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Is it okay to wear this?!
Last week to work I wore a shirt with a native chief on it and my friend got pissed off saying it's cultural appropriation. My reply was that I am part native, a whole side of my family is native, I happen to be a 1/4 with a status card. I also have many handmade native ceramic pieces around my house. Now my question is, is this considered to be cultural appropriation? I'm part native, I didn't wear a headdress or a symbol/clothing item that you have to earn, I just loved the shirt and love my native side.
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It's not really cultural appropriation. Not because you have native ancestry - that doesn't matter so much. It's not cultural appropriation because portraits do not have a special cultural or religious importance that is unique to Native American traditions or beliefs (at least, not to my knowledge.)
Having said that, it's likely much of what your 'chief' was wearing did have cultural importance. It's also likely that the image you were wearing wasn't an accurate historical reference, but a modern artist's interpretation - likely a poor interpretation - of what a generic Native American 'chief' should look like. If that is the case - and I've seen a whole bunch of t-shirts with images like that - then that image is definitely problematic because it ends up reinforcing stereotypes and misconceptions, not reflecting a real or respectful portrait of any actual person living or dead. A poorly informed fantasy or magical representation of an actual culture, is probably not an ideal representation to embrace, even if you don't want to call it appropriation.
Even if your t-shirt was a image of an actual historical person, that's still not always the best thing to wear. Like wearing images of Che Guevara or Dalai Lama, the image might mean one thing to you, but there is a lot of history and information loaded into those sorts of recognizable faces. You can't escape the history or other's people's opinions of those histories just because those aren't the bits that you care most about.
Your friend is ass, and shouldn't have been a jerk throwing around words like offensive or appropriation, but that doesn't mean the shirt in question is a great idea or a respectful way to engage with a culture - even one you identify with.
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People sure do love to get offended on behalf of others, don't they? You have more right to wear it than your friend does to be offended by it. Tell your friend where to stick it.
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You're in a cultural, moral and ethical 'watertight' situation wearing it I'd say. Since you haven't appropraited anything that is not you own anyway. I don't honestly think that if someone without your heritage wanted to wear something similar to show support of solidairty it would justify such a comment either. Many countries have persecuted their own first-nation people. many have been changed significantly by invasion and occupation. We now know it was inappropriate and wrong now. But at the time we saw a more limited vista and had narrower minds. Keep doing what you're doing. And be a big enough person to make your values INCLUSIVE of others. You're friend is showing an EXCLUSIVE mindset. This sort of mindset causes problems and never solves a thing.
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I don't see anything wrong with what you were wearing at all. This seems to be no different to someone wearing a shirt that has the picture of Buda on it or a bunch of foreign symbols/writing on it (which I do all the time as am very facinated by the asian culture). Wearing them in my opinion is not in any way showing any kind of disrespect and if it's not something that is considered sacred or something you would normally have to earn then I see no reason why anyone shouldn't wear it. As for cultural appropriation, many people and cultures appropriate and incorporate aspects of other cultures into their own and this can be seen throughout history and personally I don't see it as being a bad thing as such but simply wearing a shirt showing a native chief on it in my opinion is not something that anyone should be getting pissed off about especially since it is no way offensive towards anyone.
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Had to look up the term 'cultural appropriation' as I hadn't heard it before. I know many people including myself love many aspects of Native American culture, and never heard anyone accuse us of doing something negative. Since you are Native yourself, then you can not be a non native appropriating something of that culture as the rest of us. Your friend either had no idea you have Native blood or doesn't know what the term means. I looked it up on Wiki so here's the link:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
As far as I am concerned, people have been adopting customs and lifestyles, and food recipes and things of other cultures for as long as there has been history. One should feel pride and happiness that others find something of value in their culture.
It's quite another thing if lets say someone who is born caucasion is trying to pass off that they have Native blood for the purpose of financial gain. It would be false advertising, such as telling people you come from a long line of tribal medicine women just to sell your natural health wares in a business using Native American themed advertising, claiming to be so.
What you choose to wear and makes you happy is okay as long as it is within the boundaries of whatever dress codes there are at school, at ones job, or if visiting lets say a religion place of your friend, not dressing in any way that would cause them embarassment, sticking to the cultural norms for that group out of respect to those people, not because you believe that way.
Have a good talk with your friend. Find out what she was thinking when she said that, and clear the air, telling her why you are not doing anything wrong.
In the future, when someone says something, and in your mind you have questions, wondering what they meant by what they said, or it sounded negative....ask!!! Too many teens write in asking us to answer questions about what somebody else they know meant. the only way to know is to ask questions. Good Luck!
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