“Buffy Sainte-Marie’s claims to Indigenous ancestry are being contradicted by members of the iconic singer-songwriter’s own family and an extensive CBC investigation.”
appropriation
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Curious Case of Gina Adams: A “Pretendian” Investigation
In this essay, Michelle Cyca asks questions about Gina Adams — and her claims of Indigenous heritage. It’s a gripping read that exposes the rise of the “Pretendians.” The message was clear: being Indigenous was tragic or shameful. Or it was mystical and noble, a warrior on a horse, somehow untouched by colonization. Middle-class and […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Secret Life of H.G. Carrillo
“As a black man claiming a manufactured cultural experience and ethnicity, Carrillo is a complicated figure.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The True Story of Jess Krug, the White Professor Who Posed as Black for Years—Until It All Blew Up Last Fall
“She fabricated harrowing personal backstories, peddled gross caricatures, and spoke from perspectives she had no right to claim. And nobody stopped her.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
It’s Like This and Like That and Like What?
When the nineties’ heart of whiteness met g-funk, it was the illest — and wackest — of times.
Posted inNonfiction
It’s Like This and Like That and Like What?
When the nineties’ heart of whiteness met g-funk, it was the illest — and wackest — of times.
Posted inFood, Nonfiction, Quotes
Moonshine: The Black Tradition of Distilling ‘White Whiskey’
If craft food culture looks overwhelmingly white, it’s because black influences have been routinely scrubbed from its history.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The White Lies of Craft Culture
How the artisanal-food movement has built its success by appropriating — and erasing — the labor of people of color.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Quotes
Race in America Has Never Been an Either-Or Proposition
Zadie Smith examines the racially-charged work of Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’ and Dana Schutz’s ‘Emmett Till’
Posted inEditor's Pick
Getting In and Out: Who Owns Black Pain?
“Their grandmother is as black as the ace of spades, as the British used to say; their mother is what the French still call café au lait. They themselves are sort of yellowy. When exactly does black suffering cease to be their concern?”