anoverduecrusade

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A great follow-up to yesterday's discussion!

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Cultural appreciation vs. appropriation aka today is Cinco de Mayo

Brainstorming what we think of when we hear & examples of:

Appreciating or celebrating a culture: being invited in, asking questions, respect, genuine interest, provoking examination of one's own culture, understanding context and history, making space within white supremacy or your own culture for a new perspective or culture, "inspired Native vs. Native-inspired"

Appropriating a culture: not being invited, taking, benefitting (socially, economically) by using this element, no reciprocity, no examination of one's own culture, not learning, not asking about context and history

Deep dive: Cinco de Mayo

Historically: date that Mexico’s forces defeated French troops at Puebla after France tried to invade to (a) recoup debts that Mexico’s president had cancelled and possibly to (b) establish a presence in the area to support the Confederacy in the Civil War since the north/Union had ceased exporting cotton to France, wreaking havoc on the textile industry there.

It was NOT the date of independence - that is in September

1960s - activists for Chicano rights encouraged celebration of this event to emphasize how diverse collaboration can effect big changes (the forces who fought the French were a range of Mexicans from many Indigeous groups who united to fight the foe)

The celebrations became commercialized - what are some big brands or industries that now use Cinco de Mayo as a marketing ploy?

So who celebrates Cinco de Mayo? How might they celebrate it?

Other thoughts:

Borrowing from a culture or group - music, patterns, designs

Does this get tricky when thinking about how ideas and technologies have moved around the world?

How does appropriation tie into the idea of colonialism?

Who benefits from appropriation? Who benefits from colonialism?

Can appropriation only happen when a dominant group is borrowing/stealing from a minority group?

When does something become ‘common’ enough that it no longer becomes appropriation?

Other examples in the news or that might come to mind:

Dreadlocks

Nose and other piercings

Tattoo designs

Home decor

Music, performances, and music videos

Language - so interesting: cool, woke, fleek, high-five, lame, thicc, yas qween

Food

Traditional clothing and decoration (sombreros, saris, turbans, etc.)

Sports - mascots, team names, what about lacrosse?

Resources & further exploration:

Anti Racism Daily - focuses on Cinco de Mayo

Austin Community College District - appropriation vs. appreciation

Berklee music - appropriation in music

‘Revisionist History’ podcast episode which highlights the frequent appropriation of Black music and styles by various white artists (such as Elvis) without any attribution - this does draw some weird and controversial conclusions about the ideas of cultural appropriation but it sparks some great thinking

>>Some great analysis of this aforementioned episode and the ideas it examines

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Sports

This is such a wide-ranging issue that we might have a future conversation on. Great discussion! Now how to effect change?

(Men's) history

Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play a major league game on April 15, 1947

Japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the National Basketball Association's color barrier in the 1947–48 season when he played for the New York Knicks

1950 is recognized as the year the NBA integrated. That year African-American players joined several teams

Black players participated in the National Football League from its inception in 1920; however, there were no African-American players from 1933 to 1946

On January 18, 1958, Willie O’Ree joined the Boston Bruins in a tilt against the Montreal Canadiens, breaking the color barrier and making history as the first ever black person to play in the National Hockey League since its founding in 1917

In 1961, the "Caucasians only" clause was struck from the Professional Golfers' Association of America constitution.

(Men’s) Professional Athletics:

Seventy percent of African-American men comprise NFL rosters despite representing only six percent of the United States' population.

While the majority of NFL players are black, the NFL fan base is 83 percent white and 64 percent male.

African Americans accounted for 75% of players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) near the end of 2008.

8.5% of Major League Baseball players were African American (who make up about 13% of the US population), and 29.1% were Hispanics of any race (compared with about 16% of the US population).[15]

In 2020, less than 5% of the National Hockey League (NHL) players are black or of mixed black heritage.[16]

In 2012, despite making up 6% of nation's population Asian American athletes only represented 2% of the NFL, 1.9% of the MLB and less than 1% of the NBA and NHL. Brandon Yip was the only player of Chinese descent playing professional hockey in the NHL in 2011.

College Athletics reflect this trend:

In 2013, while 2.8% of full-time degree-pursuing undergraduates were black men, the group comprised 57% of college football teams,[129] and 64% of men's basketball players, according to Shaun R. Harper.

According to NCAA Race and Gender Demographics for the 2012-13 academic year, 47% of collegiate varsity athletes are female. Black female athletes comprised 11% of female athletes, with less than one percent of female athletes being American Indian/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander; 1.9% Asian; 4.3% Hispanic/Latina; and 2.2% two or more other races.

Title IX: a federal civil rights law passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. This law protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance. Patsy Mink, does this take away from resources for boys?

Coaching and ownership is white-dominated: it is still big news when a BIPOC coach is selected for a head coach position in the NFL, for instance.

Additional discussion surrounding:

Are there different sports that (in America) seem to be associated with different racial or ethnic groups?

How do barriers to entry influence who plays different sports? How do perceptions of race influence who pursues a sport? For example, hockey requires a lot of money, space, equipment, and time. Running is relatively accessible, by comparison, however, running requires an ease in your body moving through multiple different spaces without undue suspicion or fear of that same body.

American football has a very interesting and pronounced racial differences in who plays what positions - are white men overrepresented in QB position versus other positions? Is this because this position is so 'public-facing'?

How do judges play into sports that require judgment on appearance, look, attitude? Consider gymnastics, figure skating, tennis and other sports that rely on referees to handle contentious calls, etc. How does this influence ideas of "elegance" or "a look" and how does gender play into this (feminine vs. masculine and using techniques of performance or competition that seem to belong to one gender over another)?

In the United States, does the racial makeup of our Olympic team reflect our country? How does this hold up for other countries as well?

There is much to be explored and unpacked when considering public, press, and professional attitudes towards Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, particularly in regards to their matches against one another.

Running and track and field - how does gender and race fit in? Are there differences in which sports athletes are directed towards or encouraged to pursue because of their race? Are there some sports that are more comfortable for some athletes because of their race? Does distance running/marathon training treat all bodies the same as those bodies move through a variety of spaces? If you and your body are treated with suspicion when you run outside of a track or treadmill, are you inclined to want to run the 2 mile, the half marathon, the full marathon?

Integrating sports - this changed local leagues which had big repercussions for local economies, cultures, and communities.

Protesting in sports has a long history and is a rich place for protest - Colin Kaepernick, 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Lewis Hamilton in F1, NASCAR banning confederate flags (the optics were good and this was low-hanging fruit because there were no teeth in the policy, it didn't accompany investments in specific communities or athletes or programs, and didn't alter behaviors of the league or patrons

Do you have to be the best Black athlete in order to do something companies and others will get behind? How does this standard get dismantled?

Social media allows athletes more control over their narrative and can allow for more opportunity to protest and engage on different issues that previously may have been too contentious to engage deeply on.

Some additional resources:

An examination of loving a sport that doesn't love you back - Surya Bonaly and Olympic figure skating

The Players Tribune: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/mar/29/black-athletes-genetically-superior-myth-sports

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/02/football-white-flight-racial-divide/581623/

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1ba962f3592a4736a0b53b54dddfd6b4

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I appreciate this effort by NPS. Would love to see this for all NPS sites!

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Genocide Can Mean Loss of Language

The only Native American language in the United States spoken by 100% of its tribal members is Havaupai. It is a recognized dialect of Havasupai–Hualapai spoken by approximately 639 people on the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. To put this in context, there are 573 Tribal entities recognized by the federal government (and more that exist but are unrecognized). Of these, the Havaupai is the only tribe where any member can speak to any other member in the language of their ancestors.

Here is why the the loss of language is genocide. The forcible changing of children from belonging to one group to belonging to another, whether through education, adoption, or orphanages, is part of the international legally recognized definition of genocide. The loss of Native American language due to schooling in English is therefore within the realm of cultural genocide.