An introduction to Critical Race Theory vis-à-vis North American Aboriginals

There’s simply no way that you read Thomas King’s THE INCONVENIENT INDIAN and come out the other side with a single reaction. If you are a rational reader with any sense of fairness, tolerance, or compassion, you’re going to be shocked, disgusted, dismayed, embarrassed, disappointed, enlightened, amused, and angry … simultaneously. Thomas King characterizes the white man’s grouping of North America’s aboriginal population into three populations – dead Indians, live Indians, and legal Indians. And sadly, he accurately and succinctly summarizes the white man’s reaction to each group – the white man loves dead Indians; can’t see, ignores, and forgets live Indians; and hates legal Indians.

While the entire history of the red man’s treatment in North America at the hands of the white man is and has been atrocious since Europe’s first 16th century intrusions on this side of the Atlantic, King is quick to acknowledge that grand maxim, “You can’t judge the past by the present.” But he’s equally quick to point out that dodging the guilt for past conduct by trotting out that maxim is simply too convenient and, indeed, specious. “Ignorance has never been the problem. The problem was and continues to be unexamined confidence in western civilization and the unwarranted certainty of Christianity. And arrogance. Perhaps it is unfair to judge the past by the present, but it is also necessary.”

And to be a compassionate 21st century informed Canadian, reading Thomas King’s THE INCONVIENT INDIAN is also necessary. One can but hope that a book like this is put into the high school history curriculum. Perhaps then, a future partnership can be forged that will make something of the historical mess that North American has handed its first inhabitants.

Paul Weiss

It’s probably worth reading through the reviews to get some of the balance of how this lands on folks. As a White settler in Canada, I found this thick with information and detail that only helps to further colour in a truthful account of Canada’s genocidal approach to Indigenous Peoples.