I travel throughout the country speaking about the Doctrine of Discovery and its racist and dehumanizing influence on the foundations of the United States of America. Over the past several years I have spoken to thousands of people, but I do not know how to get an audience with President Trump to speak with him about this history. So I decided to address him using his preferred method of communication. Twitter. I composed a thread of 36 tweets. This thread is my attempt to educate him on the Doctrine of Discovery and the work that needs to be done on our foundations. I welcome you read the thread. Some of the tweets are embedded in this post, some are shared as graphics and some are simply printed as text. You can also read the entire thread on Twitter by clicking on the embedded Tweet below. And if you feel so inclined, please re-tweet any of them. Who knows, we just might get his attention.
You state that you are not racist. So, giving you the benefit of the doubt, I must conclude you are unaware of our nations true history.Mr. President (@POTUS), at a rally in Alabama you called #ColinKaepernick a 'Son of a B-' b/c he kneels in protest during National Anthem.— Mark Charles (@wirelesshogan) September 23, 2017
Please allow me to share with you a Native Perspective on American history and the Doctrine of Discovery.
Doctrine of Discovery was written 1452-93 by Church in Europe & used in US to justify white supremacy, slavery, stealing land, & genocide. pic.twitter.com/Aj0aL1jV88— Mark Charles (@wirelesshogan) September 23, 2017
Making it very clear that the only reason founding fathers used inclusive term All men is b/c they had a very narrow definition of humanity.
Article 1 Sec. 2 of US Constitution excludes women & natives, it counts black people as 3/5th human. This only leaves white men.
The purpose of the US Constitution is to protect the interests of white, land owning, men (in 1776 only land owners could vote).
Section 1 of the 14th Amendment extends rights of citizenship to anyone born here under the jurisdiction of the govt.
But Section 2 still excludes women & natives and places the full rights of citizenship under jurisdiction of criminal justice system.
To this day, US Constitution contains 52 gender specific, male pronouns re: who can run for and hold public office or even is a citizen.
Marshall SCOTUS also references Doctrine of Discovery & rules natives only have right of occupancy while whites have the right of discovery.
This legal precedent and Doctrine of Discovery are referenced by SCOTUS again in 1954, 1985 and 2005.
In 1830 Andrew Jackson signed Indian Removal Act which results in Trail of Tears, Long Walk & deaths of tens of thousands of indigenous people.
19th century is filled with numerous massacres like Sand Creek in CO and Wounded Knee in SD.
Between 1839 and 1898 US Congress awards 425 Congressional Medals of Honor to US soldiers for ethnic cleansing of Turtle Island.
This is a hard fact to swallow, so here is the link to the recipients listed on US Army Center of Military History.
http://www.history.army.mil/moh/indianwars.html
Mr. President (@potus), The question is not "Why is Colin Kaepernick kneeling in protest?" The question is "Why aren't you?"
Our nation is at a crossroads. We can either choose to #MAGA and solidify our nations historic and systemic racism and sexism...— Mark Charles (@wirelesshogan) September 23, 2017
Or we can commit ourselves to working hard to make the USA a nation where we the people finally means all the people.
Colin Kaepernick is respectfully kneeling in protest, doing his part to draw attention to the deep seeded racial problems that we face.
And you called him a “Son of a b-“ and said any NFL player who also kneels in protest should be fired by NFL.
When you are President of a nation that is systemically racist & sexist and you seek to silence the voices of those working for change…
you are either willfully ignorant or, blatantly sexist and white supremacist.
I tagged you in this thread so the prior will no longer be an excuse. But our nation needs you to decide…
The USA needs a national dialogue on race, gender and class. A Truth and Conciliation Commission on par w/ ZA, RW & CA. I call it #TCC2021As for me, I kneel with #ColinKaepernick, I stand with #BLM, I protest with #Dreamers & I share wisdom of my native elders/relatives #noDAPL pic.twitter.com/YsgRQytDCK— Mark Charles (@wirelesshogan) September 23, 2017
Respectfully,
Mark Charles
(Navajo)
And if you have a change of heart, my good friend @LeroyBarber is hosting a #NFLKneelDown protest in Detroit, Oct 8.
http://nflkneeldown.com/
How times have changed.
ReplyDeleteDuring WWII, General George Patton considered being called an SOB as a compliment.
Problem is consumers pay huge ticket prices to see sports games, music & comedians who are multi-millionaires. Who pays for the tickets & wants to hear or see a political rant from these entertainers? Add political rants in the church to a holy congregation. It’s a roar of the world.
Colossians 3:2 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Try praying before a high school game starts or read scripture from the bible & see what happens.
all well and good anonymous however you are wrong. you actually think your prayers work? they don't. People say that so that they can say they helped. they don't want to be inconvenienced.
ReplyDeleteThey see nothing wrong in this inherent bigotry and racism. They blame everyone for their failures but themselves. When a person of sex or colour protest. they say wtf is wrong with u the system works great. The thing is maybe it works for you, but it doesnt for others.
Anonymous - no one has yet paid to hear one of these Athletes go on a "political rant", Taking a knee quietly does not count as "rant" of any sort.
ReplyDeletePerhaps your prayers would be better served for people facing natural disaster or on Kim Jong Un's hardened little heart?
Priorities.
Justina said, “you actually think your prayers work? they don't”. Just like Satan’s railing accusations.
ReplyDeleteJesus called this sin “blasphemy against the Holy Ghost”. Why?
“Let us alone. What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us before us. I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God” (Mk 1: 24)
"And unclean spirits, when they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried saying, Thou art the Son of God” (Mk 3: 11).
Anonymous said, “Perhaps your prayers would be better served for people facing natural disaster or on Kim Jong Un's hardened little heart”?
ReplyDeleteWill, rather than talk about Dear Leader Kim, aka “Rocket Man” how about this.
The Brazil-Peru border. 2 isolated Indian tribe massacres in the Amazon. 1 occurred in 2016 & just discovered. Another happened around May 2017.
Priorites.
Thanks for trying to educate POTUS-INO...unfortunately the article is too long. He will never read it :-/
ReplyDeleteI have a suspicion that the bog standard attitudes of professional-managerial types are so at a variance with that of the rest of the population that they have no clue how offensive they are (and are sufficiently arrogant that they have no salutary response when they do get disagreeable feedback). What’s surprising is how pervasive this is nowadays. You expect it in academe and the legal profession and the entertainment business, not anywhere else. As for Roger Goodell, the entire adult life of this late-middle-aged man has been spent as an employee of the National Football League. He may no longer be able to conceive of a perspective outside its intramural culture.
ReplyDeleteHow can you be in favor of players kneeling? It is disrespectful to our country and our military. If players care about justice they would go about it in different ways. Every player should be required to stand. I agree the article is too long.
ReplyDeleteWell written, Mark, the fact that POTUS will never take the time to read notwithstanding. Maybe if you could get someone to produce a Dr. Seuss style book with pictures he would be able to read and, maybe, comprehend some of it.
ReplyDeleteNFL may be kneeling, locking arms & praying for another reason.
ReplyDeleteCurrent NFL players project that between 10 and 40 percent of the league is using human growth hormone, or HGH, a banned substance that increases strength, decreases body fat and facilitates quicker healing from injury.
“Steroids aren’t the problem. HGH is the big problem. For the past four or five years, the league has been almost overrun by HGH,” a veteran player said. “The new testing procedures aren’t catching anyone, because players know there is almost no way to get caught.”
I will mail you a comment.
ReplyDelete