I dropped her off this morning and saw girls (and boys) wearing grass skirts, some of them with coconut bras too. I’m not sure what else is going on, but it doesn’t seem very respectful of a native culture that we have seriously fucked over. Would they have a “Native American Day” and let kids come in wearing feathered headdresses?
Or am I reading too much into it?
No, celebrating a culture isn’t offensive. Having fun isn’t offensive. What is offensive is getting offended by everything. Let kids be kids, they only get one shot at it.
Celebrating a culture involves learning about that culture. Which is not happening. Instead, it’s Americans taking religious symbols of a culture that was genocided by Americans and making them something fun like “hat day” or “school spirit day.”
Furthermore, I finally got in touch with a native Hawaiian via Facebook who agreed that it was, in fact, offensive cultural appropriation. But I suppose you know better than her.
I looked up grass skirts and I can’t find an exclusively religious component to their usage by Hawaiians. Everything I’ve found says that they were introduced in the late 19th century by other Pacific Islander immigrants, and used in late Western-influenced hula.
Fair enough if that’s true. However, as I told someone else, I got in touch with an indigenous Hawaiian on Facebook and, while their personal opinion is just one out of many, I give it more weight than non-indigenous opinions and she says she felt it was appropriation and offensive.
I mean, obviously regardless the coconut bras make it clear your kid’s school are ignorant and just doing it as an offensive costume. Even if (and that’s a big if) the school’s intent is positive, they need to take a step back, sit themselves down, and ask themselves some very pointed questions.
Are these elementary school kids, or highschool kids? Because I’m picturing them as elementary school kids. If they’re just little kiddos, then they’re learning at their level by making grass skirts and stuff. There’s plenty of time to learn more serious subjects later.
You’ll have no problem finding people offended by anything, if you look for them. To be fair, there are always people on both sides of the discussion for these topics.
To answer your other question, no, I don’t know more about how an individual feels about a subject than that individual. But it remains the opinion of an individual. I’m Choctaw and I think having kids make little paper headbands, with a little paper feather, and learn about the tribes is perfectly fine, but there are plenty of tribesmen who have issues with that stuff. Most of the ones who have issues with it generally have issues with everything though, so take that as you will. What most of us agree on is that it’s not cool for the adult to adorn themselves with a chieftain ceremonial headdress, and hop around chanting nonsense. But that’s not what usually happens in elementary school, it’s usually pretty innocent fun.
Middle school. They are old enough to learn about what we did to the Hawaiians.
Do you think it’s weird to use the word “we” in that sentence? I was not involved, you didn’t make any of those decisions. People you don’t know did horrible shit to other people you don’t know.
There is not a we, I am responsible for my own decisions and actions. I feel completely free to look at the actions of others as despicable without any ownership of their actions. Why do people just accept that they are somehow tainted by the sins of people who came before?
No. I don’t think it’s weird to accept cultural responsibility. Ask any German if they think saying “we were responsible for the Holocaust” is “weird.”
It’s an incredibly common sentiment, I am not sure it should be. It leads to more harm than good I think. You are not on a team with people who have the same skin color as you through all time. Being born in a place does not soil you with the past follies of the people that also lived there.
Should a German kid whose grandparents came to Germany from Tunisia in the 60s feel culturally responsible for the holocaust? If you say yes, you have to ask WHY. If you say no, you are probably implying a judgment about who is a REAL German and who isn’t.
The whole concept sucks.