Is "Thug" the Same as the "N-Word"?

Insult to Indians Escapes Outrage of Non-Native Journalists

When L. Brooks Patterson, county executive in Oakland County, Mich., said in this week's New Yorker magazine, "You do not, do not, under any circumstances, stop in Detroit at a gas station! That's just a call for a carjacking," he followed it with, "I made a prediction a long time ago, and it's come to pass. I said, 'What we’re gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, and then throw in the blankets and the corn.'"

Writing Wednesday for the Indian Country Today Media Network, Simon Moya-Smith, an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, told of his reaction. "Jesus!, I thought. This man just called for the death of everyone in Detroit! Oh, God, please, I implored, let a single big-name news broadcaster catch this direct reference to germ warfare! But I knew all too well what was already being drafted. My fellow journos of the non-Native kind courted his two cents re: commerce and not his racist bellow."

Moya-Smith continued, "I understand Patterson spat on the face of Detroit, and, rightfully, the nitwitted ninnyhammer should face the fire he flamed, but when someone references smallpox blankets (deliberate extermination), 'herding' Indians (Trail of Tears, anyone?) and then building a fence (Auschwitz? … Hello?), you don't quote passersby about all of the activities of the science center, or how may restaurants they haven't tried yet.

"But this is America, Jack – a red, white and blue monument to willful ignorance, to sweeping under rugs and to skeletons in closets. . . ."

Moya-Smith also wrote, "And that same spirit of resistance is why I became a journalist. There are far too few Native Americans in newsrooms. Seriously, folks, I see more African American coverage, Latino coverage and Asian coverage by newsrooms which have a larger demographic of African Americans, Latinos and Asians. Hearken! We need more Native American journalists at major networks, so when they, the captains of newsrooms, run down that revered Diversity List of theirs you can stand up and boom, 'Your list needs some revision.' . . ."

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