Cultural Appropriation: A Fixable Cultural Crime | SXSW 2021

Cultural appropriation is a sensitive topic. Who has the right to say what is and isn't cultural appropriation? When someone uses what they think is "Native American themed" or "inspired", it's likely appropriating cultures that are still alive today. It can be someone telling everyone that their great great grandmother is Cherokee with only family lore as "proof". It's fake dreamcatchers and headdresses. Cultural appropriation is harmful. It promotes and perpetuates stereotypes. It seeps into every aspect of Native lives. Hard to believe, but it's true. It may not affect the average non-Native, but too many people are guilty of it for it to continue today. Learn how defensiveness and accusations of "PC culture" are wrong. There are respectful ways to show appreciation! Learn how. #EndApprop

I wanted to share this video to my media recs tag. Highly recommend watching this online panel of Native Americans from various communities, which discusses cultural appropriation of their cultures. It’

In the video, panel member Nita discusses examples of CA within k-pop, examplifying how the industry keeps appropriating Native American cultures, and addresses the general lack of support from non-Native fans. Which of course ties in with the same issues about BTS / BigHit / Hybe that I posted about before. I think I know which tweet by a Korean was referred to in the video, but can’t find it back anymore unfortunately.

Creators of the collective and website of NtvTwt (#NativeTwitter) are also on the panel, so it felt needed to link to that here too.

Memes I made about Johnny Depp and Dior’s disastrous “Sauvage” campaign.

Many of us remember him claiming to want to buy Wounded Knee and gift it back to the Lakota people. It never happened.

Check out my article on it here:

Ali Watson of NTVTWT.com and A Tribe Called Geek founder Johnnie Jae have submitted a SXSW Panel Picker proposal for the 2019 SXSW conference. The topic is “Playing Indian and Other Racist Nonsense“.

With this panel, they propose to address the harm of trends such as Pretendian-ism, or the act of pretending to be Indigenous, such as claiming to be Cherokee or Apache, and how this erases the voices of actual Natives trying to address important topics that affect our communities. It will also address other elements, such as the tired tradition of non-Natives wearing headdresses on the absurd claim that this offensive act somehow ‘honors’ our culture, or treating it as little more than a costume. If selected, they will have a one hour panel to discuss our topics, which is why it’s focused on music and entertainment at the moment. These are the largest culprits of cultural appropriation and lack of representation.

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