I was at a large gathering of friends and noticed one of my friends wearing a t-shirt that I will now describe. In the middle of the shirt was a graphic of a male-appearing realistic drawing of a face that looked decidedly Native American, with various animals sort of swirling around it, don’t remember all the animals but probably one was an eagle. The person wearing the shirt is white.
I’ve probably seen shirts like this before, enough so that the shirt didn’t really register on me at first, maybe the gathering got boring enough so my mind was looking for stuff to fixate on…and it occurred to me, it would be weird to just wear a random face that had identifiably African features or identifiably Asian features…or even an identifiably white face on it, just a realistic face but not of anyone in particular.
I did not ask the wearer about his shirt. My guess is the message he hoped to convey by wearing it was something like “I like the spirituality of nature that I attribute to Native Americans”, nothing really offensive, but isn’t kind of…I don’t know…objectifying?..depersonalizing?..to make an ethnicity into a symbol, like the eagle was a symbol?
I saw a lot of shirts like that for sale at a roadside tee pee trading post in Arizona. The store was clearly owned and operated by a Native American family. This doesn’t mean that every Native American is going to think this shirt is in good taste when worn by a white person, but the family who owned the store is probably hoping you’ll buy it.
One thing the OP should be aware of is that there are lots of people who are mixed race, look “white” (or “black”, for that matter), but are bona fide, registered members of a NA tribe. This is especially true on the East Coast, but you can see it all over.
as a white man who wears a lot of t shirts with graphics on them, I have at various times had the face of a black man (Hendrix), an Asian (Confucius), a Latino (Guevara) an Indian (Gandhi), a native American (Red Cloud), a woman (Blondie) and many, many faces of musicians and scientists, and this very day the very white face of Billy Idol is watching as I type this. I have never really thought about it that much so I hope that I have not offended anyone by wearing these likenesses, but I never felt weird about it.
Yeah, but presumably you’re celebrating (or mocking if worn ironically) the qualities of the individual in all these cases. Their race is incidental; or relevant only in the sense that their fame stems from specific deeds or works connected to their origins.
I do take the OP’s point that celebrating a generic person whose only defining characteristic seems to be as an archetype for a specific ethnicity — does seem a little “off”, however positive the intended connotations. Or at least, I think it would seem “off” for most ethnicities, so I’m not really sure why an archetypal Native American (if that’s what it’s supposed to be) is okay. There’s a fine line between archetype and stereotype.
Of course, it may turn out that the dumb tourists are buying T-shirts emblazoned with the likeness of a meth addict from the next town over whose picture was in the local newspapers last year when he was arrested for public urination.
At first glance, it does seem a little cringeworthy.
But upon further thought, I can’t cringe too hard. I’m reminded of all the portraits of African women that my mother had hanging up on the walls when I was growing up. It’s maybe a LITTLE different since we are of African descent. But it’s not like I can tell you what ethnic groups or nationalities they belonged to. They simply fit in with my mother’s Afrocentric style and politics.
We also had a big painting in the dining room of Native Americans with feathers, bows and arrows, and everything. My mother also feels kinship to Native Americans (although we have yet to prove a genetic link). If she was the type to wear t-shirts, I could see her wearing a shirt like the one described in the OP.
That T-shirt strikes me as kind of strange, if indeed that is just some random native american guy. I’ve seen a lot of graphic tees but none where someones face was featured that prominently just for aesthetic purposes. It begs the question “Who’s that on your shirt?”. If the answer is no one in particular I would find it weird.
I guess I just never really cared that much about what another person wore. I mean, if they were wearing a NAZI symbol, a picture of Trump with a halo, or FUCK-YOU JOHN MACE, then I might be curious. Otherwise, MYOB and don’t make assumptions about other people seems like the best strategy.
It’s just a shirt. There will always be people who nitpick about its relativity or likeness, or offensiveness. Anything can offend anyone. There’s nothing wrong with that shirt. If you want to see deliberately offensive shirts or have a laugh, go to tshirthell.com
That being said, I get bothered by people wearing the Che Guevara shirt, like the man was some sort of idol, pfff.
American Dad episode: “At least we can agree on this, Steve points to Che poster, Planet Of The Apes was a fine picture!”
No this doesn’t bug me at all ! I have photos of Native Americans hanging on my living room wall. One is of Native American family and I needed some work done in my condo and a one of guys made a wiseass remark if that was my family and I told the jerk I would very proud if they were my family ! He said nothing after that , my daughter’s father was Black and Native American so who know that photo could be from my daughter’s dad family . That guy could very well had been Native American .
I don’t think it’s weird. I don’t care if people of one race want to wear depictions of people of another race, and someone getting all hopped up about that would be very tiresome in my opinion. I don’t ever wear t-shirts with graphics myself, but I know a lot of people like to express themselves that way, and I would just assume that the shirt holds some appeal for them, or the person that bought it for them. There are some images that I might think are trashy or offensive, but Native American and animal faces sound pretty benign.
