This burns. For a million reasons. It burns people. It burns souls, damages real Indigenous people. It steals $, it fetishizes, it appropriates for personal gain, it creates stereotypes, it burns.
These sorts of people just confuse me. It is the polar opposite of what is happening south of the border. Over there, your entire family can be in the Indian baptismal records since the 1600s (like most of mine), you can live in the same town as them and have the same traditions, but chose to self-ID as non-Indian. Literally millions of people do this. Then we have liars like this one. SMH.
@chema It's because Indigenous people are fetishized. White people want to be us & they feel entitled to steal identities. They claim so many stereotypes they become "more Native" than real Native people. I got a weird vibe from her, but, I didn't question her legitimacy - in order to get funding & jobs many legit Indigenous people exploit all the stereotypes. Then we found out she's not Indigenous at all. It's weird & it burns.
I appreciate your tolerance. I've never been part of the academic world or pursued funding, but I have spent most of my adult life working on Indigenous projects as a volunteer. To think that people claim this identity, my identity, and become financially comfortable and successful is hard. It burns is a good way to describe it.
@chema It burns = It devastates. I wouldn't call that tolerance. It's more like rage & devastation.
She has stolen my identity & done it so thoroughly that Non-Native people don't even recognize the real Indigenous people. Refuse to recognize. She has painted over us with a demented caricature & run away with the money. Stealing from profoundly underprivileged people. Talking over us. Speaking for us without our consent. That burns & I'm enraged.
@chema Yes it's fraud. Not only intellectual fraud but also financial fraud. There was a lot of funding & other money involved. I haven't followed all the real world details, but been more focused on the cultural, philosophical & ethical implications. I think she lost her UCB job & some funding. More details than that I haven't kept track.
Read the letter. It's deep.
If you read the critiques from several others, she has a documented history of exploiting underprivileged students. Horrific.
Thanks. I will track it since I am just across the Bay. I also run a really big Native community on Reddit (almost 50k) and just shared the letter there.
@chema There are at least two or three other expose type letters/articles about her by Indigenous people she exploited. From maybe a year & a half ago when it first came out. It's pretty bad. (But she was a darling of funders.) Do a search & you'll find the articles. Or maybe people will share them.
@chema@thepoliticalcat
She is still at UC Berkeley, & still doing her thing.
According to a letter made on behalf of Indigenous scholars & former students "We demand that Elizabeth Hoover resign from her position as Associate Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management (ESPM) & leave UC Berkeley."
Liz Hoover, Pretend Indian of UCB earns almost $200K, very substantially more than faculty peers, & much much more than most Indigenous people.
The problem w this is she took prestigious funding & positions of authority as a boss that exploits & controls Indigenous people. With the ability to block their access to funding/professional devt... & DID. It's amateur colonialism.
W no traceable connection to an Indigenous community & a weird fabricated identity #Pretendian
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