Problematic
I bought these shows yesterday at TJ Maxx--I bargained for them and got them for $7.00, and they are my favorite color and they are basically slippers that I can wear out of the house.
(I don't know what happened to the picture, and I don't really care--it was a camera phone with Rock Band drums in the background--It doesn't demand perfection.)
They're moccasins, which my mom wore when I was little, so I have good memories of the style. but I was looking at them tonight and I got really concerned that it's racist of me to wear these shoes. As Jeffrey pointed out, it isn't my intention, but I'm of the mind that when it comes to discrimination and prejudice and ignorance, intent doesn't really matter.
Maybe racist isn't quite the word, but how about appropriation? I'm a white woman wearing a traditional item of an oppressed culture. But are turquoise slippers with stars far enough away from anything traditionally Native that I can feel comfortable enough wearing them? I can't really be the one to make that call.
I also wear a patterned wrap skirt that a dear friend got for me in India, and I practice yoga, and I've read controversial opinions when it comes to white people and both of those things. But I feel OK with them, at least, because of my deep and genuine interest and respect for the practice and tradition of yoga, and I appreciate that the skirt is not a reproduction and it's representative of a meaningful experience my friend had. My shoes, on the other hand, I bought from a mass marketer, they were made in China (both of which are other issues in themselves), and they are a silly blue with silly stars.
A good friend of mine is a Native woman, and I thought about asking her opinion, but I can't recall what her background is, exactly--as far as I can tell, moccasins originated with the Plains people, and it doesn't accomplish anything if I treat all Native people as one and the same. (I think she's Navajo.)
What's your opinion?
(I don't know what happened to the picture, and I don't really care--it was a camera phone with Rock Band drums in the background--It doesn't demand perfection.)
They're moccasins, which my mom wore when I was little, so I have good memories of the style. but I was looking at them tonight and I got really concerned that it's racist of me to wear these shoes. As Jeffrey pointed out, it isn't my intention, but I'm of the mind that when it comes to discrimination and prejudice and ignorance, intent doesn't really matter.
Maybe racist isn't quite the word, but how about appropriation? I'm a white woman wearing a traditional item of an oppressed culture. But are turquoise slippers with stars far enough away from anything traditionally Native that I can feel comfortable enough wearing them? I can't really be the one to make that call.
I also wear a patterned wrap skirt that a dear friend got for me in India, and I practice yoga, and I've read controversial opinions when it comes to white people and both of those things. But I feel OK with them, at least, because of my deep and genuine interest and respect for the practice and tradition of yoga, and I appreciate that the skirt is not a reproduction and it's representative of a meaningful experience my friend had. My shoes, on the other hand, I bought from a mass marketer, they were made in China (both of which are other issues in themselves), and they are a silly blue with silly stars.
A good friend of mine is a Native woman, and I thought about asking her opinion, but I can't recall what her background is, exactly--as far as I can tell, moccasins originated with the Plains people, and it doesn't accomplish anything if I treat all Native people as one and the same. (I think she's Navajo.)
What's your opinion?