Welcome To The Onnawaffle Mafia

shadowed-aluasasit:

ginaroi:

I just posted a picture of a girl wearing a headdress that a lot of people got offended at, and I didn’t expect that at all.

I definitely understand being surprised by it if it’s not something that you have to put up with as a part of your daily life and culture.

I really enjoy learning about other cultures in general, I know a decent amount of Spanish and am very close to my Costa Rican family. I’m also working on learning Italian.

Fantastic! I sincerely applaud you for learning about YOUR OWN heritage and cultures. It’s important to keep this connections to the past alive.

I also think there is some crazy reverse racism going on in some parts and it sucks. As a “white person” why is it that people can call you “white girl” and “white boy” or “cracker” and that’s okay? yeah okay we don’t see those names as offensive but I’m starting to take a little offense to it only because if we were to call other people by their race, it would be “fucked up”.

There is no such thing as reverse racism. A great resource to understand this is A Look at the Myth of Reverse Racism - Tim Wise and Reverse Racism - How the Pot Got to Call the Kettle Black by Stanley Fish. You see, in order for it to be racist, the ‘oppressor’ has to have some POWER over the oppressed. In this case, you even say that you don’t see those names as offensive!

Some thought that I was being “ignorant” and that I am a “racist”. 
I am aware of all the injustices towards Native Americans that white settlers committed and in no way do I condone that. Just because I’m “white” means that I’m automatically a racist for admiring another culture? Do you think any white person back around when the natives were being attacked would wear a headdress or anything that related to Native Americans? Welcome to the present. Isn’t it a bit empowering in a way that Native American culture is now admired by so many that people now choose to wear it every day by their own free will?  It’s almost comparable the way the African American community turned the “N” word into a positive word, one that they choose to call their friends.

… No. It’s a different thing all together to “admire” a culture. When you RESPECTFULLY admire a culture, you ASK PERMISSION to learn, first of all. I, as a native woman, have had to ask my elders to teach me the language and ways of our people. Imagine that, for a second. I have a direct BLOOD link and IDENTIFY as an indigenous person and I can’t even CLAIM IT without PERMISSION.

How do you think it feels when we see a white person in a sacred symbol? Because guess what? War bonnets/headresses are items that are earned and bestowed on people with great courage- and they’re not even ubiquitous in all native cultures - a fallacy which is propagated by mass media.

The term “squaw” was used and I looked it up because I admit I haven’t heard that term before.
… so now that we know the definition of “Squaw”

Are the above images okay?
Does the fact that there is a white man wearing a headdress instead of a white woman make everything better? 
Is the cowgirl insulting to North American culture because she is female and is wearing the attire of a male?

The image on the right is not okay. As I said above, headresses/war bonnets are a symbol of great status and achievement. I doubt that the man wearing it has an act of bravery or courage great enough to warrant wearing it, or an Indigenous tribe that had bestowed that grand gesture onto him.

As for conflating the cowgirl outfit with being insulting because it was generally worn by men - give me an absolute break. Are cowboy shirts sacred items? Is a cowboy hat bestowed on the wearer as a symbol of status from someone in power? 

And, in closing, I find it absolutely saddening that people are telling you that they are personally offended and you keep trying to explain away their feelings as meaningless and frivolous. If you have questions, ask them, but not in a way that belittles and demeans us.

Ignorant douchewaffles aside, I really wish they taught things like this in school, or even addressed it in TV shows or something.  I had no idea how offensive these kinds of things were until I read something similar to this post last year.  I’m sure there are loads of other people who really are just unaware, and would react with understanding (and appreciation) to finding out what’s going on rather than y’know… raging and being a twat about it.

(via mizbelle)