Blogger Adrienne Keene tackles Khloe Kardashian again in her Native Appropriations blog:
No Khloe, I do not like your "tribal look"Our dear friend Khloe Kardashian is back at her dress up antics. Remember back in October when she tweeted a picture of her wearing a headdress? Well this week she stepped it up a bit and posted a picture from a professional photo shoot with a huge war bonnet.
The accompanying tweet read: "What do you guys think of my tribal look?"
Well Khloe, I think it contributes to the continued stereotyping of Native peoples, relegates us to a "fantasy" or "dress up" character like a wizard or a clown, contributes to the sexualization of Native women, takes something sacred and meaningful and makes it a cheap commodity, and just overall gives me the sads.The following was a typical response:
*headdesk* Infuriating. Unsurprising. Disgusting. Adding insult to injury, she has to call it her "tribal look." Arrrgh.Comment: Someone named Jennifer asked Kardashian about this on Twitter. Kardishian's response:
@icraprainbows That's rude! You think I don't know? I'm native american and VERY proud of it. You have no idea! Don't judge b4 u know!To which Jennifer responded:
@ForeverKhloe right and if you are a "proud" native then you of all people should know better.So Khloe thinks she's an American Indian? And she thinks there's a valid reason for a Hollywood starlet to wear a chief's headdress? I'd love to hear her explain how she knows more about the subject than innumerable Natives.
Kardashian's response seems to be based on
DNA results that show she's 3% Native American:
Khloé Alexandra Odom (née Kardashian) was born in California. She is of Armenian descent through her father, attorney Robert Kardashian, and of Scottish-Dutch descent through her mother, Kris Jenner (née Houghton). On a March 2010 episode of Lopez Tonight, a DNA test result showed Khloe and sister Kim to be 97% European and 3% Native American.Is that all she's got? If she thinks 3% Native blood makes her Native or entitles her to wear a headdress, she's even more ignorant than I thought.
For more
Indian wannabe celebrities, see
Rachel Zoe as an "Indian Warrior," Kathy Griffin in a Headdress, and
Paris Hilton as a Sexy Indian.
Come on, she's Khloe Kardashian and she can do whatever she wants, dammit. *rolls eyes*
ReplyDelete3% of what tribe? Does she even know? Not like it matters but I was just curious.
1) Women didn't wear warbonnets.
ReplyDelete2) At least plains women's dress wasn't...sexy. More modest than anything. Not that modest gets you a reality show.
3) Modest or not, you didn't wear it in the water. Let's see how long buckskin lasts submerged.
Ugh!
ReplyDeleteShe looks more like a peacock. The whole family's like a muster of peacocks fawning over themselves.
So "what do I think"? Ok, besides looking ridiculously foolish. I "think" she is nothing more than another self-loathing White person who wants to be somethng that she is not. I say self-loathing, because otherwise, she wouldn't be doing this(to herself and fellow Whites).
ReplyDeleteThat is what I "think" of her. Sad but true. I just don't understand why White people like her(wannabe "injuns") no longer wish to be the *SUPREME* and "superior" beings that they claim to be.
spoonheads.
ReplyDeleteDNA tests tell you only that you have genes or markers commonly associated with Natives. They can't tell you anything more specific like what tribe(s) your ancestors came from.
ReplyDeleteSome people with 25-50% Indian "blood," who know their family's heritage, don't consider themselves Native. So Kardashian's 3% DNA is worthless as a racial indicator.
I've had a DNA test done to determine my native blood quantum and in studying my ancestry and the details to understanding DNA, I have discovered that there is often what's referred to as an Amerindian Addmixture commonly found in NorthEastern Europeans where they may exhibit some small percentage of American Indian DNA. There is no real known reason for it. She may not be American Indian at all and the Amerindian Addmixture component would most likely come from her mother.
ReplyDelete