Georgian Dancers Performing Like Warriors

Dear non-natives

The Plains warbonnet is not a Cherokee thing. It is not a Navajo thing. It is not an Indian thing. It is a Plains thing.

Stop calling every silly thing you draw that even vaguely resembles a native “Cherokee” or “Navajo” or “Aztec.”

Stop drawing the warbonnet everywhere as the apparently definitive native thing. It isn’t part of all of our 600+ cultures.

Same goes for the tipi, not part of every one of the 600+ indigenous cultures.

Stop thinking that if a native person doesn’t have dark, “mahogany” skin, that their heritage is invalid. Even without admixture, we actually do have varying skin tones.

Stop wearing crappy fake warbonnets.

Stop wearing redface.

Stop using us as your silly mascots. We are people.

Stop saying “spirit animal.” It’s derived from a New Age bastardization of a something that actually exists in some of our cultures.

Don’t smudge. Cleanse all you like, that’s fine, but don’t smudge.

Don’t call us “Indians.” “Native American” isn’t great either, it is not our name, but it’s slightly better than “Indian.” “Indigenous” is also fine.

Don’t use NDN/ndn. That is ours.

Step off about our hair. If you meet a long-haired native, admire it if you like, maybe even ask them about it (RESPECTFULLY), but do not touch. The same applies for someone with short hair, but additionally for those with short hair, don’t say things like “oh you’d look more native/Indian/etc if your hair was long.” We didn’t all traditionally have long, flowing hair. Believe it or not, there are actually different haircuts existing in our various cultures, and aside from that ultimately it’s a personal choice, one does not need to have long hair if they don’t want to. Doesn’t make them any less native to have short hair.

Don’t pray to our spirits/gods/energies. Native spiritualities are closed, they are not for outsiders.

Don’t say “The Native Americans believed…” Firstly, the past tense is silly, we still exist and do things. Secondly, we are NOT A MONOLITH. As I mentioned before, there are upwards of 600 different Native American cultures.

Don’t ask about someone’s “Indian name.” That’s not only insensitive, the name you are referring to in that instance is something sacred, and might not be something that person wants to share with you.

Don’t call yourself silly crap like “howling wolf” or “flying eagle.” That’s also racist and insensitive.

Regardless of whatever you might think you’re doing, or what your intentions may be, if a native person tells you that what you’re doing is disrespectful, STOP DOING IT.

You aren’t honoring us. You’re just mocking us further, demonstrating your continued ability to treat us like shit and get away with it even now, centuries after our colonization began. Your feelings are not more important than our history and survival.

To those doing your best as allies, thank you, keep doing what you do. HOWEVER, don’t let opportunities to educate others escape you. By letting them continue to be ignorant, you are failing. Spread the message.

There will be no “please.” It’s been more than 500 years, and we still are made to be invisible in our homelands. Still we are treated like less. Some even think we all died long ago.

We are still here

We will still be here

Treat us with respect.

It is possible for wonderful encounters and beautiful things to exist. 

                                                                                -Hayao Miyazaki

Sir Nicholas Winton is a humanitarian who organized a rescue operation that saved the lives of 669 Jewish Czechoslovakia children from Nazi death camps, and brought them to the safety of Great Britain between the years 1938-1939.

After the war, his efforts remained unknown. But in 1988, Winton’s wife Grete found the scrapbook from 1939 with the complete list of children’s names and photos. Sir Nicholas Winton is sitting in an audience of Jewish Czechoslovakian people who he saved 50 years before.

WATCH FULL VIDEO HERE

This Black Queer Love Story Is Exactly What The Comic World Needs

You'll literally fall in love with this queer romance novella.

Black queer love between two women often goes underrepresented in any medium.

Writer Tee Franklin wants to help change this with her forthcoming comic “Bingo Love.” It follows the fictional story of Hazel Johnson and Mari McCray, beginning from the time they fall in love as teenagers in 1963.

Their parents find out and forbid them from seeing each other again. The women lead separate lives, marrying men whom neither of them love. Hazel and Mari reunite at a bingo hall and old feelings surface. They divorce their husbands and live out their truth as a married couple, a light in which audiences rarely see elderly black women. Their love story extends all the way to 2030.

The 80-page graphic novella is one of the first of its kind.

Franklin, who created #BlackComicsMonth in 2015 to promote diversity in the straight white male-dominated industry, said inclusive stories like “Bingo Love” are crucial. She said that sometimes white superheroes aren’t as exciting as representation in comics…

This looks adorable, I would love to read this :3 Representation in so many ways. This is actually what we all need! Thank you Tee Franklin!

I’m glad her crowd-funding was successful so she can bring this to light.

@vox takes on the trope of the hypercompetent female sidekick. You know her – the one who’s the smartest, toughest and most capable yet ends up being rescued by the less talented, but extremely straight, white, cisgender and male hero. 

This intersects well with discussions about the pay gap and obstacles women face in their careers. For those of us who aren’t straight white cisgender men – the persistence of being typecast as not-the-hero (or the boss, or the leader, or the expert commenter) despite qualifications, talents and capabilities is a lived reality. 

Aretha Franklin, The Queen Of Soul, Has Died At 76

The music icon was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and won 18 Grammy Awards.

Aretha Franklin, the undisputed Queen of Soul and a music legend who enjoyed a career longer than many of her successors, died Thursday. She was 76.

Her publicist, Gwendolyn Quinn, confirmed her death to BuzzFeed News in a statement, saying she died at her home in Detroit at 9:50 a.m. local time. The cause of death was advanced pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type.

“In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart,“ her family said in a statement. “We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family.”

The family also said they had been "deeply touched” by the outpouring of love and support they had received in recent days, after word first emerged the singer had fallen ill.

“We have felt your love for Aretha and it brings us comfort to know that her legacy will live on,” they said.

No other vocalist has reached the heights Franklin did during her monumental career. She is the most charted female singer in Billboard history, the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the winner of 18 Grammy Awards, and the “greatest singer of all time,” according to Rolling Stone.