Rich White People + Traditional Native American Dress = Not OK

There are any number of reasons to write Urban Outfitters an angry letter, but this is a really, really good one.

Fashion retailer Urban Outfitters has landed in hot water after a scathing letter points out its (potentially illegal) fascination with all things Navajo.

Earlier this week, Sasha Houston Brown of Minneapolis published an open letter to the company's CEO as a guest contributor on the blog Racialicious. Brown posits that the frequent use of “Navajo” to describe and market Urban Outfitters' products is offensive, and moreover, a possible violation of federal law.

Dressing like a Native American is fucking racist and if you don't believe me, take it from an actual Native American.

“As a Native American woman, I am deeply distressed by your company's mass marketed collection of distasteful and racially demeaning apparel and décor,” Brown writes.  “I take personal offense to the blatant racism and perverted cultural appropriation your store features this season as ‘fashion.' ”

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/10/12/urban-outfitters-taken-to-task-for-faux-navajo-products/#ixzz1algJ9lmD

We don't have to go over why falsely identifying yourself as a member of a tribe of people who wear robbed, persecuted, enslaved, and murdered, presumably by your ancestors isn't cool, right? I mean, Urban Outfitters and countless other "trend-setters" thinks it's cool, but we KNOW it's wrong, right? Right?!? Please?

Here's a simple formula you can use if you ever find yourself holding a pair of "Navajo Hipster" panties and you just don't know what to do:

Rich White People + Traditional Native American Dress = Not OK

See? Easy peasy.

I know those moccasins were handmade in Italy using only vegan-friendly faux-suede and your girlfriend really, really liked those turquoise feather earrings you got her for Valentine's Day, but it's time to face facts; wearing that stuff in public kind of makes you a piece of shit. It may suck, but think of it this way, it could be worse, right? (cough - cough) I mean, worse things have happened. (cough - cough)