Sherman Alexie, author of the fantastic Young Adult fiction The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, has written a powerful memoir. I was blown away. A mixture of poetry and prose, so thoughtful, emotional, painful, and beautiful on every level. It will make you want to read all of Mr. Alexie's poetry.

Racism in Our Society

I was just talking to a friend about racism and how most people don't realize the extent of their prejudice because they know and like individual people. You know, the " but my best friend is _______" excuse. Mr. Alexie summarized perfectly the idea I was trying to express:

"It's easy for a white racist to fall in love with and accept one member of a minority--one Indian--and their real and perceived talents and flaws. But it's much tougher for a racist to accept a dozen Indians. And impossible for a white racist to accept the entire race of Indians, or an entire race of any nonwhite people. I would guess, perhaps too optimistically, that nearly every racist believes it is morally wrong to be racist. And since nearly every person thinks of themselves as being moral, then a racist must consciously and subconsciously employ tortured logic in order to explain away their racism in order to believe themselves to be nonracist."

This disordered thinking explains how the folks in his 99% white high school, located in the whitest and most conservative county in Washington loved Alexie. They didn't think of him as Indian because they related him to their whiteness, the "I don't see color" type of racism.

How Can You Vote for Trump and Still Like Brown People?

Alexie was very popular in high school, and still is today, partly because of his fame, so he tries to reconcile how those folks could love him and vote overwhelmingly for Trump:

"I was most often subjected to active and passive racism when I threatened the status quo--when I was smarter than the white kids or when I was a better basketball player or debater or actor or comedian or public speaker or when a white girl fell in romantic like or love with me. I was subjected to racism when certain white folks feared I was taking something away from them or were afraid of me as the indigenous usurper. In 2016 white conservatives elected as president a serial liar who is likely the most fearful and paranoid and wildly insecure white man who has ever run for the office. And those white folks elected him because they are victims. Yes, I am a Spokane Indian--an indigenous American--who grew up with white folks who think this country is being stolen from them."

Native Americans and Genocide

In the chapter on tribalism, Alexie asserts that the United States wants us to forget that Native Americans were the victims of genocide, and that if the government ever faced the pain it caused and built the U.S. Native American Genocide Memorial Museum, similar to the National Holocaust Memorial Museum, this is what it would contain:

"It will be one room, a fifty-foot square with the same large photo filling the walls, ceiling, and floor . . . What will that one photo be? It will be an Indian baby, shredded by a Gatling gun, lying dead and bloody in the snow."

Summary

This memoir will make you think and feel. I give it the most stars possible for a book. It is beautifully written from start to finish and does not shy away from hard topics like rape, child abuse, alcoholism, racism, and the plight of Native Americans' past and present.