Sunday, June 08, 2014


Famous hat man chooses the wrong hat



Pharrell Williams isn't used to making people this unhappy.

The singer has apologized for his appearance on the cover of Elle UK's July 2014 issue, which shows him wearing an indigenous headdress, CBC News reported.

The cover photo drew widespread condemnation on Twitter Tuesday and Wednesday, with a number of First Nations people expressing their offense at what they called an instance of "cultural appropriation."

"I respect and honour every kind of race, background and culture," Williams said. "I am genuinely sorry."

SOURCE

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

But if cultural or ethnic artifacts and adornments were totally ignored, that might also be considered "racist" or "dismissive".

Anonymous said...

Guess he should have been pictured holding a scalp instead. You know, to honor that historically accurate depiction of the "ever so sensitive to the feelings of others" indigenous peoples.

Anonymous said...

 "cultural appropriation."?!? So I can never use a french phrase or quote Shakespeare because I'm American? America once used to be known as the "Melting pot" where ideas and ways from other cultures were combined with the current culture to the general public benefit. Now apparently, the PC crowd doesn't want anyone to use ideas from any other culture. Imagine what music would be like if this thinking prevailed.

stinky said...


Sounds like he should charge the offended for the service he provided them in their favorite pastime.

We might also pause to remember the many runaway slaves who lived with the indians (natives?, amerindians?, not-really-first nations?, aboriginals?), some of whom rose quite highly within their tribes - e.g. http://www.yale.edu/glc/gullah/07.htm - and wonder why the self-anointed try so hard to erase them from society's memory.




Anonymous said...

Claim Cherokee ancestry, it worked for the twit from Mass.

Anonymous said...

Hawaiian natives don't have a problem with people dressing up like them. I'm sure there are quite a few Plains tribes that don't care much either. They're just looking to get their two seconds of fame by feigning outrage. Or.. maybe we should never have anyone wear or depict native americans in any way, and we can relegate them to the dust bins of old history books and then forget about them.

Bird of Paradise said...

Which brings us back to The Village People