On the use of torture in Kashmir:

https://bit.ly/2NM89bI?

Another great book about Black & Native American history in the US is “Lies My Teacher Told Me,” by James W. Loewen, also now a retired professor. His work focuses more on the exclusion of Black & Native American history in the American school curriculum, including at the university level. He has a second book titled “Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers & Monuments Get Wrong” about the hundreds of confederate monuments all over the US from coast to coast which honor the confederate & Indian genocide legacies & are maintained at great cost by white supremacist groups. As you recall, some of them came under attack after racist assaults on Blacks a few years ago. But most of them still stand praising the genocide of Native Americans & the legacy of Black slavery. Odious things that will have to be razed with jackhammers when the US has rid itself of white supremacy. Don’t mock that as a delusional pipe dream. It is possible if we organize for that political goal.

(Cover of “Lies My Teacher Told Me”)

I’ve read a lot of books on Native American history & consider the writings of Jack Weatherford, an emeritus professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, to be among the best in presenting the considerable contributions Native Americans have made to world civilization & not just in agriculture & textiles. He demonstrates how their achievements were taken to Europe & advanced the industrial revolution. Their agricultural achievements, especially cultivating potatoes & corn, have traveled the world on every continent from Timbuktu to Ireland.

His work was highly regarded by Native American tribes in Minnesota & he was frequently asked to speak & participate in their conferences & gatherings. There is no hint of patronizing in his works. He is also known for his book “Genghis Khan & the Making of the Modern World” for which he was awarded the Order of the Polar Star, Mongolia’s highest national honor for foreigners.

This is the kind of history that Native American children want to read rather than constantly shove the genocide down their throats as a constant reminder of their on-going humiliation. It isn’t an attempt to deny or cover up that history–they would be the last to want that–but to put it in political perspective so they can feel pride in their culture, not just degradation & outrage at their persecution & at a genocide which has by no means ended.

(Photo is cover of a remarkable, readable book)

Not to be vainglorious, but it just dawned on me that I may have played a wee part in Ilhan Omar’s statement on Kashmir. In order to contact her by email, I had to have an address & zip code in her congressional district. So I borrowed that of my older sister who lives there since it wouldn’t accept my Texas zip code. I say wee part, maybe even itsy-bitsy part, since she was probably flooded with phone calls where zip code could not be monitored & was also receiving intelligence reports from her work in Congress. Itsy-bitsy’s good.

“Just returned from Kashmir. Twelve year olds detained and beaten in midnight raids. Women threatened with rape. Young boys given electric shocks, families unaware of their whereabouts. This is the NORMAL you talk about. This is the worst I have seen in the valley yet.”

–journalist Rana Ayyub