My Western (‘white’) great-grandfather was an alcoholic, so my grandfather as a boy of 12 years old started to look after his mother and his remaining siblings (3 had already died), plus he also took on the responsibility of educating them.
He absolutely HATED alcohol and also Church, which in communions dished out that EVIL drink – heh.
Great grandfather’s family had been “Svecoman” (supporters of the Swedish rule) but since he had married into a “Fennoman” family (the senator was a relative of) – sorry about the links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fennoman_movement
– my grandfather, the now Social Justice Warrior (SJW) as a young man also wanted to know more about the roots of Finnish culture and when an opportunity came for him to work for the St. Petersburg – Murmansk railway – he moved East:
https://www.lernidee.de/files/map_murman_railroad.jpg
When he in turn married this tiny, dark skinned woman from an area where people were called ‘Lapps’ – this was toooooo much. His family flat out refused to become God-Parents to my grandparent’s first born who was too dark … and they disowned us.
So never mind this absolutely useless alcoholic who himself had to be taken care of and who let his family starve. Some dignity of their ‘superiority’ had to be maintained by creating this taboo ‘colour boundary’ my grandfather had now grossed.
*
Ok. Trying to make a long story shorter – my ‘white’ grandfather marrying my gran was like a Britt marrying an Oz-Aboriginal. The difference in the worldview … culture … was that great, so my role models were
white vs. indigenous in juxtaposition (to get a full view) .. as from infant to …. I grew up with them …
I know who I am.
When (whites), especially Germans see me, they display this immediate
trust-factor.
When some Aboriginal Elders, PNG’s, Vanuatuans, some Maories or some First Nations Americans have seen me, they might get confused a bit at first or come out strait with it, like this one PNG lady:
“When I look at you, I see a white person – but
you are not – not r-e-a-l-l-y”.
Or they just see me, take a beeline strait to me and expect me to acknowledge
our connection, which of course I do, how could I not.
the "Tribe Called Red" mentioned about the indigenous being ‘invisible’ in the country.
My definition of ‘invisibleness’ is a bit different.
Whom do you think I
can trust.
The ones that see me beyond the veil of appearances or the ones that do not i.e. the ones to whom I remain invisible (whether they claim to be indigenous themselves and also anti-cultural appropriation activists saving native spirituality to boot ...or not) ….
*