Modern day redface often takes the form of a young white woman wearing a headdress and posing in a sexualized manner, and is used among non-natives to represent freedom or a devil-may-care attitude. It's cultural appropriation and it's racist, yet it remains pervasive, especially in "hipster culture."
This is not native is a tumblr that calls out racist representations of American Indians. They reblog pictures of non-natives in headdresses with links to four articles: My Identity Is Not A Costume for You To Wear!, On why prancing around in a headdress and war paint isn't ~appreciating~ "native culture," An Open Letter to Non-Natives in Headdresses, and Redface - The history of racist Indian stereotypes.
The tumblr shames the users who posted the pictures and in the process educates a wider audience about cultural appropriation. Most tumblr users who have their pictures reblogged remain silent or delete the picture from their blog, but some, especially when the picture reblogged is of the original poster, will engage with the blog moderators. The reactions usually range from people insisting that they wear headdresses because they appreciate native culture, not because they are racist (a reaction anticipated by the inclusion of this link in the initial reblog) to people citing their freedom to wear whatever they want.
While the mods do eventually get through to some people, many refuse to admit any wrongdoing, and pictures of white girls in headdresses continue to garner notes around tumblr. Though there have been more conversations around cultural appropriation and around redface recently, the vast majority of people don't seem to see anything wrong with non-natives wearing headdresses. I guess my ultimate question would be, how do you get people to see that they're doing something damaging when they're under the impression that they're "appreciating a culture"?
This is not native is a tumblr that calls out racist representations of American Indians. They reblog pictures of non-natives in headdresses with links to four articles: My Identity Is Not A Costume for You To Wear!, On why prancing around in a headdress and war paint isn't ~appreciating~ "native culture," An Open Letter to Non-Natives in Headdresses, and Redface - The history of racist Indian stereotypes.
The tumblr shames the users who posted the pictures and in the process educates a wider audience about cultural appropriation. Most tumblr users who have their pictures reblogged remain silent or delete the picture from their blog, but some, especially when the picture reblogged is of the original poster, will engage with the blog moderators. The reactions usually range from people insisting that they wear headdresses because they appreciate native culture, not because they are racist (a reaction anticipated by the inclusion of this link in the initial reblog) to people citing their freedom to wear whatever they want.
While the mods do eventually get through to some people, many refuse to admit any wrongdoing, and pictures of white girls in headdresses continue to garner notes around tumblr. Though there have been more conversations around cultural appropriation and around redface recently, the vast majority of people don't seem to see anything wrong with non-natives wearing headdresses. I guess my ultimate question would be, how do you get people to see that they're doing something damaging when they're under the impression that they're "appreciating a culture"?
5 comments:
I think this is very much linked to the erasure of history that we talked about in class on Wednesday. It's very easy for people, specifically the white girls at music festivals, to not see anything wrong in their wearing a headdress and other Native American garb because the history of genocide and racism is never acknowledged or taught. Instead, it has been erased and ignored by textbooks and popular culture. Therefore, privileged people, in this case white girls, have never had to confront or suffer the repercussions of that violent history because of their racial identity. So once Native American culture became an aesthetic in fashion, it's history and political meanings were forgotten.
In order for people to understand why these costumes and accessories are offensive to Native American cultures, we must address the roots of the problem itself, which is that racism has had a major role in the country's history. That history has led to the oppression and erasure of peoples and cultures. Instead of hiding it, like the town historians of communities that held black minstrel shows, we have to confront and acknowledge it so that we can understand why these things are offensive and how its effects have lingered in society for this long.
I think this is very much linked to the erasure of history that we talked about in class on Wednesday. It's very easy for people, specifically the white girls at music festivals, to not see anything wrong in their wearing a headdress and other Native American garb because the history of genocide and racism is never acknowledged or taught. Instead, it has been erased and ignored by textbooks and popular culture. Therefore, privileged people, in this case white girls, have never had to confront or suffer the repercussions of that violent history because of their racial identity. So once Native American culture became an aesthetic in fashion, it's history and political meanings were forgotten.
In order for people to understand why these costumes and accessories are offensive to Native American cultures, we must address the roots of the problem itself, which is that racism has had a major role in the country's history. That history has led to the oppression and erasure of peoples and cultures. Instead of hiding it, like the town historians of communities that held black minstrel shows, we have to confront and acknowledge it so that we can understand why these things are offensive and how its effects have lingered in society for this long
I think part of the problem is that these offenses are all linked. What I mean is, if the underlying message is that dressing "exotically" is sexy, then the beauty industry has a stake in condoning minstrelsy as a practice, even if they don't call it minstrelsy. And here we are again at the power of media to influence us all. It's all unfortunately reinforced by the world of high fashion, which strangely trickles its way down to the casual etsy shopper. What's even worse is if they think wearing these items makes them beautiful, interesting, cultured, etc., media culture isn't interested in how damaging it is to put on a headdress and pose provocatively. And sure, we can all make up our own minds about what's insensitive, but what these industries are really interested in is making sure you buy stuff because you think it'll make you look cool at coachella. If being genuinely appreciative of other cultures and being sensitive to things like redface were suddenly fashionable, magazines would sure look a lot different.
Maddy, I think you linked us to some very interesting and relevant articles here and to some excellent examples of ways that people are attempting to begin the conversation about appropriation. The main problem, as Daniela pointed out, is that it just isn't talked about. The long history of oppression is largely glossed over in most text books. Native Americans get a chapter at the beginning of a text book for their connection to the colonization and then that's it. Some of the more radical text books might mention that it was a pretty rough time and that a lot of people died. But from there, the presence of Native Americans through American history is ignored. There might be a paragraph or two on the creation of reservations or about the Navajo Code Talkers in World War II but for the most part American history education ignores Native Americans entirely. Because of this, the people who are taking part in modern cultural appropriation have no frame of reference for the long-reaching implications of their actions. The articles linked above as well as sites such as apihtawikosisan.com are all good places to start with looking at how to change the conversation about cultural appropriation, but the lack of education on the subject is at the root of the problem.
About a month ago I suffered my first excruciating encounter with a couple wearing huge matching headdresses. Maybe I had seen it before but didn't really think about it. I couldn't stop thinking, 'what if they were wearing jew suits?' What if they had been wearing blackface? What if they had been dressed as any other ethnic or racial caricature? I wondered why these analogies made me more appalled than the headdress alone. How could anyone there not be reminded of the tragic loss of culture resulting from Europe's demolition of indigenous American culture?
I think we just aren't raised to have an easy time realizing the value of understanding different types of lifestyles and cultures. We're not all that interested in culture as a society, it seems. Why isn't `community' a huge part of most people's lives? Why do most adults have so few friends? If we tried hard to answer these questions, I think we'd invariably find ourselves obsessed with the wisdom of cultures and communities, which by definition are kind of just groups of people doing their best to live well.
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