So it's black history month here in the UK and I am hearing a lot about native cultures and exaggerated stories of racism and glorified pasts. Good and bad things have happened in the past, however how we tell those stories and construct our identities based on them is what I am interested in. To quote MN Srinivas 'the present was so bleak that the past became glorious'. He goes on to talk about how India's past was reinvented with exaggerated claims of superiority. These claims can be seen in the way activists approach issues, through reclaiming the past. Rahul Rao has written about the use of these arguments are being disavowed cousins of the very antagonists they are fighting.
Nativism has several problems as it goes onto to prove that we are nothing more than an unchanging history, to be petrified in time. This is an aspect of racism I have encountered in the UK, it is liberal, well meaning and positive but still racist. This argument also plays into the hands of the extreme right who use culture as a way of distinguishing between civilised white people an uncivilised black people whose are tied to their culture which makes us nasty.
The call for authenticity for me also poses the fear of right wing groups eliminating non authentic citizens. While activists emerge from a positive position they are nevertheless using the same argument and the oppressor which does not sufficiently argue why groups of people must be treated well in the present time.
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