It never ceases to amaze me how white people love to whitewash American history. On the one hand, they love to remember how “they’’ built ...
It never ceases to amaze me how white people love to whitewash American history. On the one hand, they love to remember how “they’’ built this country while completely erasing the sacrifices and contributions of other communities, but when you point out the things it actually took to “build” this country—like the genocide of Native Americans and the kidnapping and enslaving of Africans—then it’s all, “My people weren’t here for that” or “We didn’t own any slaves.”
It’s the combination of blatant ignorance and racism for me.
Which brings us to former Republican senator and CNN pundit Rick Santorum, who has a history of saying some repugnant shit. Last week, while giving a speech at the Standing Up For Faith & Freedom Conference for the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization, he continued the longstanding tradition on the right of “saying shit without actually knowing shit” by claiming Native Americans didn’t contribute very much to American culture.
“We came here and created a blank slate. We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes we have Native Americans but candidly there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture,” the former Pennsylvania senator said.
CNN's Rick Santorum: "We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes we have Native Americans but candidly there isn't much Native American culture in American culture" pic.twitter.com/EMxOEYDbg7
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) April 26, 2021Let’s break this down, shall we?
So who is this “we” he speaks of? Well, given that the audience was a conservative youth organization, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say “white people.”
So how exactly did they create “a blank slate”?
Could it be there is no "Native American culture" because our government wiped it out by supplying them with smallpox-infested blankets, stripped tribes of their land, tore their families apart, Americanized their names, took their children and sent them to reeducation schools?
— stonecircle (@stone_circle) April 26, 2021“We birthed a nation…” I’m gonna stop right here because the total lack of self-awareness that made this reference to one of the all-time most racist movies about the history of this country ever just boggles the mind.
“There was nothing here.” Just WTF?
Scholars call this the “pristine nature” or “untouched wilderness” myth—the claim nothing was happening in America before colonization. It was used to justify the extermination of indigenous people, policies that Adolf Hitler said he drew inspiration from in writings & speeches. https://t.co/7YFNRYPuPT
— Dell Cameron (@dellcam) April 26, 2021
Of course, Twitter took the time to point out not only how racist Santorum’s statement was but also how factually wrong it was, too:
The Google Machine is free. https://t.co/m5LHPcmuqm
— Cristina 🇺🇸🇨🇺 (@TampaWoman1965) April 26, 2021
https://t.co/omlAtwejOu
— Crommunist (@Crommunist) April 26, 2021
WILDLY factually incorrect. Just completely 180 degrees and sprinting from historical fact.
Rick Santorum continuing effort of white nationalists to re-write history that this land was empty when white Europeans landed. From there they deny slaves played a huge role in building this country and deny that Jim Crow was that bad. This is the TOXIC white identity politics: https://t.co/M1aesa1oqh
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) April 26, 2021
I wonder how being he's from Pa he's never heard of Punxsutawney Phil. pic.twitter.com/cZ2m8dFPTL
— Night Mists 🇺🇸 🌜🌃🌌🌃🌛🇺🇸 (@Nitemists) April 26, 2021
No native American culture? How about corn, tobacco, potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes? Snowshoes, hammocks, canoes? The ranging way of warfare? The routes of our main roads? Lacrosse, hockey? Or perhaps the very idea of a federal union, modelled on the Six Nations of the Iroquois?
— Chris Woolf (@CCWoolf) April 26, 2021
Naturally, this also led to calls for CNN to fire Santorum (Honestly, why do they keep giving microphones to right wingnuts who constantly talk out of their asses?)
Hey @CNN how many Native Americans political commentators do you have?
— Rebecca Nagle (@rebeccanagle) April 26, 2021
Since you give a platform to ppl like Rick Santorum—whose entire career is based on scoring political points by taking cheap shots at LGBTQ folks, ppl of color and now Native Americans.
even if you ignore rick santorum, cnn is still elevating him and pumping into him millions of homes on a regular basis. "just ignore it" is how we got to this bad point and ignoring it will just make things worse.
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) April 26, 2021
Maybe next time, Santorum should stay away from history and stick to things he knows—which is absolutely nothing.Yeah, this is really racist, and @CNN continuing to employ him is really infuriating. https://t.co/r2uwmqS3YB
— Greg Pinelo (@gregpinelo) April 26, 2021
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