(RPC PEOPLE IN PARTICULAR, PLEASE REBLOG THIS POST. IF YOU AREN’T IN THE RPC, YOU ARE FREE TO REBLOG AS WELL, THIS IS SAFE TO REBLOG. BUT I WANT TO GET THIS TO EVERYONE IN THE RPC.)
Okay, I made a post about this in 2020, but it’s 2022 and it’s still happening. And I don’t think me just self-reblogging my own post from 2020 helps at all, since it doesn’t get anyone to see it but my followers. So this is going to act as another PSA, and I want to make it clear that this is about NOBODY in particular, many people do this, which is why it warrants a PSA:
THE TERMS INDIGENOUS, FIRST NATIONS, NATIVE AMERICAN, ETC. ARE NOT ETHNICITIES AND IT IS SUPER ANNOYING FOR YOU GUYS TO LIST IT LIKE IT IS. IT’S ALSO SUPER OFFENSIVE TO WRITE “*INSERT SPECIFIC ETHNICITY HERE* (INDIGENOUS) ETHNICITY”, “INDIGENOUS (*INSERT SPECIFIC ETHNICITY HERE*) ETHNICITY”, “INDIGENOUS *INSERT SPECIFIC ETHNICITY HERE* ETHNICITY”, ETC.
I hate, ABSOLUTELY HATE using and weaponizing different groups to make my point, as we are all in this struggle together but so it can get through your heads:
It would be the equivalent of me writing for a Japanese fc, “Japanese (Asian)”, “Asian (Japanese)”, “Asian Japanese”, “Japanese Asian”, etc. as their ethnicity. Or, because many of you are still just writing Native American, Indigenous, First Nations, etc. as the ethnicity, it would be like just writing a Japanese fc’s ethnicity as “Asian”.
Do you see, in this example, how this stuff makes no sense?
Or how this is incredibly redundant? And how it can be offensive?
Because I look at gif packs all the time, including of fcs that aren’t Indigenous, and the only ones you guys do this to except for Indigenous fcs is white fcs. And rightfully so for white fcs! But Indigeneous people are POC, with our own ethnicities!
“Well people don’t know this is an ethnicity that is [Native American, First Nations, etc.], so I have to note that it is”
And that’s not an excuse!
I get it, no one is expected to know hundreds of different ethnicities right off the bat, but I’m going to share a secret with you: neither do I! I will find Indigenous fcs of ethnicities all the time that I did not know of that specific ethnicity beforehand. Take for example, Quannah Chasinghorse. I had heard of the Sicangu Oyate Lakota Sioux, Oglala Lakota Sioux, and Gwich’in before, but I had never heard of the Hän people. So I used Google. If someone has access to tumblr, they have access to google. If someone has never heard of the Penobscot, Navajo, Menominee, Lumbee, Mohawk, etc. people and they want to use a fc that is one of those ethnicities, it’s on them to google it. If someone has access to Tumblr, they have access to Google.
Again, I want to make it clear this isn’t about anyone, and when I see someone do this, I always IM them (or if they have IMs off, I send them an off anon ask). And everyone is always super nice about it, and changes it. But it is tiring that I have to constantly message people about this, and I might not see it until a post already has tons of notes. And then a bunch of other people get the impression that it’s okay to list an Indigenous fc’s ethnicity like this, so this PSA is going up. So hopefully you guys can STOP.
To end with an example, for Cody Christian:
What you SHOULD write for his ethnicity: “Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, and English” (or replace English with “White”, as mentioned previously mentioned saying “White” instead of specific White ethnicities is not the same as doing this for Indigenous people)
What you SHOULD NOT write for his ethnicity: “Native American and English”, “Native American (Penobscot and Passamaquoddy) and English”, “Penobscot Native American, Passamaquoddy Native American, and English”, “Penobscot (Native American), Passamaquoddy (Native American), and English”, etc.
