If you ever wondered...
I had this conversation the other day:
"So, this practice differs from ours because it arose from the dominant culture-"
"-Excuse me!"
"Yes, could you not use that phrase, please."
"What? Practice? Um... custom, I guess-"
"No. Dominant culture. I just think it throws, you know, a large portion of our country in an unkind light."
"Oh, do you find it offensive?"
"...I mean, I don't know if offensive is the right word or not. Maybe a little? Offensive. I mean, its not very trauma informed."
"Well, I find being referred to as a minority all the time a bit offensive. It says my culture is less than yours. At best it says we dont matter as much because there are more of you all. At worst, its used to say we, ourselves, are lesser. You folks stop using that, and then we can talk about coming up with a different catchphrase for you folks."
"But that's different. You ARE a minority!"
"Get out."
V V V V V V V V V V V V V
So, in case you have ever wondered, "Dominant culture," in the Americas means the culture that came to our land, overthrew our own governments, committed genocide against us, stole everything including the land under our feet from us, and then systematically worked to stomp out every faucet of our own cultures.
Dominant is actually the NICE word for it.
PS: child, trauma-informed doesn't mean avoiding everything that anyone (aka you, the complainer) finds icky, it means being AWARE of past traumas, including indigenous inter-generational and cultural trauma caused by the DOMINANT CULTURE as well as personal trauma caused by the ongoing racism by the DOMINANT CULTURE and then being aware and careful of how you approach those traumas and areas that could be affected by that trauma with person/s who have exprerienced that trauma.
Not being a racist isn't the same thing as being trauma-informed. Not being racist just means you aren't an asshole racist.
