"Cultural Appropriation"

[bennyboy]

I already have I already in this very thread condemned natives who do just what your saying and have done so IRL  . As for the mass distribution I agree it's problem . But that's the point it should not have simply been given .

You seem to have missed main the point (highlighted above).

You seem to be blaming us for appropriating your culture, but how can we appropriate what has been sold out by your own culture?

This point might actually go to Tizheruk.  On an individual level, some chick buying a dream catcher from an "authorized, real actual native" crafts shop is relatively blameless, and may even have chosen this store because she's trying to be sensitive to the native population.  The culture as a whole, though, has probably arrived at a point where these native people either don't know any better (because they've been culturally assimilated) or are under so much financial pressure that they have to set aside their pride and make money however they can.


I have to go on record and say one thing: I'm not really a big issues chaser.  If someone I knew bought a dream catcher, or wore dreadlocks, I might make a brief comment on it.  Then I'd start thinking about what I was going to have for dinner.  Knowing someone is right in principle, and caring enough to actually get personally involved, are very different things.  I think Tizheruk is clearly right that Westerners have appropriated much of native culture, and erased or damaged the rest, and that matters.  However, I'm also aware that there are a lot of good TV shows on tonight, and when I close this page, the issues we've talked about will probably be out of mind in about 10 seconds.