With Halloween around the corner, a form of racism prevalent among the youth emerges into plain view. It reveals itself in costumes decorated with feathers, tomahawks and spears.
If someone asks the costume-wearer what he or she supposed to be, the reply is, “I’m an Indian!”
No doubt you’ve seen it before and not just on Halloween, either. The biggest offense is the fancy “headdress,” supposedly comprised of eagle feathers, too-often worn by women in an attempt to add sexy, ethnic flavor to self-portraits to their Tumblrs.
While these costumes and headdresses make wearers feel like some culturally aware progressive, recalling their American heritage, they’re not. They are ignorant and offensive. They are engaging in a form of racism known as “redface.”
Like “blackface,” where actors paint their faces and engage in wildly stereotypical African-American behavior, “redface” refers to a similar practice employed by actors in an attempt to evoke the image of “the Native American.”
Yet, the term “Native American” encompasses thousands of different tribes, with different languages, cultures, and identities that, at times, can seem unrecognizable to the uninformed person.
In fact, only male elders of the Plain tribes, such as the Sioux, wore headdresses.
Representing Native Americans with a headdress is like trying to represent America with an Oscar Meyer Weiner hat.
These behaviors and types of dress reveal how drastically unaware our society is when it comes to the realities of Native Americans in our country today.
Native American reservations are home to the highest rates of alcoholism, diabetes, rape and poverty and they also have the worst levels of health insurance coverage and education in the country.
Many of these statistics exist at rates that are double or triple the national average, at times even soaring astoundingly beyond that.
The Tohono O’odham reservation in Arizona, for example, the second largest tribe in the country today, has the highest rate of adult onset diabetes in the world.
On the Navajo Reservation to the north of the state, only 10 percent of sexual assaults are reported. The number of convictions made from reported sex crimes is even less.
This goes back to the point about Native American symbols and people being sexualized in art, such as the popular work by Charmaine Olivia, which has gone viral in online communities.
Portrayals of topless women wearing Native American clothing is a grossly unjustifiable portrayal of this nation’s most sexually abused demographic.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Americans will object to these racist portrayals anytime soon, since they continue all the time.
In the past year, Urban Outfitters battled lawsuits over clothing that contained Navajo designs, which was in violation of the Indian Arts & Crafts Act (1990).
And “The Lone Ranger,” an upcoming movie featuring Johnny Depp as “Tonto,” has him portraying a Native American elder in what is sure to be one of the greatest instances of redface to ever hit theatres. Especially since the Black Crow leader Depp’s character is based on is reportedly a fictitious construction.
In the meantime, call out these offensive representations when you see them. They exist everywhere.
And remember, friends don’t let friends “dress Indian” for Halloween.
Reach the columnist at damill3@asu.edu or follow him at @Dan_iel_Mills
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