In this book, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. As Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and it was also praised in the highest offices of government and the military.
Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by United States Army General Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.” Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes United States history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative.
Source for above: http://www.reddirtsite.com/indigenous-movement.html
Join us to discuss this book. We'll share what stood out for us...what challenged us, what we learned, questions we have… whatever comes up. Come with a favorite passage from the book.
Our book discussion group is now called:
Antiracists Leaning Into Books (ALiB)
We have a lot to learn, and we do it better together.
All are welcome.
- Parking (free) is available on the street and in a lot behind the center. Let us know your needs so we can help make the event accessible for you. Meeting location suggestions welcome.
- RSVP if you can come to this meeting, and change it if your plans change, PLEASE!
We meet in the Moon Room on the 2nd floor of the Common Street Spiritual Center. Come in the side door and go up the stairs.
Our book discussions so far:
- "So You Want to Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo
- "Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color" by Andrea J. Ritchie
- "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas
- "You Have the Right to Remain Innocent" by James Duane
- "Neither Wolf Nor Dog, On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder" by Kent Nerburn
For Feb.:
- "White Trash. The 400-Year Untold History of Class" by Nancy Isenberg
- "On the Other Side of Freedom, The Case for Hope" by DeRay Mckesson
- "White Fragility" by Robin DiAngelo, PhD.
- "Unraveling the "Model Minority" Stereotype" by Stacey Lee
- "How to be an Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi
This group is a part of Boston Knapsack Anti-Racism Group.
To help us be prepared and to communicate if there are changes in plans, registration is required. Use our Meetup page (also go here to learn about our other events) or email the organizer (4change.resource@gmail.com) and update your RSVP if your plans change. Thank you.