`The Rape of the Ape' Revisited: An Alternative Who's Who in American Society
an essay by
Lilian Friedberg ¸ 1996
Britons have long been horrified by Americans' use, abuse and misuse of the English language and, people on the European continent clearly distinguish between American and British English. This for good reason. Certain phrases commonplace in American parlance don't even exist across the Atlantic: Drive-by shooting, crack house, drug-free school zone, murder-free day, gang-banger, drive-by delivery and others head the list.
Europeans would be equally chagrined by the miskewed nomenclature speakers of American English use to describe themselves. The OED cites "native Englishman" as an example of the word "native" meaning "being such by birth or origin". Here, though, we use the term "Native American" to distinguish "American" "Indians" from Euro-, African- and Asian-Americans. But Native American Indians are neither Indian nor American by birth or origin. They are Indigenous Turtle Islanders. Correcting this misnomer would entail conceding to some hard-to-swallow facts of life in these dis-United States, first and foremost amongst them the notion that Columbus did not discover America: he was simply the first one brazen enough to disparage it. We'd have to accept the idea that "Native Americans" do not share a common ancestry with ethnic groups in the East or West Indies, but constitute a distinct population of peoples indigenous to a particular area having been designated as "Turtle Island" since time immemorial. Adopting strictly Oxford English interpretations of these terms would logically result in the elimination of at least two national holidays -- Columbus and Independence Days -- because we'd be forced to acknowledge the great disservice Columbus actually did to a significant number of American citizens, creating for them a pathology of economic and political dependence on a system that is as alien to them as Greek is to "us", a fact of life currently commemorated annually on the fourth of July. We would have to face the painful reality that we -- as "Americans" -- made ourselves at home in a place that really wasn't home to us at all.
From a global perspective, all the identifying labels used to divide and separate the American people are inappropriate. The historical development of these terms is understandable, but they are inconsistent with prevailing cultural norms in the United States, in Europe and in Africa. On the European and the African continents, ethnic groups are distinguished according to the languages they speak and other cultural characteristics, not on the color of their skin. So, a French-speaking person is French regardless of color and creed [Ahem....]. Tribal peoples in Africa, too, identify themselves according to cultural and linguistic characteristics, not physical or facial features. In Europe, as in Africa, these groups of culturally connected peoples form sovereign nations theoretically designed to peacefully coexist. Any cultural classification of peoples based solely on the color of their skin is defined, in the English language, as racism and the strategy of "divide and conquer" has been successful to campaigns for conquest throughout the history of the West. These concepts, particularly when they appear in conjunction, inevitably lead to war.
In America, what separates most Euro-, African-, Asian- and native-Americans is the color of their skin. Common cultural characteristics -- greed, money- and status-worship, lack of integrity, absence of ethics, cultural ignorance and arrogance, narrow-mindedness, lack of education, propensity toward violence and destructive ways of life, random mean-spiritedness, insane jealousy, indifference to social injustice and inequity -- identify them for what they are: native Americans, i.e. persons native to post-Columbian America. It is unlikely that Dr. King was dreaming of a new pair of Michael Jordans at the foot of the mountain.
People of all colors are equally susceptible to the sickly seductive phenomenon we in Europe, Africa and the Americas have come to know as the "American Way of Life" and participate in it with varying degrees of enthusiasm. This phrase is not even translated into most foreign languages, but spoken in English with a foreign accent because "the American Way of Life," much like the terms "drive-by shooting," "crack house," "drug-free school zone," "gang-banger" and "murder-free day" has no cultural equivalent in other countries -- save those areas that have been subject to North American imperialist intervention, most prominent perhaps in Latin America. Even there, though, they don't celebrate "National Missing Children's Day." Most native Americans, though, remain oblivious to the uniqueness of these terms and the phenomena they describe. With the help of the mass media, we are led to believe that our world is the world and everyone everywhere has to worry about working at the wrong post office for fear of being shot by a disgruntled employee or bombed into oblivion by a raging right wing radical. Images of an AIDs infested Africa at war with itself and Europe overrun by Nazi terrorists placate us into believing we've got it pretty good here. For most of us, the way we view the world outside these dis-United States is colored by myths created by the media to inspire in us the illusion of our own "civility". In reality, Europeans and Africans alike might wonder how a government that cannot even manage to construct a city street that doesn't fall apart each spring or protect federal employees from violent death on the job ever came to achieve the status of "world power." The vast cultural divide between America and the rest of the "civilized" world is perhaps best exemplified by a recent incident in which a Dutch couple visiting the US was arrested and charged with neglect because they left their toddler in a stroller outside the grocery store. It's common practice in Europe where no one would so much as dream of stealing a baby from a stroller. Considering the rapid rate at which our grand `ol American scheme is spreading throughout the world, it won't be long before kids have to be put on a leash in Europe as well. It is already the case in India and Latin America, less so in Africa because Black babies are devalued on the booming "black market" by virtue of Blackness being at the bottom of the barrel of American apes.
The term "Euro-American" has come to carry with it certain pejorative implications: "Euro-Americans" are white Americans automatically assumed to be exploitive of, prejudiced toward and ignorant of ethnic traditions and lumped together with the band of bad boys who enslaved African peoples in order to enlist them in the systematic destruction of Indigenous nations in order to perpetuate the "American Way of Life." In many cases, the shoe fits, if not the glove.
Because I spent many years living and working in Europe, the term "Euro-American" is perhaps more applicable for me than for most. At the same time, though, this is the country of both my birth and my "roots". When my great-grandmother -- described in geneological records as a "Minnesota Indian" and on her death certificate as "American Indian -- Ojibwe" - died at the age of 107, she may have been the oldest living Ojibwe in the state of Wisconsin. In the turmoil of the 1860's, when the State of Minnesota was formed, my native roots got lost in the shuffle. But my poetry has been used by elders to teach Ojibwe beliefs on the reservation. Still, as a consequence of "Euro-American" determination to take the notion of manifest destiny to its ultimate end, I am fluent in German, not Ojibwe, and, even though the Judaic tradition stipulates that you must be born of a Jewish mother to be classified as Jewish by tradition, most people here consider me Jewish by virtue of my German-Jewish name. I spent years immersed in African culture in Africa and in Europe and am -- from an objective perspective -- more knowledgable about African culture than many African Americans. My experience, though, has been that admitting to any knowledge of the German language or cultural affiliation with Germany in America puts you in league with a bunch of Nazis -- the Teutonian equivalent of the KKK. From an American perspective, I am best categorized as a "race traitor." Americans who adopt this stance, though, aren't even informed about the past 50 years of European history!
I am but one of many who, culturally and genetically, necessarily falls through the cracks in the red, white and black backboard this country has become. Who but the very few in this country can lay claim to "racial purity"? Considering that this is the very term Hitler used to describe his theory of Aryan superiority, one would consider this a concept we would hope to eliminate from the world, not propagate.Yet, all of our movements toward "cultural diversity" seem to be pointed in this direction.
Like most Americans, my knowledge of the Ojibwe language is superficial at best, restricted to a few Indian place names and three small, but significant phrases: Meegwitch (thank you), Indinaway muginag (all my relations) and nind Anishinabe (I am Indian). The term "Anishinabe" was explained to me by Ernie St. Germaine, a teacher of Native American culture at the University of Wisconsin. "Anishinabe" means "original people." "Nind Anishinabe," in a literal translation, then, does not mean "I am Indian," it means "I am an original people." People, not person. Of all the linguistic terminology describing human identity I have encountered in my work as a bi-lingual, multi-cultural translator, this is the only phrase I have stumbled upon that expresses the essence of humanity as an amalgam: "I am an original people," captures that glimpse of species solidarity which must have, at one time, inspired the whole of the human race to see itself as one with itself, with the Earth, the Sky and everything in between.
As an authentic "Euro-American," as Indigenous Turtle Islander and as a native American in love with my country, I resent the connotations attached to the term "Euro-American" by people in these dis-United States because they are completely removed from the reality of modern-day and historical European culture. Like Africa and the Americas, Europe was once populated by tribal, Indigenous peoples, all of whom shared certain ethical standards determining the development of cultural norms and practice. Amongst them: deep respect for the Earth and for women as human representatives of the Earth and the female principle in the cosmos coupled with an absolute commitment to the preservation and enhancement of human, animal and plant life as a means for maintaining the natural harmony of the universe. Residual traces of these belief systems are much more evident in European culture today than they are in America. Increasingly, studies show that the modern-day European way of life is healthier, more cooperative, collaborative, more humane, economically sustainable and environmentally sound than the disposable, drive-by culture that has developed in the United States over the course of the past five hundred years. It is precisely because Europeans in Europe are more aware and in tune with their own indigenous roots in the Earth that this is true. Here in America, we seem to have focused our sights so exclusively on Father God and the big bankbook in the sky that we've forgotten we, too, sprang -- at some point in our distant European past -- from the humble roots of Mother Earth.
It is heartbreaking to know how "we" "Americans" are perceived outside this country: we are considered illiterate, superficial, shallow, uncultured, anti-social, money hungry and self-centered. The sad thing is, this assessment seems pretty close to the truth from a global perspective. From an American one, it's just "normal." Ignoring it isn't going to make it go away. As Euro-Americans, it would serve us well to look toward these, our own Indigenous roots, instead of constantly trying to appropriate those of others. How many Euro-Americans know who Hildegard von Bingen was? How many know what a "bhodran" is? Certainly our numbers will shrink as we scour the horizon for some knowledge of the Malleus Maleficarum, a chapter in our European history as devastatingly significant to women as the Nazi Holocaust to the Jews, the conquest of the West to the Indians and the history of slavery to the Blacks. Who but the most learned Jewish scholar amongst us knows that Lilith, not Eve, was the first wife of Adam? Who but the most radical of feminists might go so far as to contend that Lilith , like Jesus himself, could not possibly have been "white"? It would be to the benefit of all American citizens to ascertain precisely how "Euro-Americans" spent their time before they began crusading, conquering and commercializing the rest of the world.
Until we know these things, we will never be able to respect and participate in the cultural traditions of others with dignity and grace. Then and only then will we be able to speak of "Euro-Americans" as a cultural classification and know what we are talking about. In the absence of grace granted by knowledge of the world, we will persist in trampling over everyone to get where we think we want to be. We need to follow the example of "African" and "Native" Americans in retrieving and re-claiming our own pre-Christian history in order to understand what it means to have a cultural history, instead of appropriating their traditions to fill our spiritual void. The alternative is to accept McDonalds, Mickey Mouse and the Trail of Broken Treaties as the cornerstone of our own "Euro-American" identity. What is wrong with Americans is that we don't know who we are. Without knowing where we come from and who we have been, we can never know who we hope to be.
The advantage the American system has over others is its simplicity: it is red, white and black-and-blue with little room for anything between. It is based on illusion, not truth and dedicated to a proposition, not fact. And, for most of native America, it works: It works to keep people pitted against one another in a system of institutionalized and internalized racial warfare. It works to uphold the status quo, thereby helping the rich get richer and the poor poorer. It's the easiest way to insure the permanent need for bigger and better prisons and social programs to deal with uniquely American cultural phenonema like drive-by shootings, gang-banging and drug-related violence. It keeps Americans entertained by the two-ring circus the political arena has become. It works to keep insiders in and outsiders out. It guarantees us the security of what we know and the fear of what we don't.
Now that the cold war is over and there is little left to fight for or against in Korea, Vietnam, the Falklans, Iran or Iraq, our internal enemy lines must be defended more fiercely than ever to maintain the martial mentality of us-and-them that has been the American Way of Life since the shot heard round the world was first fired on "American" soil. "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses" Lady Lazarus begged of the rest of the world. If they'd known the price they would pay for their place in the melting pot of misery and malice native America has become, I doubt the Indigneous Immigrants would have come because most of them now live in the same poverty, oppression and despair they sought to escape while 10% of native Americans enjoy the decadent opulence of life at the top and Indigenous Turtle Islanders bow their heads in shame, concentrating their efforts on shaking the burden of native, post-Columbian America from their backs.As a genuine, purebred Heinz 57 mongrel, better known in the Ebonics dialect simply as "white bitch" simply because the mix is not visible on the surface (i.e. my skin), I have one thing to say about this situation: If this was my constitutional guarantee, I want my money back.
The fact is, African Americans were the Guinea pigs in the US government's grand scheme to enslave everyone in a system of domination and submission designed by the few to serve the few at the expense of the many. The entire country is currently caught in the backdraft of those developments. The LA riots, the Oklahoma city bombing and the burning of Black churches in the south are tangible expressions of the "problem".
Any master/slave relationship involves an ecomonic agreement between two parties: a buyer and a seller. The third party, i.e. the slave, is considered property, not person. We might logically conclude that, in the prototypical master/slave relationship, a man in Africa -- presumably Black -- sold a piece of "his" property, i.e. a Black woman, to a man in Europe -- presumably white. The rest of the story is his-story and the whole of the American population is currently after a piece of the pie. We vie against each other now for one of two things: revenge or the role of "master" in the master/slave game, but in the planetary Indigenous scheme, both these things belong to the realm of "God" -- whoever he, she or it may be conceived to be. Neither of them can be borrowed, bought or sold. To posit the opposite is to spit in the face of "God" and deny the very essence of our humanity. Americans seem to have lost sight of the fact that they, too, are only human. Nothing more, nothing less.
In America today, there is once again revolution in the air. It is up to us to decide which way the tide will turn. We may evolve or devolve from this American nightmare. There is nothing in between.
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