Reply #39: Yeah, it's as simple as blaming Republicans. Jesus.

[Dreamer Tatum]

I get the impression that people looked at the pictures and didn't read the text.

From the Q & A (emphases mine):


As for the problem and what people need to know about it, I’m not sure there is much to do. The Lakota, like most tribes, are self governed. Handouts aren’t the answer. Church groups painting over the gang signs on houses every few summers is not the answer. Pity is not the answer. The Lakota are an incredibly beautiful and proud people. There are pockets of strength in this failed state. They are usually formed around a school or a traditional teacher-medicine man or a strong head of a family who spreads it to his extended family.

I think I honestly want these photos to hurt the viewer. I want people to understand that what they see in these images is a result of a very long and very calculated oppression. It’s convenient that we can now step back and say: “Oh, no! Look. They are doing it to themselves! There is nothing we can do!” Very convenient for us. The story of the Lakota is the story of all indigenous people on every continent — they are steamrolled by the dominant society and pushed to the verge of extinction. Assimilate or die.



If we're going to be so simpleminded as to hang the suffering of indigenous people on dimson, then please explain to me how these people have flourished since January 2009, between 1993 and 2001, between 1977 and 1981, and so forth. The unpleasant truth is that these people and MANY groups like them have been fucked over and around for generations by everyone in power, and when you look at that level of hopelessness and destruction, the good intentions of people in Washington don't count for shit. And it's a problem so deep and ingrained that it's not going to get fixed in one generation, let alone in one administration.

I predict we will be reading stories a lot like this in the next 25-30 years, only based in the New Orleans area. Just a guess.