Johnny Depp isn’t Cherokee
He claims to be cherokee
But Johnny Depp isn’t Cherokeehe claims to have some Creek ancestry too
He doesn’t.
Johnny Depp is NOT Native American, guys.
Seriously, stop saying it
The exact quote is “[great-grandmother] grew up Cherokee or maybe Creek Indian”
It is literally the definition of a blood myth. I mean most people with a blood myth name a specific tribe but Depp can’t even do that and for some reason this crap is given credence.
Reblogging for the quote. I knew someone had it
It’s true that many, probably most, apparently White (and Black) Americans with a story about how “their greatn-grandmother was an Indian princess” that has been handed down in their family — or that they claim has been handed down in their family — turn out to have zero Native ancestry whatsoever.
But among people who do the genealogical research to find out who, when, where, and were-they-really, and find that they do have genuine Native ancestry, it’s actually not uncommon for the family story to have mentioned Cherokee (or another well-known Native people) while the actual ancestor belonged to another Nation entirely. One reason for this is that the Tsalagi are one of the best-known tribes, particularly on the East Coast, and stories do change when they’re retold.
Maybe a child heard their grandparent tell the story and name their own mother’s people as Creek, or Cree, or even Seminole or Lenape, but then when the grandchild tried telling the story themselves years later, listeners said they had never heard of that tribe, or maybe even suggested that the grandchild must have meant Cherokee, or must have mis-heard or mis-remembered. Maybe the grandchild tried to look up information on their ancestral tribe, and nothing in the library matched the name they remembered — between there being separate names for different clans, groups, settlements, and peoples who considered themselves multiple nations within a larger Nation (the Iroquois or the Lakota-Dakota, for example), and the fact that White people and White people’s books tend to use exonyms far more often than any of a Native people’s own names for themselves — so maybe the grandchild decided for themselves that they must have had the name wrong. Maybe family members found it simpler to tell non-Native acquaintances that the tribe was one they’d heard of, and that’s what the next generation grew up having heard and believed. These things happen.
I’m not saying that anyone claiming Cherokee (or any Native) ancestry should be taken at face value, or even necessarily be given the benefit of the doubt. I’m definitely not saying I think Depp is really Native — or that it would excuse the roles he’s consented to play for Disney in recent years if he were Native.
But White America has been trying for five hundred years to take our cultures and our identities away from us. In too many cases, they’ve been too successful. We need to remember not to help them by shunning people who are our own, just because White interference managed to fracture their ancestral communities and disrupt cultural transmission in their families…
(via feministwerewolf)
Source: ulinawi
The moral of the fable “The North Wind and the Sun” is NOT that you get what you want more easily by being nice.
hasnt anyone on tumblr heard the fable of the sun and the north wind
like basically the moral is that its easier to get what you want by being nice and patient than by being an abrasive asshole because people will just shut you out if you do that
and people here think its unreasonable to say that no one will listen if you are rude as long as you’re ~oppressed~no people just dont want to heat what disrespectful people have to say and they clearly havent for thousands of goddamn years
That’s such bullshit. Are you actually claiming that progress happens when everyone’s really really nice? The point is that no one with power wants to hear what certain people have to say period, regardless of how politely they speak. No majority ever wants to listen to the minorities. And that has been true for thousands of years which is why most movements are full of vocal people being extremely impolite in persistent, loud ways.
And if we’re busting out the fables here, let me lay a quote on you:
“The tiger will never lie down with the lamb; he acknowledges no pact that is not reciprocal. The lamb must learn to run with the tigers.” - Angela Carter
Meaning if you want to be heard, you’d better learn to roar.
Your advice is great for dealing with certain social situations. It’s something I use when I navigate my own personal life with family and friends who sometimes hurt me and vice versa. But it’s terrible advice for any oppressed group trying to get somewhere. I’m not saying you can’t be nice about correcting someone’s terminology or explaining why something’s racist, that’s completely up to you and some people will probably listen. But to say that this is the better route to change and understanding overall is absurd.
I might also point out that your own post isn’t all that polite. It’s full of passive-agressive, condescending sarcasm (which I’ll happily return with gusto). So if you’re trying to drive a point home, you’re completely disregarding your own advice.
I actually love seeing people claim that the “moral” of the fable of the North Wind and the Sun is that you get what you want more easily by being nice than by being mean. Because it’s such a teachable moment.
Let’s break it down.
The North Wind thinks he’s just as good as the Sun, but the Sun is sure that he’s better than the North Wind.
The Sun deliberately picks a contest he knows he’ll have the advantage in. I mean, really, if you flip the contest parameters, make it about who can make the human put his coat on, there’s no way the Sun would win that one.
(Okay, maybe if the Sun blasted the poor mortal fiercely enough that he’d have to cover up to keep from getting a blistery sunburn… but that definitely wouldn’t qualify as getting your way by being the nicest, now would it? And really, if the Wind had blown at tornado speed he would not have had any trouble getting the cloak off the guy. Six of one, half-dozen of the other.
But I digress.)
So, having chosen an uneven playing field, the Sun “wins” the false contest. But he didn’t win by being nicer.
He “won” by making sure the whole contest system was rigged in his favor, mendaciously presenting the contest as a way to measure their power fairly, and then pretending that he had “proved” that he was superior.
He “won” by resorting to deceit and unfairness.
Now, let’s look at what this fable really tells us.
Watch out for people claiming that you have less power because you’re simply not as good as they are, because chances are, they have chosen a contest where the parameters ensured you would lose before you began.
So tell the dog-eggs of the world that you’re not interested in their game of three-card monte, and that you’re under no obligation to treat people with respect who have only ever treated you with disrespect — and that you’re not going to let them derail you.
(Oh, and incidentally? You can actually catch more flies than you might think with vinegar. A saucerful of cider vinegar is an effective, cheap and easy way to deal with fruit flies, in particular.)
Source: gogoatz
Dankish (aka the photographer who actually took this):
Sleepy Hollow
Rila National Park, Bulgaria… And in case you’re wondering — Tim Burton is one of my favourite film directors :)
nightmare-desert only posted this photograph.
nightmare-desert has excellent taste in landscape-photography appreciation, but execrable habits in crediting (or rather not crediting) the people who made those photographs available for strangers on the internet to appreciate.
nightmare-desert does not deserve to be credited for this post.
It took me all of less than five minutes to find the real source for this image. (With many images all it takes is going to Google Image Search, clicking the camera icon in the search box to select “Search by image”, pasting in the URL of the image you found on Tumblr, and picking out which of the copies in “More Sizes” view is the original.) We need to do better, Tumblrers. We need to stop just reblogging things we come across that are missing attribution to their creators. The fact that someone else posted it with incorrect credit — or no credit at all — is no excuse to continue sending their post along like a chain letter.
Sometimes I can’t find sources for things I want to post or reblog; that’s going to happen sometimes. But we owe it to the people who make the things that delight us to give them credit. Plus, if you know where to find the source of an awesome post, you can often find even more awesome stuff by the same creator. It’s in everyone’s best interest to give credit for photos, artwork, writing, poetry, videos, music and every other kind of creative work that can be found on Tumblr, whenever it’s possible to do so.
Click here, or on the image above, for the full-size (1024x683) copy, which shows the detail much better — the inline version on Tumblr’s servers is only 500 pixels wide and may be stretched on your screen, causing pixelation and/or fuzziness.
And now, finally, it’s time for my feelings about the actual photo itself:
Mmm, moraine eccentrics embedded in the hilly ground underlying a pine forest. I can’t help but recognize this place as home… even though I’ve never been anywhere near Bulgaria, which is where the photo was taken. It’s amazing how much this view resembles similar landscapes in southern New England (USA), where I grew up.
(via auralae)
Source: Flickr / dankish
