Harvard University White Supremacy During COVID 19 Discussion Response Together they should total about 1-1/2 pages. The first paragraph will involve read

Harvard University White Supremacy During COVID 19 Discussion Response Together they should total about 1-1/2 pages.

The first paragraph will involve reading three of the papers on white supremacy that were written by your classmates for the assignment due a few weeks ago. The first was authored by one of your American Indian classmates (KFM paper #1); the second, by one of your white classmates (KFM paper #2); and the third, by one of your African-American classmates (KFM paper #3). Each of these papers, then, represents a different perspective on white supremacy. Your assignment is to read these three papers of your classmates and to write a paragraph on at least two ways they improve your understanding of how white supremacy works. Note that the papers are anonymous, and I have received permission from each of the scholars to share their work.

For the second paragraph, your assignment is to research and write about racial/ethnic and/or tribal differences with respect to the COVID 19 pandemic, differences that reflect white supremacy, racism, and other social phenomena, in a way that pays particular attention to American Indians. This said, you are welcome to write about the modicum of media attention that has been given to African-American health outcomes (or related topics) during the pandemic. I ask only that, either primarily or in tandem, you address American Indians. If you are struggling to find information, I have several leads for you. Google “coronavirus in the Navajo Nation,” “coronavirus and the Indian Health Service,” and even the decision, announced today, of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to donate $100,000 to the Navajo Nation. I encourage you to look widely in Indian Country for information/stories that you find interesting and compelling. 1
The “Reconstructed” Gumball Machine that is White Supremacy
Picture this: A small kid is at a store, goes to a gumball machine, pulls out a quarter, slips
it into the slot, and waits patiently for the sweet piece of gum to come out. It never rolls down the
case into his anxious hands. Having endless amounts of money, this kid continues to put coins
into the machine waiting and waiting to get the sweet treat that he had paid for, but no matter
how much money he put into the machine, he could never get his hands on it. Little did he know
the owner of the store had reconstructed the machine so that it would never release gum, but it
would only take money. This is white supremacy. It is an ideology that seeks to systematically
oppress and assimilate those it sees as “less than”, it abounds beyond wealth, and, as seen in the
New York Times Bestseller, Killers of the Flower Moon, it will, both metaphorically and
literally, kill to get what it wants. Before jumping into a discussion of white supremacy, it is
important to understand that white supremacy is more than just racism and bigotry. It is utter
disregard and dehumanization of any race or ethnicity that is not Caucasian.
In the beginning chapters of Killers of the Flower Moon, author David Grann presents the
theme of systematic oppression and assimilation through examples of corrupt treaties between
the government and the Osage nation, Native youth subjection to boarding schools, and lack of
fair investigation of the ruthless murders of Osage tribal members. On page 41, President
Thomas Jefferson attempted to establish a relationship with the Osage Nation through kind
words of cooperation. He notes, “It is so long since our forefathers came from beyond the great
water, that we have lost the memory of it, and seem to have grown out of this land like you have
done… We are all now of one family” (Grann 2017: 41) Four years later, Jefferson bound the
Osage to submit their territory in fear of being regarded as enemies of the United States. The
Osage therefore lost nearly a hundred million acres simply because the grips of white supremacy
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left them no choice. As if the upheaval of their land was not enough, the Osage were forced to
send their youth to boarding schools. Mollie Buckhart, the sister of Anna Brown, the first Osage
tribal member murdered in this “Osage Reign of Terror”, began attending the St. Louis School, a
Catholic boarding institution for girls in 1894. Upon arrival to the school, they took Mrs.
Burkhart’s Native blanket, placed her in formal European attire and would no longer allow her to
speak in her native tongue. Grann confirms on page 49, “An American Indian Commissioner had
said, “The Indian must conform to the white man’s ways, peacefully if they will, forcibly if they
must””. (Grann 2017: 49) Similar to the Osage nation, the Kiowa tribe were forced to send their
youth to boarding school. Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote, author of Crafting an Indigenous Nation:
Expressive culture in the Progressive Era, writes “Government officials utilized imprisonment of
Indians to see if intensive education, Americanization and confinement would foster the creation
of the assimilated detribalized individuals they sought to produce”. (Tone-Pah-Hote 2019:18).
Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony similarly reveals how white prejudice against the culture and
traditions of Indian medicine even seeps into the mind of Natives themselves. On pg. 31, Auntie
says to Tayo, “You know what the Army doctor said: “No Indian medicine”. It was not the fact
that the “Indian medicine” didn’t work; it was the fact that it was opposing to white medicine
and therefore seen as wrong and unreliable. (Silko 2006:31)
In addition to these two examples of systematic oppression, the investigative procedures
of these cases of murder reveal the inconsistencies of a justice system that is rooted in prejudice.
Following Anna’s death, Mollie pushed the authorities to investigate the death of her sister, but
according to Grann, “the officials lacked concern for what they saw as a “dead Injun””. (Grann
2017: 28). The investigation was not carried out properly due to the corrupt law enforcement that
encompassed the justice system. Grann notes on page 62, “During much of the nineteenth and
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early twentieth century, private detective agencies had filled the vacuum left by decentralized,
underfunded, incompetent and corrupt sheriff and police departments” (Grann 2017: 62). These
detectives were typically “untrained and unregulated” and in many cases, they were criminals
themselves. Several private investigators were brought in to look into the cases of Anna and
other Osage murders. Over time, these investigations came to reveal complete disregard for
attaining justice for Anna brown. The private investigators found that in the case of Anna
Brown’s investigation, no officer had searched her home, no one investigated previous phone
calls made by Mrs. Brown, and no one looked to her own friends and family for information
about her. They did not even push to gain information from Mrs. Buckhart, one of the closest
people to Mrs. Brown.
By the beginning of 1926, 5 years after the murder of Anna Brown, and in the midst of
hundreds more Osage murders, Tom White, a Texas ranger sent by the FBI to look into the cases
of these homicides, had gathered all evidence necessary to convict William Hale of the murders
of the Burkhart and Roan family members. Hale was a prominent white figure and deputy sheriff
in Osage county. Upon White’s further investigation, it was clear that he was the mastermind
behind all of it, but even the Osage people knew that there was little hope of justice for an Indian
in a white man’s system. A widow of one of the Osage murders said, “We Indians cannot get our
rights in these courts, I have no chance at all of saving this land for my children.” (Grann 2017:
214) Grann also confirms on page 214, “… White knew that America’s judicial institutions, like
its policing agencies were permeated with corruption. Witnesses were coerced, juries tampered
with” (Grann 2017: 214)
Even when they received all evidence they needed to convict Hale, his color and power
prevailed. At the preliminary hearing, Freeling, Hale’s lawyer, asked the court to allow Mr.
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Ernest Burkhart, Mollie’s husband, to wait until the next day to confer his defense. The judge
agreed. Leahy, a prosecutor who had been hired by the Osage Tribal Council, considered this to
be the most “high-handed and unusual course of conduct I had ever witnessed on the part of
attorneys” (Grann 2017: 221) Sure enough, the next morning, one of the prosecutors announced
that Ernest Buckhart refused to testify for the state. Burkhart confirmed “ nerve went back on
him and, after he was allowed to see Hale and once more be placed under his domination, there
was no hope of his testifying” (Grann 2017: 222) White used his color, position and power to
coerce witness Ernest Burkhart, in the middle of the courtroom.
Furthermore, Killers of the Flower Moon confirms that white supremacy abounds
wealth. A famous quote notes, “Money is power”. The brutal account of these Osage murders
proves that money can give you no power in a system that was created to subject you to poverty.
Although the Osage had access to the wealth from the oil, even access to that treasured good was
limited by the hands of white supremacy. On page 63, Grann writes, “The US government
contending that many Osage were unable to handle their own money, had required the Office of
Indian Affairs to determine which members of the tribe it considered capable of managing their
trust funds.” (Grann 2017: 63) This led them to have “guardians”, typically prominent white
citizens in Osage county, who oversaw and authorized all of their spending, even down to the
toothpaste they bought at the store. An Osage who had served in World War I notes, “I fought in
France for this country, yet I am not allowed even to sign my own checks”. (Grann 2017: 63)
Although the Osage tribe were sitting on this wealth, it would never fully be theirs because they
were seen as incompetent to handle it.
In conclusion, this book dives into a series of murders that highlights the greater murder
of American Indian people on this land that has occurred over centuries. A greater murder of
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culture, history, and nations that was all driven by the vehicle of white supremacy. Time after
time again, white supremacy has sought to benefit the Caucasian race, and if anyone stands in the
way then they risk being killed. The “Osage Reign of Terror” is a primary example of this truth
and it speaks to the larger history that all American Indian societies have been forced to endure:
Years and years of mass genocide, sterilization of women and forced removal from tribal lands.
These have all been in an attempt to erase native people as a whole.
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An Analysis of the Tool of White Supremacy in Killers of the Flower Moon
White supremacy communicates the alleged claim that White people are superior to nonWhites. It is a tool used by White people to justify particular actions, and in the case of Native
Americans, that has included genocide and taking land that is not rightfully theirs. Hence, it is
more useful to think of white supremacy as a process, not solely an idea—it is employed by
Whites to justify these immoral processes that serve to subjugate non-Whites while reinforcing
the alleged preeminence of Whites. David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon meticulously
captures how white supremacy operates—how it is implemented and how it gains force. This
tool is carried out through assuming positions of power, amassing capital, and controlling public
portrayals of different groups of people.
White supremacy is not only used as an excuse for Whites to dominate positions of
power, but once those positions are secured, the tool of white supremacy is more easily
perpetuated. Killers of the Flower Moon is brimming with countless examples of this idea,
revealing how White individuals in positions of authority—from store owners to judges—take
actions to conceal and deny the numerous murders of the Osage. This is because the notion of
white supremacy has granted them the justification to hold these positions of power that then
allow them to twist the truth regarding underlying forces driving the Reign of Terror, keeping
alive the notion of white supremacy. Grann aptly conveys how positions of power taken up by
Whites by way of claiming their alleged supremacy was employed to bury facts that would
incriminate them: “The murder plots depended upon doctors who falsified death certificates and
upon undertakers who quickly and quietly buried bodies. The guardian…never interfered with
the criminal networks operating under his nose. Nor did bankers…Nor did the venal mayor of
Fairfax…Nor did countless lawmen and prosecutors and judges…” (Grann 2017:313). Clearly,
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Whites’ assertions of their superiority not only served as their justification for seizing powerful
roles in society, but also for exercising their power to quell evidence compromising their
fictitious integrity and therefore to stifle any possibility of justice for the Osage. Furthermore,
those who were guardians of the Osage estates but “used the system to swindle the very people
they were ostensibly protecting” were often “businessmen and ranchers and lawyers and
politicians” (Grann 2017:164-165). With their high societal statuses, they took advantage of their
wealthy wards, wielding claims of superiority as rationale for their actions. This notion is further
evident in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, particularly how the U.S. Army recruited Native
Americans to fight in World War II, but once it was over the Native veterans were fraught with
trauma, alcoholism, and poverty: “The [Army] recruiter…looked disgusted, as though he were
almost ready to leave” (Silko 1977:59). Whites drew on their positions of authority, supposedly
legitimized by their superiority, to use Natives to fight at the frontlines and subsequently neglect
them once the war ended. Additionally, Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote unveils this manner by which
white supremacy operates in Crafting an Indigenous Nation by detailing how the Office of
Indian Affairs mandated that Natives attend boarding schools, and “government officials utilized
imprisonment of Indians to see if…confinement would foster the creation of the assimilated
detribalized individuals” (Tone-Pah-Hote 2019:18). These positions of authority accorded
Whites the power to subdue Native Americans and preserve their purported superiority.
The operationalization of white supremacy would be incomplete without a discussion of
capital. By having a wealth of money, Whites can exert tremendous control that is justified
through claims of white superiority. In Killers of the Flower Moon, capital plays a large role in
the form of bribery—from paying people to stay silent to paying them to speak lies. A notable
example is how William K. Hale bribed the jury during court trials: “At Ernest Burkhart’s trial,
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the first panel of prospective jurors had been dismissed after evidence surfaced that Hale had
attempted to bribe them” (Grann 2017:232). And of course, the Reign of Terror was due to the
actions of Whites murdering the Osage for their headrights; their sole aim was to gain
tremendous wealth. They did not just murder anyone with substantial capital, White or nonWhite—they killed the Osage, a group of people they considered to be inferior. Hence, their
beliefs of white supremacy were used as a tool to justify and fuel their heinous actions in order to
garner money, and subsequently use that wealth to maintain their alleged superiority. The link
between white supremacy and capital is discussed by Tone-Pah-Hote as well when she details
how the federal government took land from the Natives. Land allotment was primarily driven by
the federal government’s desire for Western expansion and hence, economic opportunity. Even
after the Dawes Act, politicians became frustrated with the allotment: “These politicians and
their attendant commercial and economic interests desired these lands…” (Tone-Pah-Hote
2019:21). This is echoed in Ceremony as well; it is clear that Tayo and other Laguna Pueblo
members in the novel are poverty-stricken and simply left to suffer following the war. The
characters stated “‘They took our land, they took everything!’” (Silko 1977:51). Whites used
white supremacy to take their land, which gave them substantial economic leverage while
leaving Natives destitute, and this economic gain further perpetuated the process of white
supremacy.
Yet another significant way in which white supremacy functions is through public
portrayals of groups of people. In Killers of the Flower Moon, the notion of the alleged
superiority of Whites was employed as a rationalization device for negatively representing the
Osage in the eyes of the public, which in turn reinforced the false perception that Natives are
inferior and Whites are superior. Grann includes numerous examples of headlines and quotes
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from newspapers—owned and written by Whites—that belittle and deride the Osage. For
instance, reporters “seized upon any signs of the traditional Osage way of life”, writing about
how a campfire was encircled by pricy automobiles and a group of Osage arrived in a private
airplane for a dancing ceremony (Grann 2017:7). During the Osage murder trials, media outlets
talked of the killings as if they were fictional, riveting mystery stories, seemingly mocking the
gravity of the situation and the victims as well. As Grann states, “Despite the brutality of the
crimes, many whites did not mask their enthusiasm for the lurid story”, one reporter writing that
the Osage killings were “‘nevertheless blown through with a breath of the romantic, devil-maycare frontier west that we thought was gone’” (Grann 2017:213). It was the belief that Whites are
preeminent that supposedly defended their decision to publicly portray the Osage in this manner,
and such depictions—viewed by many people—widely reinforced the idea of white supremacy.
A similar phenomenon is discussed in Crafting and Indigenous Nation. Tone-Pah-Hote details
the museums and fairs that “disseminated racial hierarchies based on Social Darwinism”, and
how the Kiowas were “displayed largely as objects to view and often were presented as
‘savage’” (Tone-Pah-Hote 2019:28). Interwoven in Ceremony is the significance of public
portrayals by Whites, particularly those concerning negative stereotypes. One such stereotype
that is repeatedly mentioned involves alcoholism among Natives: “‘One thing you can do is
drink like an Indian, can’t you?’” (Silko 1977:55). These stereotypes are publicly circulated by
Whites to disparage Natives, using their superiority as their explanation and preserving it in turn.
Undoubtedly, white supremacy operates by and gains force via positions of power,
capital, and public portrayals. The strategy of using alleged white supremacy to justify
subjugation of Natives needs these three elements in order to succeed, as is evident in Killers of
the Flower Moon, with further support from Ceremony and Crafting an Indigenous Nation.
KFM
White supremacy is a concept used to refer or describe the racist beliefs held by some
white people that they are superior to other races; hence they should dominate over them.
White supremacists are known for their opposition to people that belong to other races,
including the Jews or blacks. The term may also refer to the political philosophies that preserve
and uphold institutional, social, chronological, or political supremacy by whites. Additionally,
white supremacy may also describe socioeconomic or political systems in which whites enjoy
certain structural advantages over people belonging to other ethnic groups. This paper will
describe how the concept of “white supremacy” works, drawing specific from examples from
the book“Killers of the Flower Moon,” written by David Grann. Other examples will also be
drawn from the workings of Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote and Leslie Marmon Silko.
In his book “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Grann (2017) examines the control of terror in
Osage and the impacts of the terrible suffering in the history of America. Through his
exploration, he succeeds in painting a clear picture of how corruption, entitlement, and greed
have defined America’s institutions, society, and history. When white supremacists witnessed
the prosperity of the Osage community in Oklahoma that resulted from the discovered oil, they
became irritated, and they began to have feelings of entitlement towards the wealth. White
supremacists could not deal with the site of white servants working for “rich redskins.” They
became so worried that the reversed status quo would spread to the whole country.
Throughout his book, he demonstrates the racist and hateful views that white women
and men harbored towards Native Americans, especially the Osage tribe. After the American
government forcefully ejected the Osage community members from their ancestral lands and
settled the hilly, infertile and rocky land, they sought government guarantee that their
reservation would include both the land and any minerals below the land. Later, when
Americans discovered oil beneath the rocky land occupied by the Osage community, they were
not only required to get permission to utilize the land from the community members, but they
were also required to pay for use. The wealth of the community expanded, and the Americans
became outraged, alarmed, and threatened by their wealth.
White supremacy manifested in the form of racism towards the community as the
whites began…
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