Quote Originally Posted by yzb25 View Post
What even is a real issue though? Excuse my curtness, but the holocaust has already happened. Whether people acknowledge it has everything to do with "respect" more than anything else. You can try to make some slippery slope argument about how enough people not acknowledging it may lead to the same mistakes being made again but ppl don't need to acknowledge the existence of the holocaust to understand the process of genocides in general (othering, dehumanization, extermination, denial). I'm confused as to how you can appreciate this as bad but not appreciate the genocidal undertones of the various ways in which the US has historically (and continues to) piss over Native American culture.
I agree. Acknowledging the Holocaust comes out of respect for what the people involved had to go through. The issue as I see it is when a problem becomes an imagined one. I think the name of some sports team in Washington is one of those issues that doesnt actually exist (I assume thats what youre talking about). I dont see that calling your team the ‘Washington Redskins’ is disrespecting native americans. Its kinda the opposite in my view. If you name your team after something you obviously like or think highly to some degree of that thing.

Is it okay to deny that the Trail of Tears happened? No, it isnt, and thats I would say a real problem to a degree (although nowhere near as bad as the Holocaust, because it happened in the relatively remote past and didnt have the same death toll). As for the current genocidal manner in which NAs are being treated, I’d very interested in hearing what you’re talking about here!