An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

Hooks presents for us an opportunity to reflect on how Black women
artistically produce sexuality within the culture of capitalism. Minaj posted
an image of something she did not draw, which is important. It doesn’t
absolve her of guilt—she is guilty of contributing to the hypersexualization
of a real and imagined person (the historical figure of Pocahontas and the
Disney character). But it is clear that the artist’s conception should be under
equal scrutiny.
However, what if we think about the post in other ways, in addition to its
clear Indian play? For instance, look at the eyes of the subjects. They are
gazing back at the audience, indicating a power move—one, perhaps, of
women directly challenging the gaze of the sexist audience? Through the
hypersexualization, perhaps Minaj is also attempting to reclaim, at least in
part, the idea of women’s sexual empowerment? Again, my aim is not to
dismiss the interpretation but to think alongside that critique, and consider
other aspects of the image, even how Nicki Minaj looks at her subjects.
The critique of Minaj, as with Omerrettà, seems to be based on the
premise that as Black women they should know better. Of course, they can
do better. But, again, if anyone can reproduce a settler-colonial idea, then
even Black people can fuck up. However, it seems that when Black people
make (egregious) mistakes, people get a little bit saucier (or bring out a
little bit of antiblackness?) in their critiques.
Black and Indigenous solidarity is a difficult task, no matter how hard
we might try. Furthermore, solidarity is not inevitable; it requires intensive
labor, intentional compassion, and love. We will disagree, but we must
work from a position of kindness and patience. We might get upset with one
another, we might call each other out, but it should be done through love,
and with the larger intention of ending the structural forces of antiblackness
and settler colonialism. This work requires patience. We should ask, given
that our education system is so broken, when would a non-Indigenous
person of color learn about Indigenous erasure? If “playing Indian” and
Indigenous erasure is as pervasive as I think it is, how mad can I be when
people of color support racist Native imagery? When would they have
learned otherwise? You don’t know what you ain’t never learned. We can
assume that they have Google and have read about why something is racist
or problematic, but we don’t know for sure, and if algorithms work to
curate for you what you see on social media and the internet at large, then