My skimming of the Internet today brought me to Native Appropriations, a blog written by a Cherokee college reacting to American culture's appropriation of Native culture.

It's a good read overall, but the author's rant against headdress-wearing white folk neatly sums up a host of common objections made by natives.

I find it particularly interesting that the author equates it (as well as other shows of Native "fashion" by non-natives) multiple times in her blog to wearing blackface. That might take white readers aback, as we equate blackface to active mockery, while the is frequently not the case when someone wears a feathered headdress. But, as the writer argues, "you're stereotyping and collapsing distinct cultures, and in doing so, you're asserting your power over them." And that will offend just about anyone.

The winning of Miss Michigan Rima Fakih as Miss USA Sunday night has personal meaning for me.  For the  last several years she has lived in Dearborn, Michigan, my hometown and a town of 100,000+ people that is now 20-25% Arab and Muslim.

Honestly, I'm surprised she competed.  While I know there are a wide variety of views on clothes among Muslims, I have never ever known a Muslim woman willing to be seen in a swimsuit - much less a bikini - by men.  I guess that's my personal lesson for today.

But there's a very nasty undercurrent to this win as some people have accused the judges of "Islamopandering":  basically, letting her win because it would make them look more tolerant and embracing of Muslims.  It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario: if she lost then she couldn't measure up, but since she won, it's credited to being given a helping hand.  Heaven forbid an Arab and a Muslim actually win on her own merits.

Some have gone so far as to insist that her entire pageantry run is being financed by Hezbollah. As George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley retorts: "If Hezbollah planned to gain some advantage by winning the Miss USA competition, they are more desperate than I thought. Next they will be targeting the USA Spelling Bee," AOL News reports.

I grew up with both this nonsense and acceptance.  High school consisted of four years of racial and religious slurs flying back and forth, yet I also was able to exchange senior photos with a Muslim friend who apologized for not being able to give me a photo without her head scarf.  One of my female Arab neighbors (among several others) was beaten up on a local college campus the day after the Sept 11 attacks, and many white female students retaliated with wearing head scarves as a mark of solidarity.

These people have not been handed anything.  They have worked long and hard for everything they manage to earn.

The Wild Hunt blog did a round up this week about yoga and it's relationship with Hinduism. Part of what interests me about this article is it's focus on arguments that yoga is intrinsically a part of Hinduism. The reason I note this is because in my experience the arguments have gone precisely the other way: conservative Christians condemning yoga as un-Christian and more liberally minded folk insisting yoga is little more than exercise and meditation.

Few communities have a commercial success rate even close to that of the Amish, of whom 95% keep a business open at least 5 years in comparison to the 50% average nationwide, according to CNN.

And while we constantly hear of the business world being a cut-throat place to be, experts credit Amish values for their success.  They aren't looking to be rich.  Nor are they interested in cutting corners or making a buck for nothing.  They believe in hard work for honest pay, and that's just what they get.  They stick to what they know, they put in the necessary effort, and their businesses survive and often thrive.