President Biden is signing an Executive Order today that will put an end to the Keystone XL pipeline.

I’m sharing a few of the pieces I wrote re #NoKXL that shows how long my people have been fighting it. Water the Life giver was published by Indian Country Today in 2011.

So post President Biden’s inauguration speech, we’re going to see more #SouthernStrategy rhetoric emerge.

In particular, white folk being upset about the terms “racism” and “racist.”

And, I’m going to share response technique that my mother always used to clarity her points...

Condemn the actions not the person.

White folk see “racist” through a shallow criteria of taboo racism; saying “nigger” in the open or being a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Even then racism will be met as an abstract. It’s why even overt racism doesn’t always register.

See; domestic terror attack on the US Capitol.

So because they want to internalize the term as a slur, without giving a single thought to their behavior — separate them.

Condemn the actions not the person.

It’s a great way to dismantle the tactics and put a spotlight on what racism is.

Here’s examples of my mom doing it...

“You’re not bad, but what you said was bad.”

“You’re not stupid, but what you did was stupid.”

This allowed her to correct me by examining my actions, extrapolating deeds and their effect on others.

1/13
I have watched every presidential inauguration that I can remember, since I was a little boy, and long before I ever imagined I would live in America. But I had never watched one the way I watched the inauguration of Joe Biden. #velshi

2/13
I’d never considered the details leading up to an inauguration. I watched this one like a nervous parent, making sure everything went as planned. #velshi

3/13
Thanks to the last four years, everything is different, now. Our demons are on full display, our Union is certifiably imperfect. Our nation is divided. #velshi

4/13
After a year that takes first place in our history for death, destruction, fear and injustice, normalcy is struggling to regain its place. One thing with which we will struggle in this new day for America is the death of shame. #velshi

5/13
In addition to the other norms the former president destroyed, he turned lying - deliberate, casual and often with the force of law - into an art form and, with that, contributed to the death of shame. #velshi

Today is Inauguration Day. It will be a milestone day for QAnon supporters. We may see splintering as Biden takes office between those realizing QAnon isn't real & those doubling down & moving the goalposts. Here's a poll from a QAnon Telegram channel today suggesting a divide.

Did the Biden inauguration really have to start with "This Land Is Your Land," an ode to land theft, settler colonialism and Indigenous genocide? (No matter how well-intentioned Woody Guthrie may have been.) YOU ARE ON NATIVE LAND!

Every presidential inauguration has in effect been a celebration of Indigenous land theft & genocide, whether directly stated or not. Settlers exerting the power of their settler government and "ownership" over Indigenous lands.

At John F. Kennedy's 1961 inauguration, poet Robert Frost began: “The land was ours before we were the land’s…Such as we were we gave ourselves outright (The deed of gift was many deeds of war)." That settler white "We," justifying and erasing genocide, slavery, history.

At Teddy Roosevelt's 1905 inauguration, he had 6 famous
chiefs on horseback to give the people "a good show." The chiefs came hoping to appeal for justice, but instead were displayed to represent what TR & others viewed as the complete subjugation of Indigenous peoples & lands.

The chiefs included Quanah Parker of the Comanche, Buckskin Charlie from the Ute, Hollow Horn Bear and American Horse of the Sioux, Little Plume from the Blackfeet and the imprisoned Apache warrior Geronimo, who pleaded in vain with Teddy Roosevelt for the release of his people.