#native stereotypes

[oldshowbiz]

Iron Eyes Cody Bus Shelter

[milomaxxy]

I fucking hate how I get doubted for my indigenous blood by other Natives, but when a mutual friend's sister posts a picture of their white passing family saying "guess who missed the Indian looks gene lol" fucking CRICKETS.

Like, blood quantum is fucking eugenics, and I hate having to basically defend my fucking ancestors tooth and nail bc I don't have a "high enough quantum" and bc I don't look like a fucking stereotype. But for these friends to turn around and not do the same thing to someone who looks even fucking whiter than me??? Like, just tell me to my fuckin face next time I guess, bc the only difference is that this mutual friend is more vocal about "I'm Indian, I just don't look it". The literal only difference is that I shut up when I got fucking accused of being pretendian bc I don't have copper skin and hip-length hair and a hairless body I fucking guess

[idkthisismyusernameiguess]

Could the Ace Attorney fandom stop pretending that Phoenix Wright or Miles Edgeworth or any of the main cast is white? Idgaf if the localized version is set in America. Asian Americans exist. You are consuming a piece of Asian-made media, not everything is about white people

[g0ldgauntlet]

Hilichurls and "Tribal" Portrayals.

While we're talking about Natlan, I also want to mention how awful it is that a section of the fandom tried to make us all out to be crazy years ago for pointing out how racist the portrayal of the Hilichurls are.

Quick content warning for mentions of slavery, colonization, genocide, and anti-Indigenous racism. (Image description is in alt text)

Hoyo used Indigenous people as references for these in-game enemies, which we literally have video proof of, provided by the company itself (Timestamp: 1:30).

The Hilichurls were constantly belittled by Teyvat's people, with an Inazuma npc likening them to demons. I remember Paimon acting like the items they collected were meaningless or pieces of junk during the earlier parts of the game.

They become a lot more sympathetic later due to their actual origins in-game (which I'm sure @phoenix-creates can confirm for me because I know you're farther ahead in Genshin than I am right now), sure, but I always found it strange that Hoyo used Indigenous cultures to portray these "monsters" who have lost their sense of selves (meanwhile their human forms are white), as if to imply that Indigenous cultures are more "wild" or "savage."

Genshin fans of color, since 2020, have pointed out the racist undertones that Teyvat's people were perpetuating against the Hilichurls due to them acting the same way that racists irl act towards non-White cultures, but they were told that they were overreacting and this was swept under the rug as a result. The very next year, it's brought up again with more people finding out about it, and we were still being told that we're overreacting.

So now that we're at Natlan, is it seriously that hard to believe that Hoyo straight up just doesn't respect Indigenous cultures? Black (and many brown) cultures too, because it's very telling that Iansan, the Natlan character with the darkest skin so far, is given a more stereotypically "tribal" look on her design with a bunch of bones used as her accessories despite that not being what her actual inspiration looks like.

(Artist for picture on the right: vieirapx on Instagram)

Sucrose has confirmed in her "Something to Share" voiceline that she collects Hilichurl bones, which is similar to colonizers taking the bones of dead Indigenous people with this added context.

Also, please read or reread the Teyvat Travel Guide Vol. 1. Alice basically confirms that she wants to enslave the Hilichurls for labor and also feed the weaker ones to the stronger ones.

That latter point is cannibalism. I know that many people are fans of Alice, but a lot of what she talks about in the first guide is why I don't like her.

Yes, it can be argued that Indigenous cultures are not the only inspiration for the Hilichurls, as it's been said that they may take inspiration from goblins, Bokoblins from the Zelda franchise, and the Amanojuku from Japanese mythology. Answer me this question, though.

Why is Hoyo capable of referencing a creature and not a human being when it comes to the Japanese inspiration for the Hilichurls, but this does not apply to the Indigenous references? It's dehumanizing, and it feels like another double-standard that needs to be addressed.

Hoyo has casually made black and brown cultures in Genshin appear to be less civilized and more "tribal" compared to our White and East Asian peers, both with the human characters and the non-human ones. Sumeru's quests and enemy npcs had multiple examples of this, with the Traveler and Jeht even destroying almost the entire Tanit tribe with the narrative justification being that, conveniently, most or all of them were selfish, bloodthirsty, and manipulative (Jeht's profile on the wiki page goes into what happened with more depth). They had to die because the tribe was dangerous - even though the main problem seems to be Babel - and Jeht's white, blonde companion needed to help save everyone from these evil, power-hungry savages.

(Sidenote: I think this is the second time overall that Hoyo has come up with an excuse to justify Traveler committing genocide on an entire group of people, with the first being the Iwakura Clan.)

I'm sure that the same thing is going to happen with Natlan's quests and npcs because Hoyo has always been weird about the portrayal of black and brown-inspired characters. The question is not whether any of the creatures or humans from specific groups are bad, suspicious, or designed to fit a specific image. We know the answer to that. The real question is why they are portrayed like this, and why it keeps happening more commonly to the black and brown cast members compared to our lighter peers.

[pizzagame4000]

we all know human vigilante… but what about… slightly human vigilante

[fuckmeyer]

blows my mind there's not even a Chinese coven in The Twilight Saga. no Indian coven. only ONE coven in the Middle East/Africa: EGYPTIAN. no Greek coven, no Iranian coven, no Afghan coven, no Ethiopian coven, no Nigerian coven; FUCK ancient civilizations i guess! no one in South or Central America but the AMAZONS???? for real?????? the POTENTIAL to incorporate LEGENDS and HISTORY and CULTURE — wasted! i CANNOT with this author thinking the only vampire civilizations exist in Europe & America!! fuck off directly into the sun!!!

[chaos-in-one]

Reminder that gender stereotypes are not universal and that you shouldn't project eurocentric stereotypes onto people of color for what is or isn't "progressive" for them to do.

An example from my own culture is a different expectation for hair. As a Native American, long hair would be considered masculine for me. Many Native men hold a lot of pride in having long hair, it's a part of our culture. Having short hair as a Native American would be gender non-conforming, the eurocentric standard of short hair = masculine doesn't translate to my culture.

Please consider non eurocentric cultures and gender roles when talking about gender stereotypes. For many of us, the stereotypes are not the same as they are for white people.

[charlotte-family-apologist]

Okay but now I really wanna know more about the Outworld Races (and other realms) in your au, bc the idea that Zaterrans are the lost human ancestor is GENIUS

Thank you for asking! Sorry it took so long 😭

Naknadan primarily live in trees and prefer to live in dark places due to adapting to the almost constant night of their home realm. The extra set of arms on their back are used to carry young children. And they have monkey like tails to help with balance.

^ They're not greedy by nature but are drawn to shiny things as bioluminescence is common in their native realm.

Tarkatans are known for their leather and bone crafts. There's a common superstition that they use their own people to make them because of their cannibalistic nature and rituals of honoring the dead by "repurposing" them.

The Osh-Tekk have a clicking language and communicate through chirps and squawks until they are old enough to learn it.

The Tarkatans and Osh-tekk have been in a land dispute since Osh-Tekk was absorbed into Outworld.

Nearly all of the Arnyek islands' races went extinct after the merging, with the only surviving one being the Kytinn as Kreeyans went extinct shortly after conquest.

Edenians only live to be around 3000 Earthrealm years but use magic to increase their lifespan.

There are many types of Vaeternians.

[rookflower]

grit my teeth and hold myself back from fighting someone every time i see the sentiment of "wow can you believe people actually think nightheart is sexist? and that liking nightheart makes you a misogynist? how crazy is that lol" out in the wild. nooooo that's not what the discourse actually was. you have fallen for the dismissive surface level takeaway people had from a genuine discussion about wider trends of misogyny in the writing, that makes said criticisms out as irrational and hysterical as possible. you will now associate any criticisms of misogyny in the series with this hyperbolic strawman

[oldshowbiz]

1980.

The racist comments of comedian Dottie Archibald fell flat in multicultural Edmonton, Alberta.

[milomaxxy]

Reasons I've been told I'm not indigenous:

"You're too light" or "but you're not red-skinned"

"You're too baby faced, natives have defined cheekbones"

"You have short hair" (like, wtf??)

"You have too much body hair"

"You're too fat, everybody knows natives have low body fat"

"You have facial hair and natives can't grow facial hair"

"You don't have a green thumb tho"

"You don't even know what tribe you're from"

"You don't know anything about (cultural art)"

"You don't have proof"

"You don't have a native name"

"You don't have a spirit animal"

"But your dad has blue eyes"

And the actual most ridiculous one:

"You don't have a psychic-like connection with animals tho"

Stereotypes, especially in media, have completely fucked the way people view indigenous people as a whole. If you're not dark skinned with long black hair and high cheekbones, wearing traditional regalia and speaking like you're William Knifeman, people automatically don't believe you. I had a history teacher who had exchange students whose parents literally got SCALPING INSURANCE bc they were going to Kansas; and they believed there were wild tribes roaming the plains scalping people. I know folks who genuinely think all tribes have the same beliefs, culture, arts, everything. My own mother doesn't believe her mother-in-law bc she believes stereotypes about indigenous people.

And it doesn't stop at that. Things like blood quantum have been used as eugenics to "breed out" native blood. And it's used in such harmful ways, but in the experience I had it was used to tell me "no, you're not native". I basically felt ashamed of claiming any heritage, bc what blood I have is "so little it's not worth claiming" (literally something my ex told me). I got so sick of hearing the "teehee, I'm 1/16 and my great grandma was a Cherokee princess" jokes that I stopped telling anyone about my great-great-grandfather being Cherokee. And it hurt the most coming from native friends who made jokes about low blood quantum being "just as bad as pretendians". Like, that's a very real issue, but saying that the folks who just don't Look The Same are doing that damage? Excludes natives like was always intended- to make us white.

It took seeing other indigenous people on tiktok talking about their experiences to feel a connection with a community I had previously felt ashamed to claim. It took hearing other natives say "it doesn't matter how much blood you have, native blood means you're one of us" to feel like I wasn't "just as bad" as white people faking it. I still have so much unpacking to do (even after years of unpacking already), but it's thanks to other natives being open and proud that I've even gotten this far

[neechees]

There's a lot of bigoted, very specifically racist movies where white people are like "lets remake/rewrite x movie!" Like i don't know how to tell you that if you tried to do that, the rewritten version would be completely different & unrecognizable because it's central plot/themes/etc rely on racism at their core

[cartoonybus]

pnf revival hope: no more of this shit

[1emon-ice]

Mikusona Monday!! I tried to do a native themed one, most of my references based off of makah outfits and my own experience seeing and wearing native dance outfits!

[korkietism]

Pro hero Native redesign! Transmasculine Two-Spirit inuk hero married to a guy in a space themed idol group who I will be drawing a reference for soon.

He’s a cozy guy and a little awkward but very loving. He’s an introvert. He has a baby at some point. Silly guy. Feel free to draw him if you like… I would be very happy. I think native is a wild pro hero design and I’m not super fond of it… so have Sedna to replace him. Because dear god..

[allgremlinart]

scrolling through ao3 and seeing fics tagged "alcoholic (water tribe character)" uhhh You Cant Be Saying That, White Baby.