1. A fireman can stop being a fireman, a Native American cannot stop being a Native American. No one is ever denied basic rights on the basis of being a fireman, but I know many People of Color who have their rights challenged every single day.
2. Maybe any costume can be made brutal or sexy, but not all costumes have hundreds of years of genocide and oppression behind them.
3. Yes, personal responsibility is a key to preventing violence. But violence is promoted against People of Color when it common for other people to see them as inhuman. Wearing a costume such as a headdress or blackface makes people see them as inconsequential.
4. I am all for Native Americans wearing tribal adornments, however they should purchase them from an actual crafts-person, not a costume shop, and certainly not a headdress made from chicken feathers.
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 think a lot of people are just pretty ignorant, i'm sure the editors of that paper never walked a day in your shoes or someone who is a minority race in america, so they are kind of insensitive to that. they need letters like yours to start thinking about these things.
what if someone were portraying a specific historical figure rather than representing a whole race? what if that person used a cheapo chicken-feather headdress to portray that figure? i think it's a question of taste and respect. i remember my high school had a halloween rule that no one was allowed to wear a costume that crossed racial or gender boundaries. some people felt that the rule was kind of awkward and sort of emphasized racial/gender division.
i'm not disagreeing with you, just curious about your perspective. i'm a white girl dressing as the egyptian queen nefertiti for halloween.
I think it's fine if you are dressing up as a historical figure, and you have done some research about it. I'm not saying anyone who is not Native American can never wear a headdress, but I kind of feel if someone sees people in such attired they assume it's okay to just dress up and act as a stereotypical Indian character. If I could walk up to the person wearing the headdress and have an actual conversation about Native Americans and related topics, then I would be fine with it. But just some hipster girl wearing a headdress because "it's cute" who thinks all Indians live in tipis and hunt buffalo, would be offensive to me.
Also, I don't think women should wear headdresses, they are not worn by women traditionally and it's not a sexist thing. Also, I have some hesitation about headdresses being worn due to their usage as ceremonial and sacred objects.
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2. Maybe any costume can be made brutal or sexy, but not all costumes have hundreds of years of genocide and oppression behind them.
3. Yes, personal responsibility is a key to preventing violence. But violence is promoted against People of Color when it common for other people to see them as inhuman. Wearing a costume such as a headdress or blackface makes people see them as inconsequential.
4. I am all for Native Americans wearing tribal adornments, however they should purchase them from an actual crafts-person, not a costume shop, and certainly not a headdress made from chicken feathers.
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i'm not disagreeing with you, just curious about your perspective. i'm a white girl dressing as the egyptian queen nefertiti for halloween.
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I don't think women should wear headdresses, they are not worn by women traditionally and it's not a sexist thing. Also, I have some hesitation about headdresses being worn due to their usage as ceremonial and sacred objects.
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