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You should ask some Hawaiian.
It usually heavily depends on the context. Children having fun themed dressed as Hawaiian looks pretty nice, they are kid playing.
I am italian. Super Mario is not offensive, an Italian-themed college party where everyone dress and speak as mobster saying "capisc" is very offensive.
Context matters. Here doesn't look like the kids are offending anyone. But I am not Hawaiin, you should ask them
I'm hoping someone who is Hawaiian will say something here because I don't know any Hawaiians myself.
EDIT: Also, I think it's a little different when it comes to Italian vs. Hawaiian, because Hawaiians are an oppressed people who faced a genocide. Italians got treated like shit in the U.S., but compared to Hawaiians, it's not really the same.
People have over-corrected with super pc sensitivity. We reacted to hate speech and lynching and blackface and slurs with an equal and opposite extreme of everything is off limits.
I’m 3/4 German. When I see people with liederhosen and beer and Trader Joe’s beer labeled “trader Klaus” and people drinking from a boot, or people of color celebrating octoberfest, I’m not insulted or offended, I’m excited to see people having fun and digging my heritage.
Is this a free pass for people to do blackface at a Halloween party? Of course not. Should I be scared to wear a shirt with palm trees on it? Of course not.
There is a place for celebrating and enjoying a culture, people, tradition, race which is not at that group’s expense that we should embrace instead of shun. I think making cultural exchange taboo is a mistake and is segregating and labeling in its own right. Not everything people like is cultural appropriation.
You want to talk about appropriation, then let’s talk about Christmas and the winter solstice, or pretty much anything involving Christianity. Not a good track record there but no one gets slapped for dressing up as white Jesus.
I am not of indigenous Hawaiian descent, but I feel like I can answer this since I grew up there. FYI you're gonna get a lot of different answers depending on who you ask, when/where they lived there, etc.
While I don't find the "mainland"'s obsession with grass skirts and coconut bras particularly "offensive," I do think people need to know Native Hawaiian women didn't wear tops at all until Protestant missionaries arrived in the 1900s. There are no records of its official origin, but the coconut bra was eventually embraced by natives to an extent and used as an exotic marketing element for tourism. Now it's permanently associated with the islands. Technically you could say coconut bras are traditional now, but they sure weren't traditional before the islands were colonized.
But to answer your question, I personally do not find your typical "Hawaiian day" offensive. A little embarrassing and cringe, to be honest, but not offensive. I do think it's disappointing, though, how most people accept things at face value and aren't interested in learning about other cultures if it doesn't fit the image they have in their head. Because there's so much more to learn, man. I don't think you're "overreacting," and I think it's more than a little disingenuous (this next part is not aimed at you btw OP) to invalidate others' concerns about cultural appropriation and write them off completely simply because the subject makes you uncomfortable. It's a real thing, and it's a discussion worth having. Who knows, you might learn something.
On that note, a fun fact: did you know that the iconic flower-print button-down short-sleeve collared shirts are not called "Hawaiian shirts" in Hawai'i? Yeah, only tourists call them that. They're "Aloha shirts," brah!
I appreciate your response. It's a lot to think about. Thank you!
American culture is a hodge podge of multiple cultures. We're a melting pot. I've found more often than not, it's not the culture in question that has issues with the integration of their cultural influences.
You’re thinking way too much into it. We should be celebrating each other’s cultures, not racially gating them. It’s not offensive or racist when non-whites/Germans wear lederhosen at Oktoberfest. It’s not racist when black people drink wine. Humans have shared cultures, food, and clothing for millennia. It’s a good thing.
I don't think there's anything wrong with a Hawaiian day in the abstract - schools often do dumb little celebrations like that. In context, though, coconut bras? Y I K E S.
My schools, when I was a wee lad in the 2000s, did a lot of 'theme' days like that about different cultures, and while it was generally very surface-level information, it also was generally accurate and not whitewashing. I don't see anything inherently wrong with encouraging student participation in learning like that, even if it might be a bit cringey and superficial.
Or am I reading too much into it?
Yes? I'm not American, so to me it seems like you guys tend to do that a lot.
"Oh no, this word was once used in a derogatory fashion, can't use that! Better start using some new euphemistic wor- oh shit, the new word is already also being used derogatorily, better start using some new euphemis- oh crap, that was fast, better just call it - oh, gawrsh..."
I mean, I'm not claiming it's a US specific thing. But you're damn good at it.
That’s a tricky argument to make, because some people (like you) mean it sincerely, but others just use the same argument as an excuse to be an ignorant, lazy, insensitive prick.
Why the hell would that be offensive?
Like I said, for the same reason wearing a feathered headdress on Native American day would be offensive.
No, celebrating a culture isn't offensive. Having fun isn't offensive. What is offensive is getting offended by everything. Let kids be kids, they only get one shot at it.
Celebrating a culture involves learning about that culture. Which is not happening. Instead, it's Americans taking religious symbols of a culture that was genocided by Americans and making them something fun like "hat day" or "school spirit day."
Furthermore, I finally got in touch with a native Hawaiian via Facebook who agreed that it was, in fact, offensive cultural appropriation. But I suppose you know better than her.
Instead, it’s Americans taking religious symbols of a culture that was genocided by Americans and making them something fun like “hat day” or “school spirit day.”
I looked up grass skirts and I can't find an exclusively religious component to their usage by Hawaiians. Everything I've found says that they were introduced in the late 19th century by other Pacific Islander immigrants, and used in late Western-influenced hula.
Fair enough if that's true. However, as I told someone else, I got in touch with an indigenous Hawaiian on Facebook and, while their personal opinion is just one out of many, I give it more weight than non-indigenous opinions and she says she felt it was appropriation and offensive.
I mean, obviously regardless the coconut bras make it clear your kid's school are ignorant and just doing it as an offensive costume. Even if (and that's a big if) the school's intent is positive, they need to take a step back, sit themselves down, and ask themselves some very pointed questions.
Are these elementary school kids, or highschool kids? Because I'm picturing them as elementary school kids. If they're just little kiddos, then they're learning at their level by making grass skirts and stuff. There's plenty of time to learn more serious subjects later.
You'll have no problem finding people offended by anything, if you look for them. To be fair, there are always people on both sides of the discussion for these topics.
To answer your other question, no, I don't know more about how an individual feels about a subject than that individual. But it remains the opinion of an individual. I'm Choctaw and I think having kids make little paper headbands, with a little paper feather, and learn about the tribes is perfectly fine, but there are plenty of tribesmen who have issues with that stuff. Most of the ones who have issues with it generally have issues with everything though, so take that as you will. What most of us agree on is that it's not cool for the adult to adorn themselves with a chieftain ceremonial headdress, and hop around chanting nonsense. But that's not what usually happens in elementary school, it's usually pretty innocent fun.
Just make sure this is a teaching moment for your daughter. There's nothing wrong with diving into other peoples' cultures, but you may as well find out where all the apparel comes from traditionally, so you can help make her costume accurate and even add something the other kids probably don't have, and make sure you don't offend anyone in the process by drawing false parallels:)
She didn't wear a costume, so that's not an issue. She's actually already aware of what happened in Hawaii because we've talked about it before.
Good question, I don't know why you are getting downvoted
Yeah, I don't get it. I'm not saying it is offensive. If it isn't, just tell me why. Because it seems like it is but I don't know.
Indigenous Hawaiians are any of you on the fediverse?!?
Some indigenous Hawaiians would find it offensive and some wouldn’t. Hawaiians are not some homogeneous entity sharing the same thoughts and sensibilities. That being said, it sounds like the event centres around cultural stereotypes, which are romanticized from a western point of view, from a specific point in time, and in that sense I would find it in poor taste, but I am not Hawaiian. In my opinion, these sorts of things marginalize cultures more than they “celebrate” them. I would encourage you to try to educate your daughter on the history of colonialism in Hawaii, as that won’t be covered in class in any detail, I’d wager.
I have talked to her about colonialism a lot, including Hawaii. The things Americans don't teach about their own history in schools is appalling, let along world history.
tbf, there's comparatively little time and the structure of classes means that oftentimes year-to-year you end up going over the same info - and still having kids who just don't retain the info.
Structure is one of the hardest things to change in an institution, unfortunately. Details, like what is taught or what is used to teach it, are almost easy in comparison.
Apologies, but this is just a heads up. The OP was meant to be civil to my understanding, and at a certain point, as Lemmy mods, we're asked to lock a thread if it gets out of hand. Could everyone tone themselves down a little so this doesn't have to happen?
Also, that moment when it dawns on me I've been wearing a Hawaiian shirt all day.
When you fly to Hawaii, they offer you a lei even if you're not Hawaiian.
The simple solution is to rename it "Racist Hawaiian Tourist Day". Then everyone's happy, right?
