why do white people think they have a right to give permission to other white people to wear sacred items from cultures that are not there own?
like, who much undeserved sense of entitlement do you have to have to do that?
Because you may have Native blood, but do you have the heart to pump it?
If a person of colour tells you that what you’re wearing is offensive then don’t wear it.
Disclaimer: This comic only applies to those [“you” meaning those who wear headdresses where it does not apply to them or their culture, hense cultural appropriation] or have in some way done offense in the term of cultural appropriation and this post was created specifically for said people in order to perhaps gain a better understanding of why cultural appropriation is offensive to many Native Americans [and to whom it applies within any person of colour] and strictly for educational purposes. This post does not mean to offend those who have done some sort of act of unintentional offense to Native Americans in the past by means of cultural appropriation and presently understand the offense that was made and regret it.
“But do you have the heart to pump it?”
(via sktagg23)
According to Christina Fallin (Gov. of OK’s daughter) “a woman in a headdress can be a beautiful thing.” She is on point! However not just any woman can put on a headdress. Minnie Hollow Wood earned her feathers through extreme bravery and is a woman warrior. It is not a beautiful thing, it is an honorable thing.
(via kakalotl)
Photo by Lance Brown Eyes
also why is it “deep and full of meaning and culture” when you want to use war bonnets in your art and fashion
but the second natives dont like you stealing and misusing our shit suddenly it becomes “just a hat omg!”
posting photos of people wearing costume warbonnets promotes racism and desecrates a sacred item that is still used traditionally by several Native tribes. Cultural appropriation is an act of racism, an action that dehumanizes a group of people and/or a race while stealing parts of their culture.
attack: does it mean what I think it means?
Everyone creates their own meaning to commonly used words; for example, if you asked thirty people to define love most of them would have completely different definitions, some of those definitions might even be on opposite ends of the spectrum. So when I send messages to people on Tumblr who post racist images towards Native Americans I see it as “educational” while most of the people I message call it an “attack”. When I think of the word attack I think of purposely seeking out someone to emotionally, verbally, or physically harm.
When I send a message to a person about Cultural Appropriation, for example, the point of the message isn’t to hurt them but help them, help them to realize why it hurts my feelings to be seeing these kinds of images and how it may possibly hurt someone else. And most importantly to defend those who are hurt. So when someone claims that I am attacking them by telling them how I feel I wonder about how they feel insulted. Was it insulting of me to say that their behavior was racist? I don’t think so, but I guess they do. And if you agree with them that pointing out racist behavior is a cruel attack let me ask you: the images you post that hurt me, are they attacks or are you completely innocent? In my opinion the real attack are the racist images not me telling you why it is problematic.
when White people refer to Native American headdresses as “Indian hats”
posting photos of people wearing costume warbonnets promotes racism and desecrates a sacred item that is still used traditionally by several Native tribes. Cultural appropriation is an act of racism, an action that dehumanizes a group of people and/or a race while stealing parts of their culture.
When people tag photos of White girls wearing costume warbonnets as:
#beautiful #amazing #cute #racist #cultural appropriation #fetishization
yeah, I fucking see you.
Cultural Appropriation: A Photographic Journey to Explain Why You Should Wash Off the Warpaint and Put Down the Headdress.
AND IT’S NOT JUST NATIVES THAT THINK YOU ARE BEING OFFENSIVE:
“Centuries of Native Americans—as well as indigenous peoples all over the world—have suffered under dominating entities that tried to extinguish them—both physically (i.e., genocide) and culturally (i.e., the banning of traditional practices, such as the criminalization of the Lakota sun dance for most of the 20th century, residential schools in Canada until the 1970s, and so forth).
So while it’s great that you can walk around feeling like hot shit in your feathered headband, there are many Native Americans still too ashamed or afraid to even discuss their ethnicits or cultures with their children. Many whose songs, languages, ceremonies and skills have been lost by force. Many who are so mired in poverty and depression and addiction and other forms of social strife that you might have more access to their traditional cultures than they do.“
~ Mimi Thi Nguyen
SO KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY.
Signed, Ashley FairbanksFollow this link for a video and brief analysis of cultural representation as a practice of domination.
I am a modern Lakota winyan. No accent. No paint. No feathers. I’m like no Indian you’ve ever seen. Because I am not a mascot. Or a blockbuster archetype.
Someone dressed like a gothic taxidermist is trying to sell me my own culture. “Your values and beliefs are for sale!” he proclaims in redface. “So is your land. I’ll buy it for you [if you see my movie].” Good trade? Spending $5 million on land worth $14,000 to sell a movie made for $250 million. I’m no good at math. But that seems excessive. Over the top. Not enough…#greatwhitesaviorcomplex.
When Racism knocks on your door, it’ll be riding a pinto, wearing a bird, and wrapped in a Comanche flag.
…Why put $5 million into the pockets of a greedy old white man? Why not give the $5 million directly to the tribe? Why not consult with the people you’re hoping to impact before rushing out and doing what YOU think is best for them? Who knows what’s best, anyway?
And that’s what this is really all about. Natives don’t have control. Of anything…How much we need. What we can have. Where we can have it. Our images are not our own. They belong to those with money. And I want to scream, “THESE IMAGES YOU CREATE HURT ME!” You may not know it, but they hurt you, too.
Ours is a Halloween heritage. A logo legacy. Slot machine sovereignty. Tonto traditions. Ancestry for the price of admission.
(via feministwerewolf-blog)
Your opinions are urs and ur free to them as am I, I do agree with that 100%. U keep using "war bonnet" when its just a basic run of the mill generic head dress anyone can buy at any place that sells "Native american" items that is probably made in china, sorry a cheap prop holds no symbolic meaning to me, a actual one would be another story totally. Also I do not support any racism, but if she were drunk or using a stereotype then id agree with u 100% Racism is a harsh word to use lightly.
Asked by Anonymous
Costume warbonnets are racist. The companies that make these cheap fake warbonnets are profiting off of stealing from plains Native tribes; and reducing all Native Americans into a stereotype. These companies are benefiting from the oppression of Native Americans. And you (oh excuse me your “friend") are giving them money.
You are helping to fund racism against Native Americans. If you haven’t earned each and every eagle feather and been given permission from a tribe that traditionally use the warbonnet then you have no right to wear a warbonnet.