Clothing from other places (not cosplay)

[thestrangequark]

Sorry for the thread necro, but seeing this reminded me of the interesting discussion we'd been having here. My sister's reaction was perfect, "Is it possible to vomit and laugh at the same time? Because I think I'm about to do that..."

http://jezebel.com/5942192/paul-fra...n+themed-dream-catchin-extravaganza/gallery/1

How is this shit acceptable? The comparison to celebrating African American culture with a black-face party was pretty apt. Take off the warpaint, hipsters!

 

[KimMH]

you must feel akin to how I felt upon seeing Britney Spears in a hanbok. I wanted to gouge out her eyes with a spoon. or my own . . .

 

[thestrangequark]

^I obviously don't have the Korean perspective, though growing up my best friend was/is (she's still my best friend) Korean, and that really opened my eyes to how much racism Asians still encounter in America.

What really bothers me is that the racism directed at Native Americans is that it is so accepted. I mean, it is so fucked up that the football team for our nation's capital is called the Redskins and has this as their logo:

That is exactly like calling your team the "Spicks" and having a big ol' mustachioed, sombrero-wearing Mexican as your logo, or calling your team the "Niggers" and having a grinning black dude as your mascot.

It's seriously fucked up.

 

[KimMH]

Disrespect towards Native Americans was a neccessary part of making other Americans feel okay about killing them and relocating them onto land no one else wanted. Denigrating Native American cultures helped the government and railroad companies to convince other Americans that 1.) American expansion westard was neccessary and good; 2.) they were doing Native Americans a favor by dragging them into the industrialized age.

Changing those attitudes will take a lot of time and hard work, and it seems that it is very easy to play upon people's fears and teach them disrespect quickly; teaching people tolerance and respect is a much harder go and takes much longer.

 

[thestrangequark]

^I agree entirely. It's just that sometimes it feels as if no one is even trying.

I think in regard to the easy nature of racism toward Native Americans there is similarity to the Asian experience. It seems like racism agains certain groups is entirely intolerable, while against other groups it is commonplace. The author of Beyond Buckskin, in covering the Paul Frank disaster, noted how many black people were "playing Indian," and how it struck her as particularly harsh that individuals of a group that itself is the target of enduring racism, should be joining in.

 

[KimMH]

sad, but not unusual. minority groups do not always cultivate good relations with other minority groups. that they have more to gain by uniting is not universally recognized, although to me it seems self- evident.

 

[scotpens]

. . . Then things like this:

or this:

leave a different taste in one's mouth.

What about this?

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxoWto09Oyg[/yt]

(IIRC, Cher is possibly one-eighth Cherokee, on her mother's side.)

 

[KimMH]

there is sometimes a fine line ideed between celebrating diversity and heritage and exploitation. I imagine the fine people at Paul Frank might even imagine they are celebrating culteral diversity by keeping recognizable elements of Native American cultures in the public eye/conscisouness.

As for Cher, the woman can do NO wrong and I don't care if she chooses to wear bacon bikinis. Actually, she should consider it to add to her already considerably large hoarde of admirers.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I have some Indian and Chinese style shirts, and those little slippers they wear in kung fu movies, which absolutely I'll wear as appropriate - but, then, none of them look particularly odd or foreign because plenty of Western manufactures do similar lines anyway... (except maybe the mid-thigh length silver and grey one, but I do tend to refer to that as "the Elrond shirt")

 

[KimMH]

ooh! a LoTR fan! that sounds cool! I have noticed the costuming geniuses for WETA use a lot of diff inspirations for their work. A very global kind of vibe there. Star Wars has a definite Feudal Era Japan feel; everyone in obis with tabbards over their flows robes and such.

 

[thestrangequark]

What about this?

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxoWto09Oyg[/yt]

(IIRC, Cher is possibly one-eighth Cherokee, on her mother's side.)

I'm one-eight Cherokee on my dad's side.

But then, my mom's Ojibwe.

At least that song's trying to say something, though, cheesy as it is.