2006-08-24 04:56:17 · 18 answers · asked by Olivia 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
If "Americans" felt sympathy for Native Americans, they would have to admit that they were responsible for all the horrors that Native Americans have experienced in the last 500 years. Thus, most "Americans" like to pretend that Native Americans don't exist; or that somehow they had it coming, as many rednecks in Yahoo have suggested, because they are "lazy, dirty, and just want to get fat on welfare." This, of course, is completely untrue.
"Americans" don't feel sympathy for Native Americans because if they did, they would not only have to bear the responsibility for the legacy of centuries of genocide and slavery, but also they would have to admit that Native Americans are still being actively oppressed by their government which does everything it can to keep native peoples from gaining autonomy for their own nations. Americans don't want to admit that the reservation system is nothing but a gulag that our government is hoping will eventually break the native spirit and force them to assimilate into the dominating occupation culture. That isn't going to happen either. Native people are alive and strong and will not be broken, no matter what the "Americans" throw at them.
2006-08-24 05:13:03 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think what happened to both Native Americans and Jews in the past was horrible. What I don't quite understand is why Jews were given back their ancestral lands by the rest of the world, and not Native Americans?
Technically, reforming the state of Isreal was like saying "ok, we're going to take Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio and give it back to the Native Americans. Everyone who's there now needs to get out."
Why should descendents pay for the mistakes of ancestors? Israelites conquered Caanan to create their nation originally, did they have the right to call it theirs? On the other hand, several generations of new Isrealis have now been born... so now I'd say they have the right to defend and keep the only home they've ever known.
I guess the answer is to just make sure you respect the boundaries of indigenous people.
2006-08-24 12:04:51 · answer #2 · answered by Eldritch 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
As a person i don't sympathize with one more than the other.... but as a whole (Americans) I think so actually. I mean in school it seems like we hear a little about the trail of tears and such.... and the native americans on the reservations. But we hear so much about the Jews and the holocaust. So I would have to say that statement does ring true. I mean more ppl are familiar with the Jews than the Native Americans anyway. But thats just what I think........
2006-08-24 12:07:38 · answer #3 · answered by Leelee 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Actually us Americans have much more sympathy for the Native Americans than the Jews. A native american in the US has free education. Going to college in America is super expensive.
2006-08-24 11:58:59 · answer #4 · answered by Tones 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I can't help you with early American or Jewish history...I wasn't around to do anything about it nor do I have the ability or authority to apologize for something for which I bear no responsibility.
Today however, the Indians are living just fine and enjoy the benefits of American society just as the rest of Americans do. That some choose to dwell on the past is something that the individual Indian will have deal with in a productive fashion.
Today, the Israelis are under perpetual attack by enemy sovereign nations who, simply, want each Jewish person murdered. The reasons why aren't important...the stated objective of those terrorist nations is unacceptable to civilized people. For this reason, the U.S. is sympathetic to each Israeli's right to life.
Had the degree of enlightenment that exists in the United States today been prevalent back in the 1600-1900's, I imagine that the entire Indian "problem" would have been dealt with in a far more equitable manner. But it wasn't...and we can't change history. I don't think that the Indians were treated fairly back then...but they are being treated fairly now. Such is life.
2006-08-24 12:16:32 · answer #5 · answered by 4999_Basque 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Umm.. well let me first say that that is not universally true.
However, if you are speaking of the NATION, I can't say for sure. It would be my suspicion that the United States helped the Jewish community when it was being ostracized in other nations, something the U.S. can take pride in. This versus the Native American community which was all but wiped out by the Trail of Tears, etc. by the hand of U.S. government. Something that they should be ashamed of, and are. I don't think its that they sympathize more with the Jewish then the Native Americans, anymore at least, but that they don't want to acknowledge the group because they don't want to acknowledge what they did to them. It's their dirty little secret.
2006-08-24 12:01:37 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Selective caring. I'm not one of them. I sympathise with the native Americans and not one bit for the jews.
2006-08-24 12:04:28 · answer #7 · answered by kekeke 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Well I'm not so sure about your parallel...
I sympathize with the Native Americans.
I also sympathize with God's chosen people.
I disagree with how the Natives of the U.S. were and are treated.
I also disagree with how the Israelites / Jews are treated...by the ENTIRE world!
2006-08-24 12:00:20 · answer #8 · answered by Salvation is a gift, Eph 2:8-9 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
bcos the americans did not tyrannize the jews while they did exactly that to the natives. And of course, if you havent noticed yet - whatever americans do is right! (yeah, right!)
2006-08-24 11:58:59 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Bec we live with the native americans
2006-08-24 12:01:19 · answer #10 · answered by The Foosaaaah 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋