Indigenous Rising

In the past months there has been a common rally around cultural appropriation throughout social media outlets. Greg Deal’s attempt to assert stereotypes by playing into them and throwing them back at the people who buy into it is a precarious game of dress up. It is important to consider that he is a native man but not of the culture he chooses to appropriate. That being said, there is a need to address the statement this photo communicates. The message is a mere projection of Deal’s internalized colonization at best and a critical means for social justice at worst. If his objective is to stir dialogue about stereotypes he needs to thoroughly consider the negligence and disrespectful nature of this message and the implications they have on his native female audience. The slightest understanding of life prior to colonization affirms that native communities were not structured on the basis of hierarchy, oppression or patriarchy. Despite the fact that native societies held women in high regards does not stop women from being abused and violated now. Since colonization the oppression against women has resulted in hazardous social conditions for them. The statement, Bitch I Might Be is a derogatory dissemination of masculine conquest that maintains the dominance of the unhealthy reality concerning the relationship between men and women. This is a cheap expression of “social change” that does nothing to advance the movement to break the barriers. I ask you to take a moment to truly reflect on your position as an artist and as a catalyst for change. Is this what the survival of our nations and declaration of our collective indigenous existence in the present day looks like? The painted black hand over the mouth is not enough to convey the extensive lack of respectful proliferation.