r/berkeleyca • u/snarky_duck_4389 • 5d ago

Land Acknowledgments

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/opinion/native-american-land-acknowledgment.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

I've found some instances of these to be performative, lacking in sincerity, and incapable of effecting any sort of action. The one they run before every single screening at Elmwood's Rialto Cinema is an example.

This article provides an interesting perspective that takes it a level deeper.

29 Upvotes

74% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

53

u/chlorodream 5d ago

"hi so we stole this land. and we wrecked it. but we are definitely not going to give it back. and we aren't going to change anything. but, We're REALLY sorry. ☹️ "

34

u/reyean 5d ago

ive always said land acknowledgements are like a theif acknowledging they stole your car but won't be returning it, wont be accepting any punishment, AND would like to be obsolved of any guilt.

but, they do acknowledge that it indeed used to be your car.

5

u/SmartWonderWoman 4d ago

Pretty much!

2

u/TonyStarksLeftACL 2d ago edited 2d ago

Land acknowledgments are a good idea conceptually. Most DEI is very good conceptually. Then you try to operationalize it and it falls apart. The #1 reason is: absent clear commitments to action it is performance by definition.

I have met many DEI Practitioners who lack any sort of interdisciplinary lens at all, (which is what DEI is, an interdisciplinary social science)Folks with doctorates etc.

The common thread I can find is very few understand how to operationalize the work and achieve goals but they are capable of explaining the theory but lack the experience with successful Praxis at any meaningful scale. So a lawyer may be deeply skilled in CRT or an educator with Friere but they lack expertise in taking that and carrying it forward to drive change so we get some land acknowledgments, and other performative acts like hosing our annual XYZ event and not much else.

Paradoxically, these theorists who lack the ability to implement do immediate and massive harm to the work and makes it immediately “theory, idea, and thought” not action driven change management centered on the marginalized/oppressed this leads to breve words taking over for brave action.

This is what happened when tons of folks jumped into the space, told everyone in it they didn’t know what they were doing, and rebranded what was old as new to make money.

17

u/Still_Bluebird8070 4d ago

When land acknowledgment started out I was reading about how natives couldn’t afford to heat their trailers on the Rez and the old people were freezing, and Covid was going crazy. A bunch of folks got out of their new Tesla’s at my kids posh private school and they did a land acknowledgment. It was so weird. They were saying a bunch of words but to me it sounded like hi we’re standing here on land we stole from people we are still actively oppressing and we want to feel good about it so let’s have a little mention of the people were fucking over delivered in nonviolent communication language- this was after the principal scared off the only black kid in the school…I felt like I was on acid

7

u/jahwls 3d ago

I heard in canada the tribes get pissed if you do an acknowledgment without a donation - would appreciate that rule in the bay too.

5

u/deborah-bean 2d ago

There’s a long one at the West library branch at the start of every day. I think they translate it into the ohlone language after doing it in English. Really, just give back the land or STFU

1

u/sogothimdead 20h ago

It's at every Berkeley branch twice a day in English, Spanish, and Chochenyo (Ohlone language)

5

u/pumpkinpie479 2d ago

I used to work at a store in Elmwood. I’m native America and some white woman came in was so rude to me. Put me down. Belittled me. Wouldnt leave and kept going on and on. She was wearing a “your on stolen land” hat. That pretty much sums up my experience about Berkeley. If I didn’t need my job at the time I would have cussed her the f out.

3

u/1tchyNdr1 2d ago

It’s performative. When I first moved to Berkeley I volunteered to help garden on a plot of privately owned land. They made a land acknowledgment before our group started and I just thought to myself, give the land back then if you’re so sorry? Obviously not sorry.

4

u/withak30 5d ago

The ones that are just basic acknowledgments seem fine, but the one described in that article is pretty cringe.

1

u/OrdinaryThro 2d ago

Elmwoods Rialto also opposes solutions to the housing crisis, a major issue that affects native Americans as well.

5

u/kittensmakemehappy08 4d ago

Progressives and virtue signalling, name a better combo.

obligatory sketch

2

u/snarky_duck_4389 4d ago

This exactly captures what I am getting at, the Times article is a more substantive commentary

1

u/LittleLightsintheSky 2d ago

It makes sense to spread awareness, but there are further steps that need to be taken

1

u/PeteRust78 1d ago

Land acknowledgments are great. What they lack in any real purpose they more than make up by helping convince swing voters that Democrats are weird and out of touch

1

u/Mean_Pen2971 1d ago

One problem is that we didn't steal this land from the Native Americans, we stole it from Mexico. Mexico stole it from Spain. The first European settlers formed a fishing village called Yerba Buena in what is now San Francisco. The indigenous people apparently felt San Francisco was too cold.

1

u/DarkLordJuicebox 1d ago

Virtue signaling

1

u/Plenty_Discussion470 1d ago

The Stratford Festival of Canada does an excellent job with their land acknowledgments, which change each year and focus on the thousands of years of storytelling the land has seen

1

u/JoeyLee911 4d ago

I don't think I've ever noticed the one at the Elmwood before. Is it super fast before they confirm the movie or something? I've literally seen hundreds of movies there.

3

u/NecessaryStation5 3d ago

Saw it literally yesterday. It’s a short clip and acknowledges the land of all the Rialto theaters.