S/thing to think abt re: "culture" costumes and racism

amother

Brown

Mon, Mar 07 2016, 11:28 am

Sadie wrote:

I agree with you that dressing in the clothes of another culture is not necessarily offensive and can be positive. I'm not trying to say where the line is. But certain people seem to think that being asked to listen to the feelings of people whose culture has been popularly mocked and degraded means they're being attacked by the PC police. They automatically get defensive and don't consider that they might have something to learn (I'm not referring to you here, btw)

I celebrate thanksgiving (or would, theoretically, if I moved back to America) but I don't believe that objection to thanksgiving is just a micro-aggression sensitivity. Most American school children don't get any in-depth education on native history and the only time they really hear about Indians is when they learn about how friendly Indians helped the white settlers and they all sat around the table together for a friendly meal. It's a really sanitized and inaccurate portrayal of colonial life, and the students miss out on learning important historical facts about their country.

I disagree. I teach American history in a chassidish school and the textbooks have gotten more and more native and minority focused - and lets not forget womn's rights - with every new edition. And that's a good thing.

Perhaps in preschool kids put on a turkey and Pilgrim play, but by the time they learn social studies in the third grade even we in a right wing ultra-orthodox school learned about the Iroquois and Algonquin Indians in New York State. In the 5th grade we learned about the Trail of Tears.

Unfortunately most Americans forget their education. Remember the show "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?"

FranticFrummie

Mon, Mar 07 2016, 12:24 pm

tigerwife wrote:

I've learned about Jackson and the Trail of Tears in grade school, but I still had no idea it was offensive to wear a Native American costume until I read about it in this site. I get what they mean but I still think most people are not vicious in their intentions. I don't think people think into their costumes that deeply; most just want to look good. There are Jews who dress up as ancient Greeks or Romans; they are thinking about togas over imitating a nation that heavily oppressed their own.

You can step on someone's toes, without having any vicious intentions. The right thing to do is to get OFF their toes, and then apologize. "Sorry about that, I didn't see your toes there. I'll be more careful about where I walk next time."

What, YOUR toes didn't get hurt? That does not give you a pass to stomp on someone who may have bunions that are very sensitive.