From Earth We Are One, December 30, 2015

Sacramento, CA — The fact that genocide was committed against Native Americans is unquestionable and ought to be clear to any individual who has taken a genuine look at history.

Unfortunately, there are still a few individuals so profoundly connected to American patriotism that they, for the most part, acknowledge the philosophy of expansionism and colonialism practiced by vanquishing Europeans generations ago and carried on as the “Manifest Destiny” by the U.S. government in the nineteenth century.

As a rule, educators in state-funded schools and government-regulated simply just go along the same lies about the founding of America that they were told in school.

In one such case, a California State University, Sacramento teacher  not only rejected one of his student’s claims that there was a genocide against the native people — he finished the class early and threatened the student with expulsion. According to 19-year-old student Chiitaanibah Johnson, her professor refused to permit her to make remarks about the Native genocide during class — a period when it was proper to talk about the issue. Rather, U.S. History, Professor Maury Wiseman, argued with her and demanded that Native Americans did not confront a genocide.

According to 19-year-old student Chiitaanibah Johnson, her professor refused to allow her to make comments about the Native genocide during class — a time when it was appropriate to discuss the issue at hand. Instead, U.S. History Professor Maury Wiseman argued with her and insisted the native people did not face a genocide.

Johnson explained to ICTMN that “The whole thing started on Wednesday. He was talking about Native America and he said the word genocide. He paused and said ‘I don’t like to use that word because I think it is too strong for what happened’ and ‘genocide implies that it was on purpose and most native people were wiped out by European diseases.’”

Johnson was insulted by his remarks, however as opposed to belligerence with him without further ado, she chose to record his statement and research some facts to back herself up when she chose to raise the issue with him.

“I wrote it down. I was enraged for what I felt were obvious reasons. I didn’t say anything [on Wednesday] because I knew that if I didn’t have anything specific to back it up in terms of tangible or solid evidence that he would not take my comments into consideration,” she said.

That Friday she presented her research to him after he finished a lesson on Native American tribes.

“He made it a point to say indigenous people were not peaceful. I was upset for obvious reasons. He’d mentioned how the French and the Dutch were allies and made it a point to say native people were killing each other before white settlers arrived,” she said of the lesson that week.

Johnson went on to explain that “On Friday, I raised my hand and I said, ‘I understand why we’re talking about the Portuguese people because it explains how they got to America. But I do not think it is fair to talk about Portuguese people as if they were only poor and brave. They became rich by raping and enslaving the indigenous lands and people that they ‘discovered.’ I told him, ‘You said genocide implies the purposeful extermination of people and that they were mostly wiped out by European diseases.’ I said, ‘That is not a true statement.’

While standard history lets us know that America was an unfathomable, uninhabited no man’s land when European pilgrims began to arrive, there were an estimated 10 million Native Americans living there at the time. In only a couple of hundred years, that number was cut down to about 300,000 during a well-documented and consistent effort on the part of the U.S. government to destroy their population and take their property.

Nevertheless,“He said, ‘Genocide is not what happened.’ I stood up and started reading from an article by the United Nations that said: ‘Genocide is the deliberate killing of another people, a sterilization of people and/or a kidnapping of their children,’ and he said, ‘That is enough.’”

“I said, ‘No. You have to tell the truth.’”

“He said, ‘If you want to come talk to me after class, now is not the time, you are hijacking my class.’’

Then he proceeded to cancel the class for that day and threatened Johnson with expulsion after everyone else was dismissed.

“He said, ‘You know what class? I am so sorry to everybody that this is happening. Please everyone come back on Wednesday have a good weekend.’”

Johnson said that after he dismissed the class he told her, “‘I do not appreciate this in my classroom.’ He began shaking his finger at me and said, ‘I don’t appreciate you making me sound like a racist and a bigot in my classroom. You have hijacked my lesson, taken everything out of context and I don’t care what kind of scholarship you have, or what kind of affiliation you have with the university, you will be disenrolled and expelled from this classroom.’”

Johnson later said that “To be kicked out of the classroom so quickly, I was floored and I thought, ‘Are you kidding me? This was the third day of class, and already you’re going to completely expel me?’ I didn’t call him names, I did not say he was racist, I did not use foul language – yes, I raised my voice because he raised his voice at me and was talking over me and wouldn’t let me say anything. I felt like I had my feet completely kicked out from under me. I felt like I approached the situation in a way that a student of the university level is supposed to approach a disagreement with the professor.”

“I have been dealing with this kind of racism since I was a little girl,” she added. Once news of the story broke nationally, administrators with the university were forced to respond and insisted that regardless of what the professor said, Johnson will not be expelled for voicing her opinion and sharing her research.

Soon after, the Sacramento State History Department created an impression on Twitter saying “We regret this situation & are investigating; student is not disenrolled.”

Sources: themindunleashed.org