I forgot to mention this yesterday, but in addition to being the start of offensive Halloween yard decoration season, late September also marks the beginning of eye-roll culturally insensitive high school homecoming float season across Oklahoma.
Last year's effort was pretty solid. We had the "Toss The Redskins" spirit week salad spectacular in Guymon, and the blue ribbon "Scalp the Indian" float in the Coweta High School Homecoming parade.
In an apparent attempt to one up those efforts, students in Fort Gibson dressed up like injuns and hopped in a cage like they were rounded up by John Wayne for their homecoming. I believe the float was sponsored by David Stanley Dodge.
Here are the details via News 9:
'Cage The Indians' Homecoming Float Prompts Oklahoma Student To Speak Out
An Oklahoma student is speaking out about a Fort Gibson High School homecoming parade float she says was deeply offensive to Native Americans.
It was the last thing 18-year-old Maddie Lamb, of Tahlequah, expected to see when scrolling through her Snapchat.
"It was a bunch of girls inside of a cage on a homecoming float dressed in cheap feathers and some bright colored paint, and fringe shirts, and they were doing a war call and saying, 'Cage the Indians,'" Lamb said.
Lamb is Creek and Mojave, and said the pictures are harmful.
"Our Native ancestors were actually caged ... raped and killed and murdered and tortured, and it was women, children and elders," Lamb said.
First of all, I don't blame the high school kids for that. I was a high school student at one time, so I can say from experience that a lot of them are naive and probably don't realize that it's not the wisest idea to dress up like a Native American, raise your hand in the air, and say "How" to your classmates. They'll learn from the experience and move on.
That being said, the parents who let their kids do this are idiots. Even if you don't think mocking oppressed cultures that have been dumbed down into caricatures and mascots is a big deal, how can you be unaware that other people are going to be offended and outraged by it? The only logical explanation is that you're an asshole or inattentive parent:
"Mom. Do you have any brown fabric, colorful feathers and face paint?"
"Check the cabinet in the garage."
"Which one?"
"The one next to dad's large cage."
Anyway, hopefully this is the only culturally insensitive high school homecoming float we have to deal with this year. I can't way to see what today's young Oklahoman come up with in 2018.
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