“And we don’t smoke or
drink,” Susie explained as she was selling us their crafts. She also emphasized
her family – her (adorable) grandkids and their success in school. “Yes, life
is good.”
In my narrative-drunk
head, I wondered about the pressures on native artists to be “clean,” reminding
me of the drive to find “clean/innocent” Black victims of police brutality, as
well as the search for a Rosa Parks as the perfect moral symbol for the civil
rights movement. I asserted to myself it is outrageous to impose your
moral code on a people that has had its fundamental rights violated,
identity assaulted, and their basic human needs left unfulfilled.
Thankfully, I ended my
intellectual masturbation by asking her about the issue. Without missing a beat
of her congenial grandma cadence, Susie explained she hadn’t encountered any
buyers pressuring her about sobriety, and it’s natural to not want your money
going for a person’s drink. Further, she’s proud she doesn’t smoke or drink,
and said she has no problems exercising those bragging rights.
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