Juan,

You’re trying to apply cultural guilt to innocent people.

The slavery and oppression of African Americans in early American history is sad and savage story, but blacks were the ones who invented it. Ancient Egypt is one of the first societies that used slavery as a way to progress. The Holocaust was a pretty bad thing too, however going back a few thousand years and the tribes of Israel were incredibly barbaric when they conquered their territories. Egypt eventually got theirs when Caesar burned down Alexandria, but the Visigoths were able to crush Rome hundreds of years later. Islam also conquered the middle east, pushing back the Gupta empire (not too sure on that one). Catholics oppressed Protestants, and Protestants fought Catholics in the Thirty Years War back before Germany was Germany. All throughout history every people and culture has been subjugated and oppressed. By applying your logic, that past deeds are a “sin” to you or I, you end up legitimizing slavery of blacks (’cause they deserve it from 6000 years ago), and the genocide of Jews (they were just as brutal, if not more-so). By applying cultural guilt you legitimize past indiscretions, or legitimize future oppression.

It’s about dignity and equal treatment for past AND PRESENT wrongs. Actually we do have paperwork in most cases. Problem is the government often did/does ignore them.

And even if neither you nor an ancestor did not pull a trigger or where here–YOU STILL BENEFIT from someone who did.

Wow, really? So Native Americans lack sovereignty today because they just don’t have the willpower or character to take it by force? And here I thought it was because the English settlers decimated them and populated the land with their own, so that Native people would be vastly outnumbered and thus unable to mount a defense of their sovereignty. Hey, you learn something new every day!

“attempts to protect various native peoples merely make them into dependent children.”

How about I cut off your legs and then refuse to build you a wheelchair on the grounds that “attempts to protect various disabled peoples merely make them into dependent children”? Sound good?

None of us have the customs that we did years ago. The fact that we, possibly correctly, deplore that which was done to the native peoples of this land makes no allowance for the fact that A: by their lights, the conquerors of this nation were just doing what they always did—if you couldn’t protect your land, you lost it—and B: that the same has been done to many native peoples in the past. The gloss of history removes the sting from the amalgamation of Europe, for example….

More Muslim presence = more consciousness that this isn’t an exclusively christian nation, LGBT people pushing for their rights, while possible promulgating the stereotypes, also means that more people come out and become more accepted, and using the “trappings” of another culture means that we become more aware of them.

There are huge differences between Native peoples and, say, people from Poland or Scotland. First, “white” people from both of those groups have skin privilege, to an extent. Second, the vast majority of people from Poland and Scotland are seen as modern-day people in a modern-day country. Third, these two groups still have their own countries (Poland and Scotland, respectively) with their own land and their own sovereign, internationally-respected governments–even if they have been invaded and subjugated over time.

Native people don’t have skin privilege. They’re almost always seen as a dying or dead race, and firmly positioned in the past, usually in some ridiculous romanticized ideal. They barely have tiny, raggedy patches of land left and, despite lip service, are usually NOT given most kinds of sovereignty.

I think it’s a ridiculous lack of understanding to come in here and equate the appropriation of Native culture with these other examples. I’m not saying the other examples (Polish stereotypes and Scottish kilt appropriations) are a good thing, but it’s not even equatable with the kind of cultural appropriation Native many Native people deal with on a daily basis.

For a great insight into this, check out Rachel’s Children, an incredible book by Lois Beardslee (Anishinaabe).

Personally, I avoid it just because I’m not sure how many people are okay with a socially awkward white girl saying it. But “nigga” is nowhere near as bad as it used to be, as long as it’s pronounced without the “r”. If i’m making too many assumptions, please correct me. But this is based on my own experiences with My school and various friends “of color”

Not that more needs to really be said here but keep thinking about the whole Balkan troubles that began once the iron curtain fell and people were once again given the freedom to identify culturally rather than trans-culturally or nationally. Thousands were raped and murdered all in the name of having been offended, of being identified as a specific culture.

Maybe culture should be like family photos -individually meaningful and worthwhile to your own sense of being but something you really shouldn’t subject others to (unless they ask).