Quote(s)

“Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science.” - Girl Genius, by Kaja & Phil Foglio

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

Perspective, it's all about perspective ...

12 July 2013

Cultural Appropriation and The Lone Ranger

One of the panels I attended at WisCon was on cultural appropriation.  It has made me more aware of the issue, as these things should. 

There's a Lone Ranger movie.  Out?  Soon to be out?  I don't know; don't keep up with these things and not interested enough to Google it.  Johnny Depp plays Tonto. Now,  I feel Johnny Depp is a very talented actor who plays a wide variety of characters well.  I totally loved him in Chocolat.  

But. 

Please. 

An Irishman as a Native American?  Why aren't we past that? 

On Twitter, N K Jemisin shared a link to this marvelous post by Walkerwrackspurt, a Lakota woman.  Her image is not for sale.  She explains why. 

I learned a lot from Walkerwrackspurt this evening.  Maybe you will, too.

3 comments:

Phyllis Blickensderfer said...

Being a descendant (provable 1/64) but not card-carrying Cherokee (that in itself is a long Dawes-Roll-documented-denied story), I can understand her point of view. So much misunderstanding! A recent card-carrying Cherokee decided to show grade schoolers his heritage and went to Show and Tell in full plains war bonnet and regalia. He doesn't even know the difference between the Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (yep - Indians, not Native Americans) or why they are separate. I respect her views on her people.

Laurie Gienapp said...

Kat -
I've nominated your blog for a Liebster award. You can read about it, at http://teapotmusings.blogspot.com/2013/07/liebster-part-2.html
http://teapotmusings.blogspot.com/2013/05/liebster-blog-award-part-1.html

Kat said...

*blush*
Thanks, Laurie!
I realize I have to do an official thank you post, but that may take a day or two and I didn't want to wait that long.