BBC News : Cherokees eject slave descendants
How comes the Cherokees are allowed, and not widely criticised, to revoke citizenship only on grounds of ethnicity? If a Caucasian nation did the same thing, there would probably be widespread anti-racism protests in many countries around the world. Imagine if the Netherlands suddenly decided that to be Dutch one needed to be of proven Germanic descent. I am sure that would be likened to Nazism. When the Cherokees do it, hardly anybody raises an eyebrow...
You might say that it is different because the Cherokees are such a tiny nation, who anyway live within the USA. Well, Luxembourg has only 300,000 citizens (+ 165,000 immigrants or foreign residents), which is comparable in size. The Portuguese are one of the largest foreign community.
If the government of Luxembourg decided to revoke the Luxembourgish citizenship of all the Portuguese who have already become Luxembourg citizens on grounds that they are not ethnic Luxembourgish (or cannot speak Luxembourgish language), the situation would be pretty much the same as what is happening now with the Cherokees. The Portuguese are EU citizens and would anyway have the right to remain in Luxembourg, and even vote at municipal and EU elections, but not at elections for the Luxembourg government. This would be very much like the case of African-Americans deprived of Cherokee citizenship.
Yet, I cannot believe this could ever happen in Europe. So why does the US government allow such double standards? Do they feel bad about what their ancestors did to the Cherokees - but not to Black slaves? Even steeper double standards!
BBC said:Members of the Cherokee Nation of native Americans have voted to revoke tribal citizenship for descendants of black slaves the Cherokees once owned.
A total of 76.6% voted to amend the tribal constitution to limit citizenship to "blood" tribe members.
Supporters said only the Cherokees had the right to determine tribal members.
Opponents said the amendment was racist and aimed at preventing those with African-American heritage from gaining tribal revenue and government funding.
The Cherokee Nation has 250,000 to 270,000 members, second only to the Navajo.
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How comes the Cherokees are allowed, and not widely criticised, to revoke citizenship only on grounds of ethnicity? If a Caucasian nation did the same thing, there would probably be widespread anti-racism protests in many countries around the world. Imagine if the Netherlands suddenly decided that to be Dutch one needed to be of proven Germanic descent. I am sure that would be likened to Nazism. When the Cherokees do it, hardly anybody raises an eyebrow...
You might say that it is different because the Cherokees are such a tiny nation, who anyway live within the USA. Well, Luxembourg has only 300,000 citizens (+ 165,000 immigrants or foreign residents), which is comparable in size. The Portuguese are one of the largest foreign community.
If the government of Luxembourg decided to revoke the Luxembourgish citizenship of all the Portuguese who have already become Luxembourg citizens on grounds that they are not ethnic Luxembourgish (or cannot speak Luxembourgish language), the situation would be pretty much the same as what is happening now with the Cherokees. The Portuguese are EU citizens and would anyway have the right to remain in Luxembourg, and even vote at municipal and EU elections, but not at elections for the Luxembourg government. This would be very much like the case of African-Americans deprived of Cherokee citizenship.
Yet, I cannot believe this could ever happen in Europe. So why does the US government allow such double standards? Do they feel bad about what their ancestors did to the Cherokees - but not to Black slaves? Even steeper double standards!
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