A poster for the Beyond the Stereotype campaign at CSU San Marcos in California. Photo from CSUSM
The San Diego Union-Tribune interviews Maya Goodblanket, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, about the Beyond the Stereotype campaign on her university campus in California:
Q: What’s the goal of CSUSM’s poster campaign? A: To help open the eyes of different students about what is appropriate when it comes to other peoples’ culture, along with reminding students that there is more to people of different cultures than just the typical stereotypes. Q: Why is a campaign like this needed? A: Because people are so often ignorant to the difference between appreciating someone else’s culture and appropriating someone else’s culture. There’s nothing wrong with appreciating someone else’s culture as long as it’s done in a respectful way. I don’t think most people are purposely being disrespectful, I think they’re just ignorant to what is respectful. When someone sees a Native American, they may think buckskin, rain dance, feathers, teepees and casinos when there is much, much more to Native Americans than that. They may want to wear a headdress or dress up like a “sexy Pocahontas” during Halloween without realizing that it is disrespectful to Native Americans. Head dresses are very sacred to Native Americans and the “sexy Pocahontas” thing is rather ridiculous.Get the Story:
Standing up to stereotypes (The San Diego Union-Tribune 4/26)
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