Why Do We Keep Hiring White People?

I’ve had enough. Why do we keep hiring white people?

Some people might say it's really explosive, but if the term "white" bothers you, you need to do a little bit of research on white privilege.

All over Indian country in Canada, we encourage our people to go to university and college, but why do we keep telling our kids to go and get an education if they can't get work when they come home? It's not that I hate white people. If I have an education and can do the job, then why am I not being employed?

Typically, my talks have to do with my theory that we don't know how to move through conflict together. When we get in a fight with our neighbor, we don't know how to resolve it. There's no justice or way to resolve any kind of conflict in the community, so we just spin around in the background, bitching about everything and the injustice that is happening.

But there are educated members of the nation who are willing to do the work. It just doesn't make sense that we're not being employed in our nations. We want to be employed in our nations, and that's why we went to school. We didn't go to school to work in the mainstream, which is what we're forced to do.

The worst thing is when consultants and lawyers who are non-indigenous are in the background and pretend they're not in charge. How could they even think they could be fooling even the non-educated members in the nation? Consultants that are hired by nations who are trying to conceal the fact that they're making money. Mrs. Jack, an Elder from this community, she said to me. “You can smell it.”

My dad used to say it's the same shit, different pile. Once I can spot the shit, I can smell it anywhere.

And then there's all this optics, because people say we can't really air our dirty laundry, or I shouldn't be on Facebook. You know what? Whatever. I live my life, and this is my life. I can tell from the response to my rants that I'm speaking for a lot of people. We're just tired of being oppressed by our own governments in our own nations, it's just wrong. I feel it.

People fight to stay connected. People are in therapy because they're not hired.

We need to be able to find some kind of a way to disagree with dignity. And I'm just encouraging myself to speak out. It's hard because I get messages from people saying they'd love to speak out as boldly as I do, but they need their job. Like they've got bills to pay, if they speak out in any way critical against the leadership...

Leadership needs to learn to welcome the difference of opinion, not to be scared. They know they're there to represent us.

Why are First Nation governments hiring these white people when there are indigenous people who are completely qualified for those positions? I'm so tired of seeing non-indigenous people being able to pay their mortgages and send their kids off to college when those of us who have gone to university are not employed. I'm talking about white people who have no cultural sensitivity. I don't need to be saved. Jesus is my savior. I don't need any white people saving me.