University Presenter Tells Students They Are ‘Genocide Beneficiaries,’ Report Says

In mid-November, UMass Boston students were reportedly told by a presenter on a panel on Native American issues at UMass Boston that they were “genocide beneficiaries.”

As Alexander Pease of The College Fix reports, the panel, titled “Indigenous Commemorative Practices and Community-Building Initiatives in Native New England and Beyond,” was part of a teach-in titled, “Part of the Unbought, Unbossed, Unbroken: Resisting Systemic Oppression Teach-In.” The event described itself as addressing the “theme of being ‘unbroken,’ by focusing on Indigenous resiliency through grassroots commemorative practices and community-building initiatives.”

Pease notes that the teach-in gave “a parade of progressive scholars and other leftwing activists a platform for their ideas … Other panels hosted during last week’s teach-in were ‘White Supremacy at the Ballot Box,’ ‘Sex and Gender: Deconstructing Categories’ and ‘BDS and Palestinian Liberation.'”

Deedy Wyman, identified as the organizer of the Annual Deer Island Sacred Paddle and Walk, reportedly asked the students,  “How can we define systemic oppression?” Pease writes, “As an example, Wyman explained that the erection of early dams by European settlers in Massachusetts rivers served as a ‘system of oppression’ for Native Americans, since the construction of the dams hindered natives from canoe travel.

After allegedly informing the students “my father is European” and “I’m a colonizer and settler in that respect,” Wyman reportedly continued by asserting that she was aware of her “colonizer privilege” in America. Pease noted, “Wyman added everyone in the room is a part of a national collective as U.S. citizens, which she noted is compiled of ‘genocide beneficiaries.’ Wyman also allegedly called native Americans converting to Christianity an aspect of ‘Stockholm syndrome.’”

In August 2017, in reference to a petition on Change.org calling for the removal of the Columbus statue in the North End of Boston and Columbus statues in any other public areas of the City of Boston be removed from public view, Wyman wrote on Facebook, “Christopher Columbus was a murderer and slaver and should not be honored in our city.”

The petition stated:

We hereby petition Boston City Council and Mayor Walsh to direct that: (1) the Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park in the North End be renamed and (2) the Columbus statue located there and Columbus statues in any other public areas of the City of Boston be removed from public view …

Honoring Columbus is honoring the genocide of Indigenous peoples, millions of whom died as a result of the actions of Columbus and his men and the further waves of Europeans who came after Columbus. Columbus did not “discover” anything. Millions of Indigenous peoples with varied civilizations lived here for thousands of years, long before 1492. The Columbus statue and Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park are monuments to a man who butchered, enslaved and raped Indigenous people and did not view them as fully human …

He also personally engaged in and profited from kidnapping and enslaving Indigenous people, including women and young girls who were sold into sexual slavery. The fact that Columbus launched the enslavement and genocide of Indigenous peoples and began the colonization of the Americas are his true and shameful legacy.