What if I told you there was a YouTube Channel run by a guy of German ancestry, who denied the Jewish Genocide (aka the Holocaust), and ran a “news”/commentary channel named: The Hitler Youth.
I’d imagine you’d be pretty pissed, probably try to get it taken down, and all around rage about the obvious racism and hatred given a platform and how this bigot should be taken down.
Now what if I told you there was a YouTube Channel run by a guy of Turkish ancestry, who denied the Armenian Genocide, and ran a “news”/commentary channel named: The Young Turks.
You paused there didn’t you. After all, The Young Turks is a rather popular YouTube Channel, with over 3 million subscribers. It’s host, Cenk, is a rather famous man, with rather famous friends (including a host for Turner Classic Movies), who come on and help him run his “news” show. And he’s a Turkish denier of the Armenian Genocide, who unapologetically and without a hint of irony, did name his program for the youth movement of the genocidal Turkish Government that enacted the Armenian Genocide.
A man who is more than happy to call out the “genocidal racism” of one group will do anything he can to deny the genocidal racism of his own group.
A genocide, which it has been postulated, if it had been dragged out into the light and the Turks properly chastised for it might have prevented the much larger in scale Holocaust. Yet, about a century later…Turkey and its people, even immigrants like Cenk, still refuse to admit that there was an Armenian Genocide. To the point where Kim Kardashian took out a full page ad to point it out to people.
So what does all this have to do with Rhyd and G&R? Why did I call him “Ragin’ Racist Rhyd”? Well, take the above example of say “The Hitler Youth” and “The Young Turks” and imagine someone who would scream day in and day out about the “racism, hatred, and bigotry” inherent with “The Hitler Youth,” but when it came to the exact same actions performed by “The Young Turks,” was perfectly fine with it and supportive of it?
Because that’s what Gods & Radicals and Rhyd have done.
When it comes to the Religious umbrella that is Heathenism, Gods & Radicals takes a very dim view. Recently they posted a “collection” of their articles about Heathenism. Which ranged from talking about the “racist blight” to calling major Heathens and Heathen organizations “Fascist Racists” to even going so far as arguing how to change Heathen religions to be more inline with progressive/marxist values (even if that erases much of what makes Heathenism unique, beautiful, and inline with its historical traditions). With Articles being written by a wide range of people, including one that appears to be talking about honor written by my old “friend” Chris Thompson (the man who insisted nothing could stop his Marxist Jihad, then accused me and several others of threatening his children when I pointed out he just said there was only one way to stop him).
So, I could be faulted by thinking that G&R and Rhyd would take a rather dim view of ethnic exclusivity, i.e. “racism.”
Well, except when they’re perfectly fine with racism.
It recently came to my attention that G&R has thrown it’s full support behind the Standing Rock Sioux. Now, the STS is apparently fighting some sort of pipeline for oil that is going near or through their lands. Now, I have no strong feelings towards this in either direction. On the one hand, destruction of nature is bad. On the other hand, jobs means a chance to keep some people from starving to death in our presently terrible economy. There’s pro’s and cons’ on both side, but the STS is fighting to preserve their ancestral burial grounds and I, as one of Helheim and the Dead, cannot but applaud them for their piety.
However…
The Standing Rock Sioux also have a blood purity law about their tribe and who can join it.
ARTICLE II – MEMBERSHIP
The membership of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe shall consist of 1.) all persons of Indian blood who were duly enrolled on the official roll of the Tribe on June 15,1957, and all persons of Indian blood who were duly enrolled subsequent to June 15, 1957, in accordance with the ordinances and procedures adopted by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council pursuant to Article IV. & 1″r” of this Constitution and 2.) all persons of one-fourth (1/4) or more degree of “Oceti Sakowin” Indian blood from a Federally Recognized Tribe born after June 15, 1957 and prior to or subsequent to the effective date of this amendment, to a parent or grandparent who is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, shall be added to the official roll of the Tribe upon proof demonstrating: a) the parent or grandparent’s membership in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe; b) the person for whom enrollment is sought is of one-fourth (1/4) or more degree of “Oceti Sakowin” blood from a Federally Recognized Tribe and born after June 15, 1957; upon the affirmative vote of two thirds of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council then in office; and 3.) any person who is rejected for membership shall have the right to appeal to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Court from the decisions of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council, and the decision of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Court shall be final. Provided further, that prior to the distribution of any tribal assets to the members of the Tribe, the membership roll shall be approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
Yeah, you read that right, the Standing Rock Sioux have a 1/4th blood purity law. Which means at least one of your grandparents had to be an officially recognized Tribe member. If you cannot prove that, you do not get to join the tribe.
So Heathenism, and groups like the AFA, are “evil bad racists” despite having no blood purity laws on the books….but the Standing Rock Sioux are apparently something Gods & Radicals support wholeheartedly despite having one of the strictest blood purity laws I’ve ever seen.
Indeed, the only Heathen organization I’ve come across that had a “blood relation law” was something like 1/8th, which means you only needed a single great grandparent of some European ancestry to be allowed in. And I recall them practically being scourged from the earth by HUAR (G&R’s close ally and “attempted ministry of Heathenism.”)
So since 1/8th law is unacceptable by their Ally HUAR, I do wonder how it is that G&R is willing to fully support an ethnically exclusive, even Racist, group that has the even stricter 1/4th rule ethnic purity rule.
I can only conclude it’s because Rhyd and his collective are, in fact, perfectly fine with Racism. So long as it’s done by the “right people.”
If racism and ethnic exclusivity are wrong, then they must be wrong for all peoples to practice.
The Young Turks should be considered no more viable an option in life than The Hitler Youth. Blood purity laws should be off the table for every group, Germanic or Native American. Hatred is hatred, exclusivity is exclusivity, racism is racism.
Either it is not allowed for any, or it must be allowed for all.
So I am presenting this option to Rhyd Wildermuth and Gods & Radicals to prove to me they are not Racists, as I have labeled them and they have labeled so very, very many others.
Either Gods & Radicals must lead the charge in the fight against racism by Disavowing the Standing Rock Sioux, calling them out for the racist blood purity laws, and taking actions to end the blatant racism of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe or…
Or…
They remove all their articles about Racism, Fascism, and Heathenism, come out in full support of Folkish Heathenism, Ethnically Exclusive Heathenism, any Heathen groups who are in possession of “blood purity” rules, or just Heathenism as a whole regardless of path, and recognize that they have the exact same right to police their ethnic populace, ethnic religious paths, and religious traditions that the Standing Rock Sioux have.
To refuse is to hold a double standard of acceptable behavior based purely on the race/ethnicity of the groups involved. Gods & Radicals must either take a stand against Racism in its entirety, or it must accept that ethnic exclusivity is the right of all tribes and that ethnic exclusivity is not a racist action. Otherwise, Rhyd and G&R will be themselves engaging in racist actions.
This might not trouble them, as they are perfectly fine apparently supporting a racist group like the Standing Rock Sioux, with their blood purity law, but it does go against everything they proclaim they stand for. I would just like some honesty among those who insist on dictating how Heathens should live.
Hela Bless
Son of Hel 
I don’t even get a link?
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Ah, I see it now. 🙂
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i was gonna say, i put it in there, did it not work? 😛
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Wow. Someone doesn’t understand US Federal Law and Tribal Authority interactions at all. Lie down before you hurt yourself.
1. You have a false equivalence in comparison between Standing Rock and AFA. Standing Rock *has* an unbroken tradition of centuries, and the dead to prove it, as you so graciously pointed out. The AFA has no such unbroken tradition, so not only is any and all modern interpretation suspect and subject to scrutiny because it was “allowed” to survive by the Christians, but also due to the intense modern bias that has impacted historical study since time immemorial. Heathens can’t claim blood law because, funny story, before the 1900s at the earliest, there were no “Heathens” to speak of as we know them today.
2. To be recognized as a member of a First Nation Tribe, both under Tribal Authority and under Federal/Local/State authority, is a BIG FUCKING DEAL. For some of the larger tribes, it *does* relate to gambling profits and whatnot, but for most it has a deeper impact on everything from where you’re allowed to live to what forms you fill out for just getting a driver’s license, and a multitude of other things (passports/taxes/etc.). This is not *just* a religion, or even a culture, that an individual is joining. This is a shifting of Law and Authority on multiple levels. There is no Heathen equivalent, unless you think the AFA should start setting up local Things like little Sharia Courts, petitioning for Federal recognition, etc?
Just…stop. Stop using the First Nations as an excuse to critique things that are not even remotely similar. It’s embarassing.
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To further point 2. As part of that Federal recognition of Authority, the Tribe has to keep strict records and tight control of membership, thus their rules for “blood quota.” It’s not a thing Tribes necessary *want* to do, but something the Feds forced on them to contain them and keep membership low.
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Pingback: “It’s Legally Demanded!” | Son of Hel
It is true that as part of legislation in the 1930s, tribes were required to adopt a “blood quantum” law. The percentage varies from tribe to tribe.
One one hand, the new law stopped the old federal policy that assimilation was the solution to the “Indian problem.” It gave the (recognized) tribes more control over their own assets.
On the other hand, it ended earlier customs that *some* tribes maintained that said essentially, “If you live with us and follow our ways, you are one of us.”
Carl Bonebright is correct to say that this is not “racism” imposed by the tribes themselves but is the consequence of well-meaning federal law, part of the “Indian New Deal.”
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a fair point. But while it might not be “racism imposed by the tribes” so much as “racism imposed upon the tribes,” it is still an action deemed “Racist.” And it is something “Racist” that “anti-racists” appear to be perfectly fine with…even as they oppose similar (if far less stringent) practices, all based on the race of the group practicing it.
as you say, this “blood purity” goes against what some tribes used to practice. So why not fight and stand against it and try to change/remove the law? The law itself meets the definition of racism based on how we’ve treated similar laws, and if it goes against tribal ways, there’s no reason to leave it lie when it could be done away with and equality and freedoms restored.
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Honestly, I never heard the tribes’ blood quantum requirements deemed “racist” until this week. 🙂
Human nature being what it is, they have been exploited. Who was it, the Muskogee?, who re-wrote their requirements to eliminate some people, thereby meaning few tribal members would divide the income from casinos and/or energy development? Stuff happens.
Based on my experience growing up in Indian County (western South Dakota), I don’t think that you can separate the blood quantum issue from conflicts over tradition versus modernization that go back to the early 19th century, at least. Consider the history of the two Cherokee regiments in the Confederate Army: they represented the two factions of the tribe, and they were as likely to fight each other as the Yankees.
Blood-quantum laws are all tied up with money — benefits, royalties, etc. IF the tribes could have land instead of those laws, they would take the land. But no one is handing over the Black Hills to the Lakota, etc. So they take the degree of self-control and self-definition that they can get.
The parallel with Heathen religion is not apples and oranges, it’s more like porpoises and giraffes.
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