I dropped her off this morning and saw girls (and boys) wearing grass skirts, some of them with coconut bras too. I’m not sure what else is going on, but it doesn’t seem very respectful of a native culture that we have seriously fucked over. Would they have a “Native American Day” and let kids come in wearing feathered headdresses?
Or am I reading too much into it?
People have over-corrected with super pc sensitivity. We reacted to hate speech and lynching and blackface and slurs with an equal and opposite extreme of everything is off limits.
I’m 3/4 German. When I see people with liederhosen and beer and Trader Joe’s beer labeled “trader Klaus” and people drinking from a boot, or people of color celebrating octoberfest, I’m not insulted or offended, I’m excited to see people having fun and digging my heritage.
Is this a free pass for people to do blackface at a Halloween party? Of course not. Should I be scared to wear a shirt with palm trees on it? Of course not.
There is a place for celebrating and enjoying a culture, people, tradition, race which is not at that group’s expense that we should embrace instead of shun. I think making cultural exchange taboo is a mistake and is segregating and labeling in its own right. Not everything people like is cultural appropriation.
You want to talk about appropriation, then let’s talk about Christmas and the winter solstice, or pretty much anything involving Christianity. Not a good track record there but no one gets slapped for dressing up as white Jesus.