Content notice: Appropriation, Racism, Anti-Native

I grew up in the Boy Scouts. In my troop, I held the rank of Senior Patrol Leader for a year, I took numerous leadership positions. I was a member of the Order of the Arrow and of its cermonies teams. I became, at least according to some, an excellent public speaker and I got my first tastes of community activism through the BSA(hosting a donation drive to support Iraqi civilians and American troops hurt in the Iraq war).

So in many ways it hurts to have to tell it as it is, but the Boy Scouts still have -major- problems.

I want to praise the BSA's decision to allow gay adults and children to be full members of the scouts. While there is an ugly asterisk allowing religious affiliated troops(like the many Mormon troops in Idaho and Utah) to continue discriminating, there is no doubt this is major progress.

But the Boy Scouts still forfeit public monies by disallowing atheists and agnostics into the organization at all (http://www.theatlantic.com/...). As an atheist, this is one of the major reasons I left the scouts. The organization claims to hold religion at its core, and despite the fact that it does offer religious awards for scouts of most religious faiths(http://www.scouting.org/...), there is also no question that its primarily influence is Christian. Scouts must swear to do their duty to "God and my Country", not to "Goddess" or "Gods" or "the Dharma" or another source. Ultimately this is a decision the scouts make, but the notion that good works, brotherhood, and public service requires religion is simply false, and should be rejected.

However, the scouts exclusion of minorities goes far beyond its "official" policies. Most troublingly, the Boy Scouts of America continues an incredibly racist tradition that erases and appropriates from Native Americans. This is called the Order of the Arrow. The Order of the Arrow is an "honor society", something close to a secret society. It is meant to be an honor for scouts who go above and beyond the normal call of scouting, and supports community work. It is also meant to provide a sense of brotherhood and kinship for members. (http://www.oa-bsa.org/)

All in all this would not be so bad, except that the way in which this is done is through the mass appropriation of Native American cultures. For example, when Order of the Arrow ceremonies are performed, scouts- mostly white- dress up as Native Americans(or a caricature thereof) and tell stories of Lenni Lenape origin(as filtered through the likes of James Fenimore Cooper). These often involve invocations of the phrase "Wimachtendienk, Wingolauchsik, Witahemui", which is of Lenni Lenape origin and means "brotherhood, cheerful, and service." In most "lodges", this is done with minimal Native American involvement and no awareness of the cultural appropriation involved.

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