7th grader suspended for saying 'i love you' in her native language

[bcbm]

http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com/menominee-seventh-grader-suspended-for-saying-i-love-you-in-her-native-language.html

[Tim Cornelis]

How dare those kids teach and learn each other things in school!

[RevSpetsnaz]

The teachers involved should be severely reprimanded, possibly fired.

[Misanthrope]

Xenophobia..

[Susurrus]

The fuck!?!?! This is straight out of the 1800s!:cursing:

[NewLeft]

The fuck!?!?! This is straight out of the 1800s!:cursing:

Nah, this is today's reality.

[Zostrianos]

Miranda attends Sacred Heart Catholic Academy in Shawano

That's all you need to know :thumbdown:

[bcbm]

i don't think discrimination against american indians is limited to catholics unfortunately

[Ostrinski]

Catholicism needs to be bulldozed.

[GoddessCleoLover]

Alas, the indigenous peoples of the United States continue to suffer outrageous oppression.

[gorillafuck]

Catholicism needs to be bulldozed.American society has a hostility towards Native Americans when they're not being put on display for cash. it's not just Catholics.

I do think that this is able to happen because it is a private school, though. state funded schools are shit and often racist too but they usually have a bit more sense then to do something so blatantly and openly racist as this.

[RevSpetsnaz]

Is this any different from the Arizona English ordeal?

[blake 3:17]

Is this any different from the Arizona English ordeal?

Same garbage. Different racism.

[blake 3:17]

How dare those kids teach and learn each other things in school! And show affection! God and State must damn these tweens for Having Feelings.


I do think that this is able to happen because it is a private school, though. state funded schools are shit and often racist too but they usually have a bit more sense then to do something so blatantly and openly racist as this.

There is racism in the public sector as well -- it`s usually dealt with in a more direct and democratic manner. If it isn`t there are mechanisms in place for the issue to be pushed further. I`m just glad it was reported.

[piet11111]

The fuck!?!?! This is straight out of the 1800s!:cursing:

Well the rightwing wants us to start living in conditions as if its the 1800s so their consistent.

[RevSpetsnaz]

Same garbage. Different racism.

Not really, its all an effort to cleanse society of "foreign" culture.

[Zealot]

Catholic schools and all religious schools should be forced to close down. This is disgusting.

[Dr. Fish]

It's pretty cool that this 7th grader knows her language! A lot of native American kids have lost their language, but in recent years there's been a come back.
I remember I was in Akwesasne, a Mohawk Reservation in Canada-NY, and I was hearing about how when the elderly came to an alternative private school that was a language immersion school that taught Mohawk, they started tearing up hearing all the little kids running around playing games and speaking Mohawk, the language they had shamed out of them.

[blake 3:17]

I'm very proud of Miranda Washinawatok.

[manic expression]

Despicable. Those responsible need to be exposed and never allowed to set foot inside a school for the rest of their lives.

A lot of people don't know that official US government efforts to eradicate native languages were as recent as the 60's IIRC. This isn't something we should expect to be relegated to the 1800's, it's an issue of our own time.

[blake 3:17]

Agree with ME's post above but
Those responsible need to be exposed and never allowed to set foot inside a school for the rest of their lives.

They need to make an apology to the student, and to the larger school community. Everyone makes mistakes. Over handed punitive action creates new divisions.

If the the fuckers ever do it again!!! Game over.

[Franz Fanonipants]

as a practicing catholic who has taught in catholic schools, catholic schools are pretty fucking terrible (catholic school teachers tend to be terrible, anyways)

of course, that said, you fucking crazies, presbyterian and public schools in the American Southwest had a solid policy of beating spanish and indian language speakers for using home language well into the 1980s so

[Drowzy_Shooter]

this is the kind of news that makes me want to play russian roulette with a semi automatic.

[Ostrinski]

this is the kind of news that makes me want to play russian roulette with a semi automatic...What? What the fuck is with you religious people?

[Franz Fanonipants]

..What? What the fuck is with you religious people?

omg shut up

[GallowsBird]

How dare a NATIVE girl speak her NATIVE tongue in the country both it and herself are NATIVE to! :rolleyes:

It just shows you the oppression that Native Americans (the most oppressed group in US history) have to suffer daily. :(

[Ostrinski]

omg shut uphttp://gamesprays.com/images/icons/problem-officer-4025_preview.png

[Ocean Seal]

Xenophobia..
Ironically, if nationalists believe half the shit they spew, it is their [the Native Americans] country.

[Sendo]

Xenophobia..

I appreciate the sentiment the sentiment, but you've got it 100% backwards. The school teachers are the "xeno" as far as I'm concerned.

[Sendo]

That's all you need to know :thumbdown:

For the record, because everyone likes to badmouth Catholic schools, they aren't that bad. They're nothing like the rich prep schools. They're anything but rich, and in general not very "religious" anymore. I had to go to Masses once a month and do religious studies class, but my religious studies classes started off with introductions to the Bible from a liberation theology standpoint, progressed to comparative religions, and had I not transferred to the public school, would have matured into an ethics/morality/philosophy course.

There was one Jewish teacher and all faculty and students believed in evolution. Racism and homophobia were punished harshly.

The public school was dominated by a thinly veiled Baptist/Methodist/Lutheran chauvinism that was thinly veiled and it was my first encounter with Creationists who were older than 12 years old.

This is ignorance at work, likely from teachers who are from outside the district in which they teach, or have lived in the quite comfort of the white part of town.

[Sendo]

as a practicing catholic who has taught in catholic schools, catholic schools are pretty fucking terrible (catholic school teachers tend to be terrible, anyways)

Have you had any experience with public school teachers? I've found that public school and Catholic school to be equivalent (some poor, some fair, some great) and I've subbed at a number of schools.

[The Dark Side of the Moon]

This is one of the cases of "who gives a fuck"
Shit happens

[Zostrianos]

For the record, because everyone likes to badmouth Catholic schools, they aren't that bad...

I'm mainly going by what Catholic institutions did to the natives here in Canada, especially the notorious residential schools.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system)That and the classical Catholic hatred of non Christian cultures and colonialist policies (which motivated missionaries to eradicate traditional cultures - converting those 'savage heathens' into true civilized Christians :thumbdown:).



How dare a NATIVE girl speak her NATIVE tongue in the country both it and herself are NATIVE to! :rolleyes:
It just shows you the oppression that Native Americans (the most oppressed group in US history) have to suffer daily. :(

Reminds me of this awesome cartoon I saw a while back :laugh::
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__yNJNuTMHuM/R6Js0RjvPpI/AAAAAAAAAH8/eCT35RuaDLI/s400/American+Indian.JPG

[Olentzero]

This quote from the article really disgusts me:
The teacher went back to where the two were sitting and literally slammed her hand down on the desk and said, "How do I know you are not saying something bad?" Only time I ever hear that is from people who are monolingual and feel inferior because of it. Those two teachers deserve to be disciplined - and harshly.

Oooh, I know! How about a mandatory Menominee immersion class?

[El Chuncho]

This is one of the cases of "who gives a fuck"
Shit happens

You don't give a fuck about a CHILD being suspended just for speaking words of love in her own native language?

Heartless, dude. Heartless.

[RevSpetsnaz]

This is one of the cases of "who gives a fuck"
Shit happens

When a language dies every fourteen days i "give a fuck".

[Franz Fanonipants]

Have you had any experience with public school teachers? I've found that public school and Catholic school to be equivalent (some poor, some fair, some great) and I've subbed at a number of schools.

yeah, no i guess you are right. elementary teachers are the fucking worst in terms of petit bourgeois w/the aim of replicating themselves.

[Franz Fanonipants]

]That and the classical Catholic hatred of non Christian cultures and colonialist policies (which motivated missionaries to eradicate traditional cultures - converting those 'savage heathens' into true civilized Christians :thumbdown:).

yes because we all know that protestants worked REAL HARD to create indian grammars for the purpose of converting indians

anglocentric fuck

[Zostrianos]

yes because we all know that protestants worked REAL HARD to create indian grammars for the purpose of converting indians

I never said Protestants were better. Organized Christianity in general has always been committed to cultural destruction.


anglocentric fuck

sigh :rolleyes:

[Franz Fanonipants]

I never said Protestants were better. Organized Christianity in general has always been committed to cultural destruction

yeah dude in general whites have always been committed to genocide so should whites get genocided or should we learn that maybe general terms are really stupid ones to form opinions on

dumbfuck

[manic expression]

yeah dude in general whites have always been committed to genocide so should whites get genocided or should we learn that maybe general terms are really stupid ones to form opinions on
I see your point, but I don't think it's inappropriate to note how organized Christianity has had a role in that sad history. After all, let's not forget that the Jesuits, who proposed adopting the cultural and even ritualistic aspects of non-Christians as a way to help conversion, were suppressed by the papacy partially because they were accused of drifting from European cultural standards. To the church (or at least the Jesuits' victorious opponents), using sandalwood in a religious context was unacceptable...not because of any theological concern per say, but because it wasn't what Europeans were supposed to do.

This isn't inherent in Christianity by any means, and that's important to say. Some Christians like Bartolomeo de las Casas played an extremely admirable role and did a lot of good, I think. However, it has been quite consistently the practice of the church arguably since Paul. In the Americas, this accelerated to pretty drastic effect.

[Franz Fanonipants]

I don't think it's inappropriate to note how organized Christianity has had a role in that sad history. After all, let's not forget that the Jesuits, who proposed adopting the cultural and even ritualistic aspects of non-Christians as a way to help conversion, were suppressed by the papacy partially because they were accused of drifting from European cultural standards. To the church (or at least the Jesuits' victorious opponents), using sandalwood in a religious context was unacceptable...not because of any theological concern per say, but because it wasn't what Europeans were supposed to do.

This isn't inherent in Christianity by any means, but it has been quite consistently the practice of the church arguably since Paul. In the Americas, this accelerated to a horrifying degree, and I think it's pretty self-evident that the church(es), on balance, had a very negative effect on the cultures and languages of the peoples of the Americas.

this is how you do it right.

yeah, obviously you're right. and further there's a really ugly history amongst francophone catholics in the americas to utilize the church as a way to suppress culture (it was done to other catholics in New Mexico and the broader southwest). in fact it persists today and among catholics. a professor i was speaking to who attend notre dame in the early 00s was told that if his religious studies degree was to focus on Mexican Catholic theology, it would be the obvious and only conclusion that Mexican Catholicism was inferior to mainline American and European forms of Catholicism.

one thing that should be remembered, this girl is probably from a Christian or a syncretist faith tradition.

[Firebrand]

Well for what it's worth it's all very well to critecise organised religion and faith schools, but from my own experience quite a lot of them work very hard to do their best by the children. While I may not be a believer and I definately don't support the church hiararchy, I can't condemn the effort that many religious people put in to offering a decent education for kids who are often from pretty deprived backgrounds.
I think this event was more symptomatic of the american education system generally than catholic schools specifically. And actually more symptomatic of the bougeois education system in general than anything else. They maintain their power by keeping us divided.