscure the fact that the very existence of the country is a result of the looting of an entire continent and its resources.""Everything in US history is about the land—who oversaw and cultivated it, fished its waters, maintained its wildlife; who invaded and stole it; how it became a commodity (“real estate”) broken into pieces to be bought and sold on the market."
It's really hard to read about the history of indigenous peoples and not feel paralyzed. Even more paralyzed than when I study slavery or mass incarceration or the Holocaust. It is paralyzing because it leaves no one faultless. The truth is scathing. Simply by living in the U.S. and not being an indigenous person means that I have directly benefited and continue to benefit from the murder of indigenous populations. Simply owning a home means that I have claimed land that should rightfully belong to another people. Land bought with someone else's blood.
My home specifically is on top of a land area that I know was once a Native burial ground. In a video from the 90s that I recently stumbled on, I watched as members of the local Muwekma Ohlone tribe carefully excavated the remains of their ancestors to make way for the creation of the highway exchange where my house now sits.
This is the story of the United States. This is what it means to be an American.
It creates in me this knee jerk reaction to want to escape. Is there somewhere I can go where I don't have to be a part of this? Is there an existence somewhere I can live life based on my own terms and merits, and not on top of a pile of shitty history? I didn't ask for this inheritance. But even if I go somewhere else, each place has its own history. Colonialism and empire at this point has basically touched every corner of the world. The results of the system are unavoidable. And even to escape to another planet...isn't that also colonizing another planet? This is a system I don't like being a part of.
So these are the thoughts that have been staying with me this Easter as I ruminated on the death and resurrection of Christ and feeling disconnected from the drum beat of white colonial Christian talk about individual sin. Where do I find Jesus in the midst of all this disconnect and paralysis?
I am reminded that God does not try to avoid history and the political upheavals of the day. I don't think it's a coincidence that of all the time periods that have existed, he just happened to plop Jesus down smack in the middle of Pax Romana, empire of empires. Out of all the lives Jesus could have lived, it was chosen to be right in the middle of the longest existing empire on earth. Because living within the realities of empire is nothing new. It is part of the human condition and Jesus did not try to escape it. I think Jesus has a lot to show us about what it means to live as godly people within a sordid system. And I think we also need to be honest about the fact that this type of godly living is why the system had him killed.
I also don't think it's a random coincidence that he suffered an institutionalized death. Stripped of all dignity and power, he did not defend himself nor did he ask anyone else to defend him. Whether killed by settler colonial genocide or police brutality or an unjust prison system...these are the people whose experiences Jesus chose to identify himself with. People used and abused by the empire. These are the people God did not want to feel alone or forgotten. These are the ones with whom he chose to create belonging. This is the God I love.
I don't know what it really all means for me, but I'm glad to find God here in the questions and grit.