Dreaming the World

After a balmy weekend, today is rainy and raw; it has become chillier as the day has gone on. Much of the rain has been heavy but for now is a fine mist. We greatly need the rain so this dark, wet day is much appreciated.

I’ve been watching as the current administration deletes references to gays, women, and people of color, including Medal of Honor recipients, from government websites. I’m curious as to how others are reacting to these acts of erasure.

There all all sorts of ways to erase someone and we are witnessing any number of them being used. It’s hair raising really, and very very familiar. One way the administration is erasing large numbers of people is through the dismantling of healthcare and health research. It appears that a great many people will lose Medicaid in the coming months as the program was slashed by Congress.

The administration has also essentially ended research that focused on cancer, HIV, a range of neurological illness, women’s needs, and the unique health care issues of people of color. Crucial research was terminated and only research that benefits white males seems likely to be funded.

Yet another front in the war against diversity is the administration’s outlawing of any mention of diversity on government sites and the dismantling of most diversity focused college programs. I guess one has to be male and white to count in today’s America.

Making space for a wide range of stories is essential to a functioning multicultural society. Colonial powers and their surrogates have long attempted to erase the history and culture of colonized people so they lose a sense of who they are and where they came from, and along with that, a sense of pride in their cultures and themselves.

I often remind myself that a significant percentage of Americans approve of and support the administration’s efforts to dehumanize and marginalize, even threaten, much of the population. This is actually nothing new, but until now most of white America was spared the onslaught. Sadly, things are likely to get much worse.

The great Native scholar, Gerald Vizenor, coined a remarkable word for the practice of maintaining self and culture in the face of erasure: survivance. It is crucial that all who refuse to abide the erasure of any persons and cultures, gather, share, and protect our stories of difference, resistance, and joy. What are your family and cultural stories of survivance?