Ruth Hopkins: Kardashian clan glorifies stereotypes of Native women

In the past week, Kourtney, the oldest sister of the infamous Kardashian clan, has doubled down on racism against Natives. She posted an Icelandic belfie (butt selfie) with the caption ‘Eski-Ho’ to Instagram and tweeted yet another picture of herself in a skin tight tan suede dress with a slit up the middle. The caption for the latter read, ‘POCAHONTAS VIBES.’

Now I’m a busy little bee so I don’t have time to comment on every single incidence of Native appropriation, no matter how infuriating. Native appropriation is so trendy lately that if I were to spotlight every instance I would be doing it every day like it’s my full time job. Nonetheless, just because I don’t fire off shots doesn’t mean I didn’t see it, and I’ve had quite enough of Kourtney and her sisters’ racist shenanigans.

In these two posts, Kourtney reinforced manifest destiny, racism, misogyny, rape culture, Native appropriation and the fetishizing of Native women. One in three Native women are raped during their lifetime. Associating Inuit (‘Eskimo’) women with the offensive term ‘ho’ (short for whore) is beyond insulting. It’s irresponsible and it’s not funny.