Drew Hayden Taylor writes, in his 1991 essay, about his life being a First Nations man but looking “Pretty like a white boy.” He writes about how he witnessed and heard so much racism towards First Nations people because people thought he was Caucasian.
Taylor tells us all through out his essay that he is judged by both races for not “looking the part” of a First Nations man. At one point Taylor tells his readers about an especially embarrassing moment while visiting a trapper woman and her kids. He tells us that as he was packing up the film equipment (as he was there filming a documentary) a nine-year-old girl, who had been following him during his time there and refused to believe he was Indian, asked him if he wanted some tea. When Taylor said no as he was in a she, as Taylor says, “smiled with victory, crying out “See you’re not Indian. All Indians drink tea.”’ Taylor then proceeded to pull out his status card to show the young girl that had no idea what status even was, I feel that this was a fundamental moment in the story, as I feel this is when his perspective on how to handle situation like that changes. Taylor then goes on to tell us about how his essay got its name, he says that it came from Marianne Jones telling him that the old women in her village would call him “Pretty like a white boy.”
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No more problems.” This lead Taylor to thinking he could be a great “undercover agent for Native political organization.” I feel like this shouldn’t happen, turning to complete strangers to judge someone else based one what little information you have on their race, or passing judgment on a race based on what little information you have on that certain