1. None of that has anything to do with dressing up in a costume though.
2. All costumes, ALL costumes, have problems. You name one, I'll tell you the horrors behind it. There is no safe costume!
3. Painting your face red = blackface. Wearing tribal headdress and wearing tribal gear of the Zulu nation, that would be something similar. Please stop comparing something that is racist to something that is a traditional garb. You're taking blood and putting it on your target and saying LOOK IT IS COVERED IN BLOOD NOW. It isn't, its traditional garb, it isn't traditionally racist.
4. So, only individuals that you say can make/buy/wear what you say?
We can agree on a few things: America was founded on the bones of the native people of America. Whites did not 'find' America, they found what the tribal people had been living on for centuries. And then they robbed/killed/slaughtered them by the millions. It was the greatest genocide the world has ever known, and in most history books is known as the Colonization of America and is a 'good thing'. It clearly is not.
Racism in America is still commonplace. Native Americans are amongst the poorest set of people (if not the most impoverished), and because of that, have higher counts of crime, alcoholism, and all the nastiness that goes with extreme poverty in America.
But none of the above is because someone wears a Sexy Indian costume.
It happens because they have no money, no jobs, and are stuck on the fucking reservation. It happens because they get shilled out of their land by greedy corporations, or worse by greedy tribal governments who run their casinos and prey on their own people.
Bad things happen because people are bad. Bad things don't happen because of a stupid costume.
I have no issue with Native Americans wearing tribal regalia. I have no problem with other races wearing tribal regalia at pow wows or if they have been gifted to them by Native Americans. I think that if someone is going to do either of those things they should procure their adornments from Native American craftspersons or companies. This is the legal and moral thing to do, hell there is even a law in place that supports it: http://www.doi.gov/iacb/act.html I don't think going into a costume store and buying a poorly made knock off headdress (or any other Native American object) is honoring Native people. I find it exploitative at least. I have issues with people using ceremonially sacred objects such as certain feathers and headdresses as disrespectful, but I did not really touch on that in my letter so as to not have it being extremely long. Many Catholics find that wear rosaries as necklaces is disrespectful, and I would say sacred items should be kept sacred.
If I believe that most people buying and wearing Indian costumes were doing so out of honor, then I would not have a problem with it, however I seriously doubt that.
2. All costumes, ALL costumes, have problems. You name one, I'll tell you the horrors behind it. There is no safe costume!
3. Painting your face red = blackface. Wearing tribal headdress and wearing tribal gear of the Zulu nation, that would be something similar. Please stop comparing something that is racist to something that is a traditional garb. You're taking blood and putting it on your target and saying LOOK IT IS COVERED IN BLOOD NOW. It isn't, its traditional garb, it isn't traditionally racist.
4. So, only individuals that you say can make/buy/wear what you say?
We can agree on a few things:
America was founded on the bones of the native people of America. Whites did not 'find' America, they found what the tribal people had been living on for centuries. And then they robbed/killed/slaughtered them by the millions. It was the greatest genocide the world has ever known, and in most history books is known as the Colonization of America and is a 'good thing'. It clearly is not.
Racism in America is still commonplace. Native Americans are amongst the poorest set of people (if not the most impoverished), and because of that, have higher counts of crime, alcoholism, and all the nastiness that goes with extreme poverty in America.
But none of the above is because someone wears a Sexy Indian costume.
It happens because they have no money, no jobs, and are stuck on the fucking reservation. It happens because they get shilled out of their land by greedy corporations, or worse by greedy tribal governments who run their casinos and prey on their own people.
Bad things happen because people are bad. Bad things don't happen because of a stupid costume.
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I don't think going into a costume store and buying a poorly made knock off headdress (or any other Native American object) is honoring Native people. I find it exploitative at least.
I have issues with people using ceremonially sacred objects such as certain feathers and headdresses as disrespectful, but I did not really touch on that in my letter so as to not have it being extremely long. Many Catholics find that wear rosaries as necklaces is disrespectful, and I would say sacred items should be kept sacred.
If I believe that most people buying and wearing Indian costumes were doing so out of honor, then I would not have a problem with it, however I seriously doubt that.
Honoring Native peoples? I just don't see it.
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