I guess look at mycultureisnotatrend.tumblr.com or that it's a culture not a costume campaign. If there's no malicious or condescending intent and noone is hurt I don't see it as wrong to do.
I just had a look at that site and... well, it's hard for me to really... I... I don't know. The problem is that I'm not a minority and I've been privileged enough that I've not come from a culture or background (during modern history) where my ancestors were subjected to the injustices that some have. This can either nullify my opinion or diminish it through lack of personal or ancestral experience. I don't live with the bigotry of people's judgement based upon my appearance or heritage. I can understand many views and opinions about the offensiveness of certain activities and how they can unknowingly speak of atrocities from the past or be reflective of the current social climate towards people of specific backgrounds.
Maybe this is why I find myself at a loss for not being able to find the following as perhaps an overreaction based upon a life that's had to interpret everything as some sort of slight or conscious attack towards your heritage:
mycultureisnotatrend.tumblr.com said:
http://mycultureisnotatrend.tumblr.com/post/12762621603/svnoyi-iarrrrrapirate-i-am-not-really-sure
iarrrrrapirate:
I am not really sure the significance of this picture, but it looks pretty amazing.
The significance is Imperialism, Colonialism, and Genocide. This image depicts the beneficiaries of the North American Genocide mocking their victims by mimicking them through tried stereotypes that were used to dehumanize them, making the public support their deaths and turn a blind eye to their suffering. The subjects of the image have donned cheap representations of sacred culture pieces of their victims, much like how some serial killers take “trophies” from their victims.
Enough significance for you? Amazing, huh?
I can't help but feel like that it reading way more than is actually intended and could reasonably be interpreted from the image but at the same time contains more thought than the people in the picture put into what they were potentially saying by donning "traditional dress."
There's also part of me that feels that deriving that much intent from what people are doing by being culturally insensitive is not helping the situation, either. Accusing people of genocide, wearing trophies and dehumanising their victims feels like an extreme reaction, even if the reaction is a product of hundreds of years oppression and death.
Like I said, I'm not looking to start a race debate, I'm just looking to get an idea of what people find offensive and why.
Thanks for the response, shan.