Pretendian @kodeerants on Twitter

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There’s a few stereotypes about non-Natives that many of us roll our eyes at to this day. Claiming to be Native based on family lore, ‘I have Native in me’, ‘I’m part Native/tribe’ – ‘I’m a descendant of Pocahontas’.

In the real world, when I’m among the general public, it’s often that, one hundred percent unsolicited, someone tells me that they’re “Part Native™”. 99% of the time, all they have is a vague notion of Cherokee, or some random nation. Details often get sketchier from there. I believe it’s more from an attempt at claiming some sort of connection that 1) I didn’t ask for 2) empty solidarity since such claims are never about culture and those people never know Indigenous issues.

But a lot like dreamcatchers and appropriation.

Just a quick perusal of Twitter in the last year has produced a number of people who claim to be ‘descendants of Pocahontas’ besides @kodeerants.

The level of severity as to the damage of such claims depend on the reasons behind it. I’ve yet to see a case of a random claim to Pocahontas where it was educational. Besides, there are actual descendants of Matoaka and members of her tribes on Twitter and they have done much to educate about the importance of #LeaveMatoakaAlone. For two recommendations, follow @powhatannative or @lilrednacho to learn from the wealth of information that both have for East Coast tribes. Leave a tip, too.

Why claim an ancestor when one doesn’t know what tribes they are, let alone the culture and histories?

Non-Natives most often do so for perceived clout. Saying, “I have a Native ancestor” or just the ‘average’ Native doesn’t lend as much ‘wow’ as, ‘I can talk over you because I’m supposedly related to someone famous’. I’m not sure how that logic happens, but it’s part of the phenomenon.

Non-Natives often think that before the Internet, there was no such thing as records to prove their claims and thus were safe to make them at random. The thing is, many tribes have great documentation all the way back to the Dawes Roll, some even further. ‘Great’ doesn’t mean perfect in this case as there were a number of factors that led to broken records or falsified information, especially when it came to stealing land from Natives. For many instances, however, genealogy does exist.

Records pertaining to Matoaka’s lineage exist. It’s easy enough to verify a claim when ancestors are given.

According to @powhatannative, there are a number of ways to trace ancestry back to Matoaka if it exists.

Pretendians never want to verify that, though. @kodeerants has even indicated that she refuses to learn Pocahontas’ tribe or culture, yet she’ll weaponize this claim to speak over Natives.

For pretendians, they’d rather continue appropriating Native identity and twist it to excuse racism and bigotry, among other anti-Indigenous actions. It’s a subconscious ‘I have more authority than you’ or even ‘I’m more Native than you, hence my opinion carries more weight’. It’s a perceived cloak used to excuse racism and coopt Native voices on Native issues that they don’t otherwise have a right to decide for us.

This is especially common among white women with a perceived “Native ancestry” claim. @kodeerants is just another in a long line of Pretendians. Not as visible as alt right Barbie #KayaJoke aka @KayaJones, whose Apache claims have been reduced to ‘I’m Native ‘cause DNA so there’. She also uses her empty claim to speak over Natives as well as twist our genocide for racist and pro-2A narratives. Of course, Elizabeth Warren and her Cherokee and Delaware claims, who will vociferously admit that she’s not enrolled and understands the distinction and our sovereignty to determine who’s a member, but has yet to admit that she’s not Native. Bubba Otep is yet another, who had her great great grandmother, demoted (or promoted?) to great grandmother, and started out ‘Cheyenne, Choctaw or Comanche, and is now suddenly ‘Lakota’, but she won’t name which Lakota tribe or this ancestor. All have been a negative reflection of Native identity and all have endeavored to speak over Natives – all to this day.

They kind of look like they could be related to each other though. Like four generations of Pretendians.

What happened with KKkodeerants?

In February of this year, @kodeerants posted a video in which she lamented how the Bratz challenge made one’s lips ‘look like they got beat by Chris Brown’. This anti-black, tone deaf statement earned some blowback. In a now deleted response, @kodeerants attempted to excuse herself by claiming to be Native.

It wasn’t the first time she’d claimed to be Native, but it garnered more attention and eventually came across many a radar. She’s been arguing with Natives and blocking us for some time now.

In researching and writing, it seems all tweets pertaining to “Native”, “Native American”, and “Pocahontas” have been deleted from her Twitter repertoire.

But she has said that she always screenshots and some of us do, too. Enjoy this gallery of screenshots that she wishes could go away, but you said it, you post screenshots of other people’s tweets so it’s only fair, right?

If they get deleted, here’s what those tweets said:

If you search who’s mentioned @kodeerants on Twitter, you’ll find a plethora of Native voices since February calling her out. This month, she added her grandmother to the mix to blame her for making the claim to Pocahontas. Rather than doing the work herself, or doing any research or even just listening to Natives and admit that she’s not Native, @kodeerants put her grandmother in the crosshairs saying, ‘my grams just wanted to know who her ancestors fucked lol’ and then mocked the fact that Matoaka is a child rape survivor with this gem of a tweet.

Which she deleted. But screenshot my response to share it for some reason rather than defend her words…

 

Now, like every other white woman pretendian who refuses to let go of blood myth and family lore, @kodeerants is crying victim lately although very carefully not mentioning those mean and pesky Natives who called her out. Bubba Otep did the same thing with a 47-minute ramble bitching about us; can’t wait to see @kodeerants’ version. Her Instagram is now private where she can rant in peace in a safe space hidden from us. For a public “drama channel”, she sure does enjoy creating drama and hiding from it when she fucks up. In fact, in previous tweets and replies, blocking people from discussion, regardless of how controversial, if you don’t agree with @kodeerants, you will be blocked. The fragility is off the scale for this one.

If you read the previous thread directly above, in which @kodeerants once again blames grandma for the genealogy, @kodeerants blocked someone else simply for something a critic said about her. I wonder if, to @kodeerants, this was ‘guilt by asking for clarification’ or ‘guilt by association’.

Now look at our side; or rather, look at the side of East Coast tribes and relatives of Matoaka. Imagine having to defend an ancestor so tirelessly while white women, in particular, continually attempt to claim an ancestor like a pokemon just to say you have it. Their intentions aren’t to honor or educate. It isn’t to connect to the culture and thrive through teachings. It’s only an intangible toy meant to feel superior, speak over Natives or excuse one’s racism. It needs to stop. Thus the hashtag #LeaveMatoakaAlone.

SO! #NativeTwitter. People have largely stopped @-ing her since she’s blocked most of us. But I dare say she’s open to a continued and open discussion because she says so in the following rant that I have transcribed so as to save you from hearing it in any volume.

“Okay, I’m going to go off a little bit. Okay. If you are a teenager and you are old enough to have a social media account – that means you can also have an email account. You are old enough to know that on the keyboard, there is a little @ button and that @ button tags people on Twitter.”

Already, this is factually wrong. Being a teenager or ‘old enough’ to have an email addy or a social media account isn’t a correlation to knowing what’s on a keyboard. And unless you type a person’s name -and correctly- it isn’t going to tag them at all.

“And if you are going to talk shit about somebody, you need to tag that person because if you are going to talk shit about another human being, my momma taught me that you better be brave enough to say it to that person’s face.”

The over the top acting and annoying voice seem to be part of @kodeerant’s brand. If a white Becky who seems the type to always ask to speak to the manager, calls down assault of a black woman as a punchline, or whose fragility can’t match her fake tough persona, then @kodeerants is for you! She obviously does not abide by this teaching considering how many people she’s blocked in just a few days.

@kodeerants’ fragility is off the charts compared to other pretendians. She is quick to silence those who oppose or call her out, but will reward boot lickers who don’t know any better about a topic like when to stop claiming to be Native. She obviously shames her mother for not upholding that childhood teaching of ‘if you’re going to talk shit, be brave enough to say it to someone’s face’. On top of throwing grandma under the bus for the genealogy and now mom for her fragility, it’s painfully clear that @kodeerants has no concept of self accountability.

“If you say shit about a human being, you better be brave enough to go up to that person and go, ‘hey, bitch, I don’t like you because of this this and this reason. And if you are not ‘brave’ enough to do that, then keep your mouth fucking closed. Okay? See when -I- make a rant about another human being, I will tag them because I don’t give a fuck. I will tell it to you to your face because I don’t care, okay?”

The funny thing about this is that if she really didn’t care, she wouldn’t bother saying shit. It’s because she overly cares that she even says a damn thing. She also can’t handle it when presented with factual information that aren’t opinions and chooses to silence those who interfere with the dream world she has of herself. But does that mean if any of us were in her area of Ohio, she’d welcome – nay, EXPECT – us to tell it to her face?

“So, you need to do the same. I don’t think that’s fucking difficult. You are old enough to type. You are old enough to tag somebody. Subtweets are stupid and if you subtweet people, you are stupid! Okay bye!”

Unless there’s a public apology to Matoaka, her relatives, descendants and tribes, she is welcoming any and all criticisms to be public and tagged to her. Or, conversely, she can provide genealogical records and have her family recognized as actual descendants of Matoaka, learn about the cultures connected to her and respect Native voices. I highly doubt she’ll do the latter.

@kodeerants has also claimed to be German, Irish, and Italian in addition to “Indian”. We all know she’s not Native American. Those other three, which I will say seem valid, makes @kodeerants white. The only way she’d be any whiter is having an ancestor from England. Oh wait…

In conclusion:

Bonus: This awesome YouTube video with more in depth information on Matoaka and this debacle. Definitely check out @DontWriteDown and @ChelseyMooner on Twitter after watching this awesome video!

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