Nokemos lecture on Two-Spiritedness

Native Americans and Two-Spiritedness

After I saw how beneficial the first lecture I went to at Nokemos was, I decided to check out another one. I thought that the lecture on Two-Spiritedness would be interesting because it combined what we talked about with Native Americans as well as GLBT issues. The speaker at this lecture was a Native American woman, who was also African American. She began the lecture by saying, "I am black. I am Native. I am a lesbian. These are all parts of me". She described how she used to struggle with understanding her own identity. People would often ask "what she was", and she said that she would choose either Native American or black, but never both. Now, she is comfortable saying that she is black, native, and is also not afraid to tell people that she is a lesbian.
What I want to address in this post, though, is a comment made by someone in the audience. During the lecture, the speaker used the word "queer". Immediately, a woman raised her hand. She told the speaker that she has been an educator for thirty years. She said that she thought that the word "queer" was bad, and that it should never be used. She also commented that she always thought of herself as "colorblind", and that every year, she teaches her students to not see color. She said that she tells them that color and race do not matter. The speaker began by addressing the woman's concern about her use of the word queer. She told us all that you need to know the people that you are speaking to. Some members of the GLBT community prefer the word queer, some prefer the word gay. However, she said that it has become a general consensus in the community that queer is not necessarily an offensive term. I thought this was interesting because it tied into one of the topics we discussed in class. We talked about language, and how important it is to know who you are talking to.
Next, she repeated the words she spoke at the beginning of the lecture. She told the woman in the audience, "I am black. I am native. I am a lesbian". However, this time she went into greater depth. She told us that those are all parts of her identity. She said, "People see that I'm black. That is reality. It is also important to me. So is the fact that I am Native. And I do not want it to be ignored". When I left the lecture, this is one of the things that I kept thinking about. I've heard people use the term "colorblind", and how we are all members of the human race. While this is true, we are all humans and all equal, I think it would be very detrimental to ignore someone's race or ethnicity. These things contribute to someone's identity, and saying that you will look past them seems like you are saying that they do not matter. Race and ethnicity, along with gender or sexuality, all play an important role in someone's identity, and should be appreciated.