When racism rears it ugly head

I came home from work on Monday. I work longer hours on Mondays due to my profession, so I was lucky enough that my daughters were awake when I got home.

I love to ask my oldest daughter how elementary school went each day so she realizes education is important. She normally gives me the same answer, "It was fine, we read today." She's definitely smarter than her daddy!

Unfortunately, when I asked on Monday, she gave me a completely different answer.

She had started with, "We learned, like normal." Then she said, "Well, something else happened. Some of the girls at school were being mean. I asked them why they were pinching me, and one of the girls said it was probably because I'm Indian."

Yep, you heard right, and my blood was instantly boiling. I felt that this country has come so far. For the love of all that is great in this country, we still get to face racism head on. I mean, we elected a black president. I've been through this before, but as a kid myself.

I always felt I had a little tougher skin as a kid, probably from growing up in a border town with a higher population of Native Americans and higher incidence of racism. A person gets used to the prevailing discrimination. That doesn't mean it's right or any easier to endure, but at least you learn that it's rooted in a lack of education and exposure to culture. To have it happen to your own daughter in a mostly non-Indian school, that absolutely floored me.

I can't help but think that we can elect a black president and place a Hispanic woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, but we still forget to recognize this country's original inhabitants. It's tragic to think we neglect to inform our children about this nation's first peoples, who have survived centuries of oppression and exploitation and continue to walk the halls of our schools.

I hope the Year of Unity in South Dakota can help turn this ignorance around. If so, maybe this country can use it as a template to build the bridge between Native Americans and whites, knocking down stereotypes with actual cultural education.

Racism always pokes its ugly head out when you least expect it. I was hoping I wouldn't have to address this topic but could rather focus my attention on more productive ones because I thought we were past it.

It's amazing how much things have improved, and how far they still have to go.