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.
We don’t tolerate blackface so we think we aren’t racist. This is redface, and it’s racist, and it’s harmful. Speak up.
(via fuckyeahethnicwomen)
Thanks Miss America! (by chescaleigh)
(Source: youtube.com, via chescaleigh)
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.
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 have my own theories about why people want to claim to be Indian. I think people are desperately looking for a sense of place and connection. As human beings, we need to have a connection to the earth, to place and ultimately to each other. Unfortunately, the only way some folks know how to find or get something is to buy it and own it as quickly as possible. Since Indians are widely believed to have an almost magical connection with nature, why not just claim to be Indian and legitimize the claim by purchasing a DNA test? It’s silly and kind of sad.
(Source: dailyyonder.com, via full-time-n8ive-deactivated2017)
“Respect” is an abstract word. That is to say, there is no concrete referent for “respect.“ We all have an idea, or a mental image of a book, or a desk, or a chair, or a car, etc. But, the meaning of “respect” lies in each of one of us. That is to say, we can’t conjure up a mental image of “respect.“ Each person has her/his own idea of what it means to offer respect, or to be respected.
So, for example, someone says something to you that you find disrespectful, you have every right to say, “I find your remark disrespectful.” And, properly, an apology should be offered. Of course, that doesn’t always happen. People can become defensive and try to turn the table, so to speak, and attempt to blame you for being “too sensitive,“ “or too touchy."
However, when Native Americans or First Nations say, “I find that disrespectful” we’re told that we’re being “too sensitive,“ “or too touchy.” Or, “we’re honoring you!“
In short, there is a very obvious double-standard.
Just like those who offer fatuous attempts to bring up other cultures and/or races that might be “imitated” in order to make a fallacious and illusory counter argument, are like those who cannot accept their faux pas and offer an apology.
Offering an apology is where honor lies.
I let other groups, races, ethnicities, etc. determine for themselves what they deem respectful, and disrespectful. What is or is not acceptable to one group of people cannot, and never should be generalized to all groups of people.
Just because people try to emulate or pretend that they belong to a group, or culture to which they do not belong, does not make Native American and/or First Nations Wannabes OK. Two wrongs do not make a right.“
Studies have shown that White men commit 70% of rapes involving Native women.
“I am a racist white girl stealing sacred objects from cultures I am privileged over. I am also presenting a hypersexualized image of native women, with additional use of Eurocentric ultra-thin beauty ideals. I am contributing to the rape and sexual assaults on native women daily. I am disrespecting cultures whose genocide I benefit from.
I AM THE FACE OF WHITE FEMALE PRIVILEGE.”