John Hamer wrote: ↑Sun Jul 26, 2020 7:10 am
Is Elder Larry Echo Hawk a racist? No.
Is Stephen Smoot a racist? If he can say "the Book of Mormon has zero historicity," then I don't know. If he can't and instead believes the Book of Mormon is historical or if he believes it has a kernel of historicity, then by definition, Stephen Smoot is a racist (and, I will say again, he is guilty of ongoing genocide).
He is perpetuating a system that puts puts people he claims are Lamanites on an unequal basis because of the color of their skin (or now shirts) And a system that justified, in literature and from the pulpit, their genocide and continued displacement.
Smoot can change the definition of a racist around to suit his needs. But it doesn’t change the fact that he is still participating in a racist system. I see him as a racist.
I don’t believe Echohawk is racist, yes he has a belief system tied up in Mormonism. He also has a documented history of fighting against the racism that those systems, including Mormonism, engender.
I recently sat in the same room and later chatted with him. We were at a presentation on violence against Native American women (which is committed predominantly by non-native men). To put it into perspective my wife and daughters have a 4x lifetime risk over a white woman of being murdered. That is double of what BLM protests are about.
Smoot is a brown nosing tool, At least that is what a BYU professor who knows him said to me.