Racism is alive and well on the radio

Some statistics to get you familiar with the plight of my sisters in the North (that just came off of this informative article sourced below):
78 — Average rate of forcible rapes per 100,000 people reported to
public safety officers in Alaska from 1996 to 2005.
33.3 — National average rate of forcible rapes per 100,000 in the
same period.
56 — Percentage of sexual assault patients in the latest state study
who were Alaska Natives.
16 — Percentage of assaults against Alaska Native women that
resulted in convictions in that study.
52.5 — Percentage of times the suspect in an assault against an
Alaska Native woman was also Native.
42 — Percentage of times that was true in Anchorage.
6 — Percentage of times that was true in Fairbanks.
98 — Percentage of times that was true in Bethel.
89 — Percentage of offenders who were known to the victims.
Sources: Daily News archives, Descriptive Analysis of Sexual Assault Nurse Examinations in Alaska by Andre Rosay of UAA and Tara Henry, Forensic Nurse Services; and oral presentation by Henry.
My initial reaction beyond disgust, anger, and sadness to this Anchorage radio defamation was, again??? I could have sworn that same week I read something about some other racist DJ.
Oh wait I did. Only on this North Carolina show they called us “lazy” among other slanderous highlights, and said specifically that the Lumbee tribe are “inbred,” referenced Pocahontas as “Poca-ho-tas,” and Sacajawea as “Sacacooter.”
I guess it’s all in a week’s work of degradation. Only these are the realities Indigenous peoples around the world must live with every day.
And I’m sick of it.
Jessica Yee is a multiracial youth of Native descent who was called to the line of action by raising controversy in her Catholic school and began volunteering at Homeward Family Shelter at the age of 12. Now at 23, she is a proud Chinese-Mohawk woman whose work is nationally focused on sexual health initiatives for Aboriginal youth and cultural competency. She also does anti-racism work with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, is a forum facilitator for the Highway of Tears Initiative in British Columbia, serves on the Board of Directors for Maggie’s: Sex Workers Organizing, and is a family group facilitator for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She writes for SHAMELESS: FOR GIRLS WHO GET IT!, rabble.ca, and SECTION15.ca-rebels without a clause. Jessica is a Canadian for Choice and is constantly looking for new ways to be a kick-ass activist!