The last fail I had was with a sort of acquaintance over twitter. I retweeted a post from the cultural appropriations blog and she replied that the blogger was "a bit of a culture hoarder." I was too pissed off to come up with a witty comeback for that one.
Two of my favorites are recent. One was my supervisor making that woo woo woo noise people do by putting their hand over their mouth when mentioning something native american. I was so offended I was almost speechless. She said all our songs sound the same. I said, how could they, they are different languages.
The other was when my coworkers didn't understand why I didn't want to be marked as white on our stats for work. They said if you are white and native american wouldn't you just rather pretend you are only white? lol. I didn't even want to explain. I just said in future when they are doing the work report thing I want to be considered as an other since I'm mixed race but not enrolled. None of them could grasp it.
Ugh, I HATE that "woo woo" noise thing. I remember my family and I went to a bonfire at one of my Dad's coworker's house. When he introduced my Dad to a group of strangers, one of the men did the "woo woo" thing and everyone cracked up except for my Dad, who almost punched the guy in the face. Instead, we just left.
Ahh, yes. The problem of trying to identify your race on censuses when you're mixed-blood. I never write white because, well, I'm not just white and I definitely don't identify as white, so I always identify as "Other" or "Native".
Man, the teacher one is just painful. A grown adult should know better, a 8th grader I can let slide even if that is pretty stupid. Jeez.
My dad, who was native [lol, thanks mom's genes for my pastiness] got flagged by airport security after the 9/11 attacks, not telling him why, and stripping him down pretty good. Maybe it wasn't profiling, but it sure looked and smelled like profiling, if you know what I mean. Same thing happened in the 80s by a cop, but the cop at least had the decency to hint that he pulled him over mostly because his long hair and dark skin made him look *~unruly~*.
Another time, one of my friend's parents when I was reaaally little banned me from ever going over her house because my dad picked me up and he was reportedly "too dark and scary looking". Uh, what?
LOL that's happened to my Dad before, except he more often gets mistaken for a Mexican than a terrorist lol. Actually, your Dad sounds a lot like my Dad. He is pretty visibly Native American and for some reason, a lot of people seem to be intimidated by him because of his dark skin and Native features O__o it's odd, especially because my Dad is such a friendly guy.
Hah, and about inheriting your Moms pastiness... That sorta happened to me. My Mom is the exact opposite of my Dad: light skin, blond hair, blue eyes. So as a result of these two extremes coming together, I end up being in the middle. I have my Dad's eye shape and color, plus his nose and lips, but my hair is a sorta dirty blond/light brown and my skin color is naturally tan, but not as dark as my Dad's.
I like how Mexican=Native, depending on who you ask. I think the two races look VERY different, but who knows, I know they can mix and crap, but in general, I can tell personally xD; My dad was SUPER friendly too, so it's lulzy when people equate big, dark skin guys to scary when they're normaly teddy bears.
Dude, someone cloned our families. My mom is the same look, but I turned out, at birth, totally native looking, but shifted to pastiness, dark brown hair, blue eyes, but GUESS WHAT? Got all the physical stereotypical features of native including chicken breast [when the chest "caves in", birth defect, totally harmless, but looks funny and apparently is common in east/midcoast natives, lulz].
Coming from an Irish-Cherokee background where we are a mix of green or brown eyes, with red-brown or black hair, and a good range of skin darkness with every combo between the eight of us, has been an interesting journey. My grandmother often reminded me, when I was looked down on my hair color, that the great Busyhead was so named for his head of bright red hair.
As to fails: There was the mechanic who heard me speaking cherokee on the phone to one of my brothers and after I answered his inquiry of what language I was using, he took a step back and went "woo woo woo". My five year old looked him dead in the eyes and said "really sir, we don't go woo woo woo"....
Or the time I was in my regalia for a wedding (I was asked to take part as an officiate) and a young man ran up to me, took my polaroid, pulled it out and said "HA, got your soul!"
I hope my kids are as cool as yours when they're old enough to talk! I have two, one that looks like her almost fully native american father, and one that looks exactly like me (a black,german an native american mix.)
Discussing the BIA with my Sociology class this semester -
Student: "So, if the Indians are having such a hard time why don't they just team up?"
Me: "Well, we did, once. It didn't go well. Besides, now one has to go through the BIA to get anything done."
S: "What about just putting up a fence or something?"
M: "BIA."
S: "Okay, but what about building schools and stuff like that?"
M: "BIA."
S: "Alright, I hear what you're saying, but I just don't get why they can't just get together on this stuff, do they not like each other??"
Professor: "Well, I've heard of a group that was trying to get some stuff together. There was something that happened though. Somewhere at -ridge something. And some guy got arrested. I think they were called 'The Indian Movement'."
oh oww. So very like my college experiences. You would think that "places of learning" wouldnt be so totally drowning in Stupid. I was actually in an environmental history graduate class where several people shouted me down in discussion to tell me there was no need to be concerned with Native Americans or anything to do with them because "they are all dead".
I asked the professor if I got extra credit points for coming to class while dead, but he ignored me.
I wasn't the only native student at the school either:-/
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Two of my favorites are recent. One was my supervisor making that woo woo woo noise people do by putting their hand over their mouth when mentioning something native american. I was so offended I was almost speechless. She said all our songs sound the same. I said, how could they, they are different languages.
The other was when my coworkers didn't understand why I didn't want to be marked as white on our stats for work. They said if you are white and native american wouldn't you just rather pretend you are only white? lol. I didn't even want to explain. I just said in future when they are doing the work report thing I want to be considered as an other since I'm mixed race but not enrolled. None of them could grasp it.
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Ahh, yes. The problem of trying to identify your race on censuses when you're mixed-blood. I never write white because, well, I'm not just white and I definitely don't identify as white, so I always identify as "Other" or "Native".
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My dad, who was native [lol, thanks mom's genes for my pastiness] got flagged by airport security after the 9/11 attacks, not telling him why, and stripping him down pretty good. Maybe it wasn't profiling, but it sure looked and smelled like profiling, if you know what I mean. Same thing happened in the 80s by a cop, but the cop at least had the decency to hint that he pulled him over mostly because his long hair and dark skin made him look *~unruly~*.
Another time, one of my friend's parents when I was reaaally little banned me from ever going over her house because my dad picked me up and he was reportedly "too dark and scary looking". Uh, what?
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LOL that's happened to my Dad before, except he more often gets mistaken for a Mexican than a terrorist lol. Actually, your Dad sounds a lot like my Dad. He is pretty visibly Native American and for some reason, a lot of people seem to be intimidated by him because of his dark skin and Native features O__o it's odd, especially because my Dad is such a friendly guy.
Hah, and about inheriting your Moms pastiness... That sorta happened to me. My Mom is the exact opposite of my Dad: light skin, blond hair, blue eyes. So as a result of these two extremes coming together, I end up being in the middle. I have my Dad's eye shape and color, plus his nose and lips, but my hair is a sorta dirty blond/light brown and my skin color is naturally tan, but not as dark as my Dad's.
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Dude, someone cloned our families. My mom is the same look, but I turned out, at birth, totally native looking, but shifted to pastiness, dark brown hair, blue eyes, but GUESS WHAT? Got all the physical stereotypical features of native including chicken breast [when the chest "caves in", birth defect, totally harmless, but looks funny and apparently is common in east/midcoast natives, lulz].
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(The comment has been removed)
As to fails: There was the mechanic who heard me speaking cherokee on the phone to one of my brothers and after I answered his inquiry of what language I was using, he took a step back and went "woo woo woo". My five year old looked him dead in the eyes and said "really sir, we don't go woo woo woo"....
Or the time I was in my regalia for a wedding (I was asked to take part as an officiate) and a young man ran up to me, took my polaroid, pulled it out and said "HA, got your soul!"
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Natives=Amish now, that's a new one.
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Student: "So, if the Indians are having such a hard time why don't they just team up?"
Me: "Well, we did, once. It didn't go well. Besides, now one has to go through the BIA to get anything done."
S: "What about just putting up a fence or something?"
M: "BIA."
S: "Okay, but what about building schools and stuff like that?"
M: "BIA."
S: "Alright, I hear what you're saying, but I just don't get why they can't just get together on this stuff, do they not like each other??"
Professor: "Well, I've heard of a group that was trying to get some stuff together. There was something that happened though. Somewhere at -ridge something. And some guy got arrested. I think they were called 'The Indian Movement'."
I just let it die at that point.
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I was actually in an environmental history graduate class where several people shouted me down in discussion to tell me there was no need to be concerned with Native Americans or anything to do with them because "they are all dead".
I asked the professor if I got extra credit points for coming to class while dead, but he ignored me.
I wasn't the only native student at the school either:-/
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And wow. What dumbasses!
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