Paul Frank offends every Native person on the planet with Fashion Night Out "Dream Catchin’ Pow wow"

In Dream Catchin with Paul Frank, Fashions Night Out, hipster headdress, Paul Frank, playing indian, stereotypes by Adrienne K.Leave a Comment

Fashion’s Night Out is now in its fourth year–an annual night for residents of New York, LA, and other fashionable cities to get dressed up in sky-high heels and totter from retail outlet to retail outlet, pushing through hoards of similarly clad city dwellers attempting to partake in free cocktails and canapes. Stores host “celebrity” appearances–though it seems to be …

A "Cowboys and Indians" party is just as bad as a blackface party.

In blackface, cowboys and indians, party themes, playing indian, racism, sociological images by Adrienne K.13 Comments

2/8/2019: I want to do a more proper update and takedown of my own writing at a later point, but I can’t let this post stand without a note any longer–This post was from the very early days of the blog, when I was still figuring things out. I now know a lot more about making problematic and harmful comparisons …

Oh Spirit Hoods.

In cultural appropriation, fashion, hipsters, Navajo Wolf, playing indian, spirit hoods, these are just plain ugly, tribal fashion, tribal trends by Adrienne K.35 Comments

Oh Spirit Hoods. One of those fashion trends that makes me pause, cock my head, and say “really??” If you’re unfamiliar (meaning you’re not one of the 15,000+ people who “like” the brand on facebook), Spirit Hoods are furry animal hat/scarf combos that are all the rage with tweens, celebs, and hipsters alike. I’ve gotten a few tips recently about …

Playing Indian at Stanford Powwow, Year 2

In blackface, feather hair clips, playing indian, racial drag, stanford powwow by Adrienne K.8 Comments

Last year about this time, I posted about some local high school girls who decided to dress up and play Indian at Stanford’s powwow. The post caused a huge ruckus, I ended up getting “legal threats” from the girls’ parents, and a lot of people hated me for a minute. But since the internet has a memory of about 2 …

The Music Festival Hipster Headdress Goes British

In Glastonbury, hipster headdress, music festivalsm, playing indian, tipi by Adrienne K.10 Comments

(image via Boston.com) Well, it’s official. The hipster headdress has gone British. Last week was the Glastonbury music festival in the UK, a huge music spectacular not unlike Coachella, or The Bamboozle, or Sasquatch! or Lightning in a Bottle here in the US. Boston.com posted an image of festival goers sporting the (no-longer) edgy hipster headdress, maddening, but pretty unsurprising, …

North American Indians: a step by step guide to "playing Indian"

In American Indian, books, children's literature, Navajo, playing indian, scholastic, sioux, tlingit by Adrienne K.7 Comments

My friend Katie is currently in her first year of teaching 4th grade on the Rosebud Sioux reservation in South Dakota (go Katie!), and she sent me a scanned copy of this ridiculous book that was in her classroom library. I’ll let her give the context: “I finally started going through my classroom’s library and was pretty appalled to find this …