Thing is, I was not trying to decide their emotions. They have every right to feel however they feel. But they also do not get to speak for other people. As I said, what About Native Americans who actually WANT costumes of their culture to exist, so long as they’re tasteful?
Should I ignore or dismiss their wishes on that one person’s say so?
Should I also ignore the obvious bias, hypocrisy and double standard laced thoughout his many statements?
Should I ignore the numerous positive benefits that I can see coming from tasteful and accurate costumes?
Also, this discussion has had nothing to do with my personal choices in costume as not only does Australia not celebrate Halloween in the first place (More’s the pity), but if we did, I’d prefer to dress up as something from fiction instead of something from real life.
And that’s probably why I disagreed with him. Because the discussion snd ramifications were bigger than him or me, and thus bigger than our emotions. Had it just been about me wanting to wear something that he found offensive, I simply wouldn’t wear it. But that’s not what the conversation was about.
“As I said, what About Native Americans who actually WANT costumes of their culture to exist, so long as they’re tasteful?” These hypothetical people are either few and far between or nonexistent. Even if you personally know a native person who wants this, how do they feel about you tokenizing them and using their words to silence the rest of the native americans you’re speaking over? Genuinely, you have not experienced your people being subjected to genocide and then being used as a costume, having your religious ritual items stolen and passed around as a curio to gawk at. Right now what you need to do is listen and learn from native peoples because you don’t know as much as you think you do.
@forlovefromfear for the win thank you for collecting this trash bin.
@corazonyflores I got you 👍
So, I should ignore and dismiss those who actually want to share their culture? (And I mean their REAL culture, not some crap parody of it).
Thing is, while the innacurate parodies and offensive stereotypes of Native Americans should be done away with, the use of costumes in festivities can actually be a great way to introduce people to a new culture. Yes I am totally on board with changing WHAT the costume is and the form it takes (And honestly, there should be more costumes than just “indian” because obviously there’s more to the culture than that. But you should have BETTER costumes to display your actual culture to the world, accurate costume. The choice shouldn’t be “bad costume or no costume.” (That’s why I loved your idea of costumes designed by native americans themselves).
To use a comparison of something I would want to see, I would want to see girls dressing up as Moana. Even if they aren’t Polynesian. Because not only was that an actual example of Polynesian clothing, but Moana is a heroic character. And Non-Polynesian girls dressing like her sends the message to me that she can appeal to and inspire people even outside of her race. That it’s not the stereotype of “only Polynesian’s care about this stuff”
Am I making sense?
(And yes, I know Polynesian’s aren’t the same as Native Americans, but it was the best example of the kind of thing I would want.)
Because I worry that when the day comes that you DO finally get a costume you can be proud of, that you actually WANT Non-natives to dress up in. When it’s the costume of some great hero or villain in your mythology that is as reknown to you as King Arthur is to the British, no-one will buy it. No one will touch it because they’re so afraid of “Cultural Appropriation”.
Culture NEEDS to be shared in order to expand and grow. I am totally on board with the policy of “Those costumes are horrible. That is not who we are. Do better.”
But a completely isolationist attitude of “OUR culture! Keep out!” Is going to do nothing but condem what history you have left to be forgotten.
You seem to feel very entitled to other people’s cultures. I have a great many non-Jewish friends whom I invite to share my holidays. The difference is that they don’t feel entitled to that and they are respectful of my culture. And when I am invited to their festivities, I make sure that I am being respectful. If I weren’t respectful, they would not invite me, they would not share their cultures with me, they probably would not be friends with me. And that’s their right. I’m not entitled to their culture.
From my limited experience, Native Americans occasionally do wear their regalia, often during protests. But that is their decision and you are not entitled to it. No amount of threats of extinction is going to make it so that you have a right to demand that you have access to their culture. And, quite frankly, when colonizers do this whole fake concern thing about our cultures going extinct, it comes across as a threat. Like “if you don’t let us steal even more of your culture we’re gonna wipe you out for real this time.” That’s how it comes across.
To address your point “culture needs to expand and grow.” Several millennia of Jewish history would disagree with you. We tend to be isolationist because we know that we and the people who associate with us tend to get killed. And yet, somehow we are still here, despite the best efforts of your people.
Regarding Moana, that’s a complicated enough issue that I don’t feel comfortable talking about it and will defer to someone who can.
ForLoveFromFear 