Minnesota professor calls to ‘decolonize’ and ‘dismantle’ the US
A liberal arts professor at the University of Minnesota called for people to “dismantle” and “decolonize” America during a pro-Palestinian event.
Earlier this month, University of Minnesota liberal arts professor Melanie Yazzie took the stage with several other speakers as part of the anti-capitalist Native American advocacy group the Red Nation’s “teach-in” on the Israel-Hamas war.
During the pro-Palestinian event, Yazzie made several controversial comments, including early on when she said she wanted a takeaway from the event to be that “we’re all indigenous people who come from nations who are under occupation by the United States government.”
“And, of course, the U.S. bankrolls the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land,” Yazzie continued. “They’re one and the same, really.”
“So it’s our responsibility as people who are within the United States to go as hard as possible to decolonize this place because that will reverberate all across the world,” Yazzie said. “Because the U.S. is the greatest predator empire that has ever existed.”
Yazzie said that she and her comrades “want [the] U.S. out of everywhere,” including “Palestine” and “Turtle Island” — a name used by some Native American tribes to describe North America.
“And that the goal is to dismantle the settler project that is the United States for the freedom and the future of all life on this planet,” Yazzie said. “It very much depends on that.”
Yazzie also appeared to imply she saw the “entire world” change after the Oct. 7 attacks by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas on innocent Israeli civilians and claimed that “Palestine is the alternative path for native nations.”
“It is a righteous struggle and it is so powerful that it has literally, in 60 days, changed the entire world,” Yazzie said. “The entire world has changed. I knew it the moment that it happened that nothing, and I mean nothing for colonizers or for any of the good, humble people of the Earth, would ever be the same ever again.”
“And we need to lean into that. Lean into the fact that colonizers are scared,” she said, laughing. “Lean into scaring them and making them feel uncomfortable!”
Yazzie, who said she was the co-host of the Red Nation podcast “Red Power Hour,” decried “liberalism” as “bulls—” and “trash” that “was founded upon imperialism and colonialism.”
“All it knows is the language of violence, and when it doesn’t use the language of violence, it uses the niceties like ‘Minnesota Nice’ to cover that s–t up,” Yazzie said.
“Enough! Enough with investing our time with liberalism!” she cried. “That is not resistance.
“Resistance is the only thing… the only kind of death blows to colonialism, imperialism that have happened historically because indigenous people have resisted in the various places where this violence has touched down.”
Yazzie also delivered a message to their “Palestinian relatives,” where she called the U.S. a “violent settler project” and she and her comrades have the “moral authority” to do so “as the original people” of America.
“In addition to solidarity and the things that we might do, having the moral authority as the original people of these lands, to push back against the violent settler project that is the United States,” Yazzie said.
“And to help to lead that, to be the tip of the spear here of all liberation struggles and the movements that seek a world of justice, equality, and peace, that seek to dismantle the United States,” she continued.
“I hope you seek to dismantle the United States,” Yazzie added to applause from the audience.
Yazzie also claimed that “decolonization” is “the only thing that’s going to save us as a species” and “the planet,” and said that people should “just be on board with it, no questions asked.”
Yazzie, the University of Minnesota, and the Red Nation did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
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