Problematic Holidays – WHITE NOISE COLLECTIVE

our writing on this theme

“Appreciation or Appropriation?”

Every year at the How Weird St. Faire in San Francisco, several Howard St. blocks transform into a magical sweetly freaky village of dj stages/floats, art in alleys, local designers, mythological realms, fabulous costumes. Streets taken over for public creative expression, dancing on the concrete in the sunlight is a beautiful thing. One of my favorite things. This year, amidst the dazzle of many outfits, I was repeatedly struck by how many people were wearing large feathered headdresses (along with hot pants, platforms, ironic t-shirts, etc.). White people dressing up in Plains Indian style war […]

Columbus Day and National Psychosis*

Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Columbus Day and National Psychosis*

Columbus Day, a time to stay home from work and nationally celebrate denial of genocide, theft, slavery and colonization. The foundations of this country. This summer the term “Columbusing” took hold, to name the phenomenon of “discovering things for white people.” The time-old “art of discovering something that is not new” and appropriating it. This is a helpful term. And, as a White Noise Collective member recently pointed out, a video depicting current day “Columbusing” would not just include discovering something that had already been found by others. More accurately, it would include white people […]

Liberate Halloween Action Kit!

Cultural Appropriation, Gender Identity, Patriarchal Violence, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Liberate Halloween Action Kit!

They’re ba-ack! (shudder) With Halloween quickly approaching, and costume shops like Spirit Halloween opening their doors, many of us are cringing at the thought of another Halloween full of racism, sexism, heterosexism and the full range of offensive apparel we annually witness. In response, we offer up a toolkit to those who wish to be a part of resisting the dominant paradigms that plague this season. Let’s make this be a season to reclaim and expand our expressive imaginations from being steered into narrow, tired, offensive and uncreative marketing channels. Not sure what exactly is so offensive about […]

9 actions and resources for Thanksgiving, from Catalyst Project

Cultural Appropriation, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

9 actions and resources for Thanksgiving, from Catalyst Project

Today as many people around the country are gathering and sharing food, many more are also talking about the origins and mythology of thanksgiving, a feel-good story of settler benevolence designed to obscure the real history of land theft and genocide. More than any other time, except perhaps during the 1970’s and the height of the American Indian Movement, people are talking about and showing up for Indigenous struggles. Imagine we all did the work today so that future generations look back on this time as the moment when non-native people changed our understanding about […]

Racial and Gender Justice Halloween Action Toolkit!

Cultural Appropriation, Gender Identity, Patriarchal Violence, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Racial and Gender Justice Halloween Action Toolkit!

Ah the beginning of fall. The air is a little colder, the colors a little more orange, and there is no shortage of pumpkin flavored products. Yet there is one sign of the turning seasons that is truly unwelcome…racist, sexist, heterosexist, and colonialist costumes — already in full force in stores around the country. Enter into any Spirit Halloween store and you will find the full gamut of costumes perpetuating cultural appropriation, racist stereotypes, Indigenous erasure and hetero-misogyny. At a time when Black Lives Matter has become a resounding movement pressing for the safety, humanity […]

The Wolf I Feed.

Cultural Appropriation, Problematic Holidays, Reflection, Therapy, Healing, and Whiteness

The Wolf I Feed.

The replacement of real indigenous stories with Christian-influenced, western moral tales is colonialism, no matter how you dress it up in feathers and moccasins. It silences the real voices of native peoples by presenting listeners and readers with something safe and familiar. And because of the wider access non-natives have to sources of media, these kinds of fake stories are literally drowning us out. – âpihtawikosisân There is a story that we keep getting told. A lot. It is about two wolves. In different spaces- as a student I was recounted this by a teacher, […]

Giving Thanks on Stolen Land

Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Giving Thanks on Stolen Land

November is upon us, and this coming week will find millions of Americans gathering together with given and chosen family to celebrate the foundational myths of American settler colonialism and the ongoing erasure of indigenous peoples on this land. This year, in the midst of one of the most powerful, visible, and spiritual resistance movements for indigenous sovereignty at Standing Rock, those of us who participate in some form of ritual at this time of year can take concrete steps to support indigenous sovereignty: Support the resistance at Standing Rock, and also think critically about How […]

Confronting Thanksgiving

Cultural Appropriation, Problematic Holidays, Reflection, State Violence

Confronting Thanksgiving

“The killings became more and more frenzied with days of Thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre.” (Susan Bates) This is an updated repost from last year, to continue our commitment to raise awareness about the actual origins and impact of this holiday that many of us celebrate without a second thought and to confront the mythologies that encourage us to ignore the real history of Thanksgiving: We often think of Thanksgiving as a […]

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Costume Mirrors: Halloween and beyond

Gender Identity, Hate Groups, Problematic Holidays

Costume Mirrors: Halloween and beyond

Halloween continues to haunt, as this recently circulated photo of a “Mexican-themed” Penn State sorority party made national headlines, sparking familiar outrage, calls for the university to take action, and a student group march. While stereotypical representations occur throughout the year, on Halloween these masks, not of ghosts and monsters, but of people and cultures, rear with a truly scary mass acceptability. Cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall reminds us that stereotypes are part of the maintenance of the social and symbolic order – they tend to occur where there are gross inequalities of power, and […]

On Rachel Dolezal, White Privilege, and White Shame

Gender Identity, Labor and Work, Privilege Systems, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

On Rachel Dolezal, White Privilege, and White Shame

Rachel Dolezal Isn’t the Most Important Race Story in Spokane. But she does seem to be an unraveling puzzle that continues to elicit curiosity, outrage, and comment. From Mia McKenzie’s discussion of Blackness and Blackface, to Kai M Green’s willingness to give Rachel a little more benefit of the doubt in discussing the similarities of race and gender constructs, to Lisa Marie Rollins’ explanation of what transracial actually means, plenty has been said already. It is a story with endless complexity. While I find all of this interesting, what interests me specifically about this situation is […]

Liberate Halloween Action Kit!

Cultural Appropriation, Gender Identity, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Liberate Halloween Action Kit!

The Last Thursday in November

Monthly Dialogues, Problematic Holidays, Reflection, State Violence

The Last Thursday in November

“The killings became more and more frenzied with days of Thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre.” (Susan Bates) We often think of Thanksgiving as a time of family, football, giving thanks and gorging. I used to be of this mindset until learning more about some of the actual roots of this holiday. What I learned was that Thanksgiving has little to do with an amicable meal shared between the Pilgrims and Indians. […]

Halloween Action

Cultural Appropriation, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Halloween Action

This Halloween, the White Noise Collective conspired to take creative action to counteract the unquestioned, blatant, “it’s-just-a-joke-can’t-you-have-a-little-fun!?!” racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and cultural appropriation that parade as “costumes” in consumerist capitalist culture. Drawing on our Liberate Halloween Action Kit from last year, this year we came up with a design-your-own creative costume station, with the intention of setting up in front of a local Spirit Halloween store (one of the most obvious corporations perpetuating oppressive stereotypes through the mass sale of highly offensive costumes). We would invite people to our station, distribute literature about cultural […]

Reclaiming Mother’s Day

"White Womanhood", Hate Groups, Labor and Work, Parent/Teacher Resources, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Reclaiming Mother’s Day

As Mother’s Day approaches, the White Noise Collective is once again faced with more questions than answers about this national holiday with a rich but forgotten history. We all agree that the current mainstream celebration of Mother’s Day — adorned with endless plastic, fuzzy and floral ways to express your annual appreciation to your mother — are at best a capitalist co-optation of a holiday that was originally meant for a completely different purpose. Harnessing fierce maternal love in all its forms, we offer this blog with a compilation buffet of food for thought and […]

Disposability, Desirablity, and #MeToo

"White Womanhood", Patriarchal Violence, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Disposability, Desirablity, and #MeToo

This blog post is written in response to comments and discussion generated at the January 2018 White Noise Collective dialogue, which examined the themes of “Race, Gender and #MeToo”. I am grateful to the participants for their frank, vulnerable, and honest conversation. See our website for the guiding questions and suggested readings for the dialogue. The following two articles were additional excellent ruminations for this piece: Consenting to Normal by Hyejin Shin and The Female Price of Male Pleasure by Lili Loofbourow. ————– As someone with very limited social media exposure, I’ve been largely distant […]

dialogue notes on this topic

Though many of the themes from the monthly dialogues are represented in our blog posts, those posts rarely include all of what was discussed. Find the notes here from each dialogue raw and uncut. We share them (with names omitted) in an effort to be accountable and transparent to our larger community, accessible for those who are not able to attend, and saved as archive to return to and draw from.

November 2014: Relationship to Land

Dialogue Description: Moving from the “horrors of October” to those of November, we will take this time together to examine national mythologies that continue to justify colonization. We will also question our relationships to land, here in the Bay Area, California and beyond. What histories shape the present? How do patterns of displacement repeat at home? What are ways we can support each other to intervene into this holiday, which some are calling to be renamed as a national day of mourning? Suggested reading: The Last Thursday in November Control of Ancestral Remains Dialogue Notes: […]

February 2014: Love, Rage and V-Day: What’s going on with white feminists?

Dialogue Description: What issues are white feminists largely drawn to, how are those issues expressed, in what ways is white privilege showing up, and what patterns are helpful to explore? Here are links to a number of pieces that relate to this month’s theme, diving into patterns, concerns, critiques, and questions of white feminists and feminism. We offer these not to be overwhelming, but thought that one or two might stir your interest before we meet in person: Beyond Eve Ensler: What Should Organizing Against Gender Violence Look Like? One Billion Rising: Eve Ensler’s White […]

November 2013: Thanksgiving Mythologies

Dialogue Description: Thanksgiving/Thanks-taking is coming up, and with inherited and/or chosen family time together, it is a potent time to (re)direct attention to realities that are hidden by this holiday’s very old propaganda campaign. We’ll look at histories of this land (specifically in CA), Thanksgiving and other national bedtime stories/mythologies we tell ourselves. For additional resources on ways to subvert and shift this holiday towards social justice education and challenging historical amnesia, you may find these interesting: Thangs Taken: rethinking thanksgiving Rethinking Thanksgiving: teaching ideas and resources and Myths and Misgivings Dialogue Notes: These are […]

October 2012: Witches

Dialogue Description: In honor of Halloween and the time of spirits close among us, our October Dialogue will look at the long history of political repression related to witchcraft and the demonization of the independent, earth-based feminine that lives into today. How are modern and historical characterizations and treatment of witches influenced by legacies of oppression? What are the implications and effects of the past witch hunts as well as the ones that continue today across the globe (both overt and covert versions)? How do we build resiliency in our communities of dissent while maintaining awareness of the […]