| By far the most severe oppression that
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| | labor, by running their cattle on
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| the women faced comes from the dominant
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| | reservation land for a mere pittance, by
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| culture. This oppression is shown in
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| | using [Indians] as colorful props to
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| numerous ways, such as degradation,
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| | attract the Eastern tourists" (Crow Dog
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| exploitation, and murder. As a result,
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| | 81). Mary discovered that her people were
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| the women have an understandable fear and
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| | being cheated by the reservation trading
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| hatred of white people. Maya describes an
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| | post when she was in New York. According
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| errand into the white section of town
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| | to Mary, "everything was so much cheaper
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| like this: "We were explorers walking
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| | than on the reservation where the trading
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| without weapons into man-eating animals'
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| | posts have no competition and charge what
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| territory" (Angelou 25). Likewise,
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| | they please" (Crow Dog 112).African
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| because of Mary's beatings by Catholic
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| | Americans suffer from this exploitation
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| nuns at the Indian Boarding School, she
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| | also. Since they were segregated, African
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| "hated and mistrusted every white person
| |
| | Americans were only allowed to attend
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| on sight, because [she] met only one
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| | certain schools and colleges. These
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| kind" (Crow Dog 34).One example of
| |
| | colleges trained "Negro youth to be
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| whites' degradation of minority peoples
| |
| | carpenters, farmers, handymen, masons,
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| is the changing of their names. Native
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| | maids, cooks, and baby nurses" (Angelou
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| American peoples were forced to adopt
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| | 170). They were not given the opportunity
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| Christian first names. Mary writes that
| |
| | to become "Galileos and Madame Curies and
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| her husband's family name should have
| |
| | Edisons and Gaugins" (Angelou 179). As
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| been Crow Coyote, but due to a white
| |
| | with the Indians, whites cheated the
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| interpreter's misunderstanding, they
| |
| | black cotton pickers out of their earned
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| ended up with the name Crow Dog (Crow Dog
| |
| | wages. Maya reported that "no matter how
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| 10). Maya also had her name changed by
| |
| | much they had picked, it wasn't enough"
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| her white employer. Her given name is
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| | to pay the "staggering bill that waited
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| Marguerite, but the white woman called
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| | on them at the white commissary downtown"
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| her Margaret. Then a friend of the white
| |
| | (Angelou 8).The most severe oppression
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| woman told her the name Margaret was too
| |
| | suffered by minorities is the physical
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| long and she would "call her Mary if I
| |
| | violence and unjustified murder committed
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| was you" (Angelou 107). Maya said that
| |
| | by white people. Maya describes a
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| "every person she knew had a hellish
| |
| | gruesome scene in which she and her
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| horror of being 'called out of his name'"
| |
| | brother learn about the murder of a black
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| and that "it was a dangerous practice to
| |
| | man:And once, we found out about a man
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| call a Negro anything that could be
| |
| | who had been killed by whitefolks and
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| loosely construed as insulting because of
| |
| | thrown into the pond. Bailey said the
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| the centuries of their having been called
| |
| | man's things had been cut off and put in
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| niggers, jigs, dinges, blackbirds, crows,
| |
| | his pocket and he had been shot in the
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| boots, and spooks" (Angelou 109).Another
| |
| | head, all because the whitefolks said he
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| element of oppression by whites is how
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| | did 'it' to a white woman (Angelou
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| minority peoples are exploited for their
| |
| | 37).Mary also recounts numerous times
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| labor and cheated out of what is owed to
| |
| | Indians were murdered by white men. The
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| them. Native and African Americans were
| |
| | following account is particularly
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| relegated to the lowest and worst paying
| |
| | inhuman:Not long before that a Sioux,
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| jobs by whites. Mary claimed that all the
| |
| | Raymond Yellow Thunder, a humble,
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| whites living near the reservation "made
| |
| | hard-working man, had been stripped naked
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| their living in some way by exploiting
| |
| | and forced at gunpoint to dance in an
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| [the Indians], by using Indians as cheap
| |
| | American Legion Hall at Gordon, Nebraska.
|
