somerset: so-treu: chrisdoveton: ...

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

so-treu:

chrisdoveton:

moniquill:

DEPICTIONS LIKE THIS ARE HURTFUL.

WAR BONNETS ARE NOT A FASHION STATEMENT.

Cultural appropriation is not beautiful.

It is your choice to reblog racist, appropriative images, you don’t have to do it.

Please stop tagging pictures like this ‘Native American’; they have nothing to do with NDN people.

Check out some links:

Cultural Appropriation on Wikipedia

Native Appropriations

My Culture is not a Trend

Here’s a quick checklist for whether it’s ok to wear a war bonnet (even a cheap imitation like this):

Was it placed onto your head by an elder/legitimate authority figure from a select number of plains nations because you personally achieved something so great that it is worthy of that kind of honor? (corrolary: If yes to the above, are you currently wearing it in an appropriate ceremonial fashion/setting? Like are you at a powwow or speaking with the president?)

If you answered ‘no’ then IT IS NOT OK.

Any more than it would be ok to buy a decorated veteran’s purple heart that he had to pawn and put -that- on for a sexy/edgy/hip photo shoot. What you are doing is that kind of disrespect, on top of the slap in the face that is cultural appropriation in general.

Please take this picture down, and don’t take more like it. When you see your friends and associates and tumblr followers doing the same kind of thing, speak out against it. This is racist and hurtful.

mmm…Is it not healthier to allow disrespectful fashion statements than revere some ancient tribal war customs that glorify violence?

1. these culture are not ancient. Plains Native Americans are still here, and this is still their shit.

2. cultural appropriation is itself a form of violence, and it a violence that stems from the centuries of violence inflicted on NAs by white folks. context, get some.

3. fuck off.

This is like every whiteperson TM reaction to every single hurtful thing they do to other ethnicities and cultures ever. A person just literally spent valuable time and resources detailing with citations what is wrong and why it is wrong and politely asked that the person refrain from such behavior again in light of the well cited reasons. Then some other (probably white) person who wasn’t even involved in the first place responds to all of that with one sentence that they obviously barely put any thought into involving some pseudo-concern about something that might seem “moral” but which is actually really just evidence of the fact they did not truly understand what the poc said and which is actually extremely intolerant, hurtful and bigoted. White people will literally perform practically impossible feats of mental acrobatics just to refuse to ever confront the fucked up shit that they do. Turning racist appropriation into anti-violence advocacy, that is not something you see everyday. Congratulations.