ward churchill

First, check out this transcript of Ward Churchill's appearance on Democracy Now!

It's a short, sweet summary that explains it all for you, in case you were wondering. (It also includes some ludicrous discussion on "The O'Reilly Factor" between the host & the governor of Colorado).

Political nitty-gritty aside, apparently there are some claims that Ward Churchill is not a "real" Indian! For all you sociologists and Soc 134 students out there, herewith some thoughts on that topic...

Exhibit A: an interesting and thoughtful take on Churchill's ethnicity, views, and academic freedom from Indian Country Today ("The Nations' Leading Native American News Source").

Exhibit B: On the lefty website "Znet," here's a, well, lefty take on the identity question, featuring the "race and ethnicity are taxonomic artifacts" argument, and calling anyone who disagrees (what else?) a racist.

My take: it seems to me that the Zmag article smacks of putatively "color-blind" imperialism, while the Indian Country Today article makes some really good points.

This all reminds me of a recent discussion at Wasabi, about a pattern where the dominant group says that identity is infinitely fluid & self-defined, while non-dominant groups see things very differently, and often perceive the dominant group's "it's all fluid" attitude as an attempt to colonize and dominate ALL space (including spaces that dominated groups have fought hard to create for themselves) .......

What do you think?

And....supposing for a moment that we accept the premise that Churchill is a respectable scholar in every way except for a fraudulent "Indian" identity.... what does that mean for his scholarhsip?

My first reaction: he's taking that job away from a "real" Indian
My second reaction: he wouldn't be the first prof to be a complete nutcase and still do good work in his field.

Well, so, what do you think already? If you don't comment, I'll just laugh at you and call you a chicken.