Divide and Conquer: African Americans Expelled from Cherokee Nation

An op-ed in this weekend’s USA Today brought back to the national agenda an issue that has been stewing since last winter. In a dispute apparently driven by financial incentives, Cherokee nation members voted overwhelmingly in March to purge some 2,800 blacks of tribal membership. The “freedmen” are, in part, ancestors of former slaves who were awarded Cherokee citizenship via a treaty from the mid-19^th Century. With the potential of new casino revenues on the horizon, purging these members of their membership would result in a bigger payoff for those with Cherokee blood.

Spencer Overton at blackprof.com was all over this when the vote first took place, as was Yo' Nas Da LoneWolf McCall-Muhammad, an Oglala Lakota black woman. She asks why groups of oppressed minorities are turning on one another rather than fighting together.

While the details are unique, this is a familiar story. When one group has predominant access to power and systemically deny that access to “others,” the marginalized groups have two choices: to fight together for access to power or to fight with one another for the scraps that might remain. Throughout history, we have seen both strategies; the former has led to more equality while the latter has allowed the dominant group to remain in power.

In an AP story last week, Gillian Flaccus noted the racial element of the current situation. We want to point out, as well, that racial stereotypes are certainly at work here. John Velie, attorney for the freedmen, is quoted as saying, “They're scared that if the freedmen come in and vote, a bunch of 'welfare blacks' will come in and take their benefits. . . It's just racism.” The vision of African Americans being happily dependent on handouts is a long-standing image, reinforced most prominently by the Reagan Administrations depiction of the “welfare mother” in the 1980s. Even though “welfare” benefits were dramatically reduced during the 1990s, such a stereotype remains.

It is common with respect to political and military strategy to “divide and conquer.” The only way a minority group (i.e., white men) can continue to dominate the majority is to make sure that the latter is not unified. By introducing and reinforcing racial stereotypes, disparate “out groups” learn to be distrustful and suspect of one another, leading them to compete with one another, rather than work together for common benefit. Such a scenario is being played out in the Cherokee nation – part of a group that had been targeted for genocide (successfully, for the most part) – which has every intention of protecting what its members perceive is “theirs.” When it was beneficial to join with black Americans in solidarity, they did so. Now that it seems preferable to split, more then ¾ have voted to do just that. Two social groups that should be allies for long-term gains are thus enemies for short-term profit. The winner: the dominant group. It’s a familiar story.