#cultural erasure

How Pervasive Is It? Why You’re Reading This for Free By Cliff PottsEditor-in-Chief, WPS News The Invisible Hand of Attention Most people believe they choose what they read. In reality, what they encounter is almost always pre-selected—surfaced by algorithms, forwarded by friends, or placed directly in front of them by systems designed to manage attention. Discovery is no longer organic; it is mediated. If no one points to a piece of work, most… How Pervasive Is It? Why You’re Reading This for Free

Minimalism is a Capitalist Scam: Part 1 by Ornament and Crime

Still (Sequence V) “Still” is both a protest and my love letter to all cultures, languages, and lineages. It honors what was taken, what remains and what we can reclaim. Diversity is Humanity. It’s our rhythm, our radiance—our resistance and resilience. © 2025 Samantha Williams. All Rights Reserved. Still (Sequence V)

One comment. That’s all it took to shift The Ordinary Bruja from cozy magic to ancestral reckoning. In this week’s episode, I talk about the Instagram debate that broke me open—and how it made me rewrite everything. What happens when we forget who we are? 🎧 Episode 2 is live now. #MagicalRealism The Post That Broke Me

This makes me so mad.

A Voice Silenced: The Demand for Recognition of Indigenous Languages

Indian Crossword Across 1 Snow. Feminine. The act of snow falling to the ground. What should have been my sister’s name. 2 Grandmother. The relationship between an elder and child. My sisters and I call her this name, though the spelling may be wrong. 3 Language. Stripped from my Grandmother’s tongue— She teaches what she can recall. Forgetting our peoples’ history is worse than the pains of learning it. Down 4 Snow. Masculine. The act of snow falling to the ground. My sister’s middle name. Given for her winter birthday. Our grandmother gave the wrong version, but it’s still snow. Indian Crossword by Kyrié Eleison Owen ( The Nasiona )

When Copyright Transforms the Right to Remember

Broken Promises: How the U.S. and Canada Ignore Indigenous Peace Treaties in the Name of Tax and Land Control

first the so-called “scandinavian scarves” then the prada kolhapuri chhapal controversy, then the ralph lauren jhumka controversy at paris fashion week and now ralph lauren has the guts to sell bandhani skirt for $345. if yall have to whitewash indian culture to enjoy and appreciate it then i’d rather you not enjoy it at all.

To Want Culture Dead He had never been an insider so conformity had never been an issue. He had lived the entirety of his adult lifetime moving from one place to the other. A year here and a few years there. His childhood had been no different. He had been unsettled from a young age. No one place meant anymore to him than the other. He had learned from them all and found great value and meaning from those he had come close to on his journey. One curiosity had stayed with him throughout, the death of things; their longevity, their need to not be at peace, their need to favour disharmony and tension that led to breakdown and death. So he asked AI a question about the death of cultures and who or what took centre stage among such designs. Q) What organisation or person is so upset at belonging to a culture that they would rather it dead? A group or person who wants their own culture “dead” is almost never reacting to culture itself. It’s usually a reaction to pain, pressure, or contradiction from inside the culture. The impulse can come from several very different places, and each has its own logic. 🧩 1. Internalised shame or stigma This happens when someone has absorbed the message that their own culture is inferior, backward, embarrassing, or dangerous . It often appears in groups who have lived under: Colonial rule — where the dominant power teaches that the local culture is primitive. Assimilation pressure — where survival seems to require abandoning one’s roots. Class mobility anxiety — where cultural markers are seen as obstacles to “moving up”. In these cases, the desire to erase culture is really a desire to escape humiliation. 🔥 2. Revolutionary or ideological purists Some movements believe that the existing culture is corrupt, decadent, or compromised, and must be destroyed to build a new world. Examples include: Radical political movements that see tradition as an obstacle to liberation. Religious reformers who want to purge “impure” practices. Utopian ideologues who believe a new identity must replace the old one entirely. Here, the target is not the people but the symbolic order they inhabit. 🧊 3. People who feel betrayed by their own community Sometimes the impulse comes from deep personal hurt: Feeling excluded or shamed by one’s own group Being punished for non‑conformity Growing up with cultural norms that felt oppressive or violent The wish to see the culture “dead” is really a wish to stop being hurt by it. 🧱 4. Elites who benefit from cultural erasure This is less emotional and more strategic. Some organisations want their own culture gone because: It interferes with profit (e.g., local customs slowing down business). It interferes with control (e.g., strong communal bonds resisting authority). It interferes with branding (e.g., wanting a “modern” image). This is cultural self‑erasure as a management strategy. 🌪 5. People caught between two incompatible identities When someone feels they cannot be both things at once — for example, both modern and traditional, both local and global — they may resolve the tension by wanting one identity to disappear. It’s not hatred; it’s exhaustion. 🧭 The deeper pattern Across all these cases, the desire to kill one’s own culture is rarely about culture itself. It’s about: Pain Pressure Contradiction Survival strategies A longing for dignity or belonging Cultures don’t die because people stop caring; they die because people feel they cannot safely carry them anymore.

Why ‘Deep Cuts’ Should Replace Odessa A’zion With Another Jewish Actor | Commentary Odessa A’zion recently announced she would be backing out of an upcoming film based on the novel “Deep Cuts.” Apparently her casting in the role of Zoe Gutierrez generated some social media uproar due to the fact that the character is half-Mexican, while A’zion is not at all Mexican. TheWrap’s article on this story quoted a few of those complaining on X over A’zion’s casting: One said, “I can tell you right now there are thousands of beautiful, talented and passionate Mexican actors out there waiting for their big break … To see a white woman steal that opportunity in the current political climate is not only disgusting but also disheartening.” Another suggested Melissa Barrera* and Eiza Gonzalez as far better choices for the role, “over white girl Odessa A’zion,” since both are of Mexican descent. None of those quoted mentioned that, while the character is half-Mexican, the character is also half-Jewish. And Odessa A’zion is Jewish. Then, after A’zion backed out of the role, over 100 Latino creatives, including Eva Longoria and John Leguizamo, signed an open letter to Hollywood commending A’zion for exiting the project and condemning the system that cast her in the first place, saying it “exposed a troubling pattern.” I agree with many of the points that the letter makes about the need for better Latino representation in Hollywood. But regarding this particular case of the casting of “Deep Cuts,” the letter did not mention that the character is half-Jewish and that A’zion is Jewish. Why is the character’s Mexican half considered determinative, while her Jewish half is so inconsequential it doesn’t even bear mention? Why is a Mexican actor more qualified (or is it more deserving?) than a Jewish actor to play a half-Jewish, half-Mexican character? I am reminded of a similar incident that occurred with the character of Missy Foreman-Greenwald on Netflix’s “Big Mouth.” The character of Missy was half-Black and half-Jewish. She was voiced for three seasons by Jenny Slate (who is Jewish but not Black). In 2020, following the death of George Floyd, the role was recast with Ayo Edebiri (who is Black but not Jewish). Nick Kroll (the series’ co-creator and executive producer at the time) wrote on X (Twitter at the time): “We made a mistake, took our privilege for granted, and we are working hard to do better moving forward.” Why is it doing “better” to erase a character’s Jewish half in favor of her Black half? To be clear, I would have no problem if a Latina actress had been cast originally in “Deep Cuts,” or if Ayo Edebiri had been the original Missy in “Big Mouth.” I was even fine with Bradley Cooper playing Leonard Bernstein and Helen Mirren playing Golda Meir, since both actors gave powerful, layered performances honoring the legends they portrayed. But the original choices of both “Deep Cuts” and “Big Mouth” were Jewish actors. Both were chosen as the best actors to play the roles and, in the case of “Big Mouth,” the actor did play the role successfully for three seasons. Both actors were then replaced because “Jewish” does not count as an identity in Hollywood. (The Motion Picture Academy’s insistence on excluding Jewish identity in its DEI requirements is but another example, if one is needed.) I don’t know what went into A’zion’s decision to drop out of the project – whether she was pressured to do so by the film’s producers, was unable to stand up to the online criticism, or truly believes that a half-Mexican, half-Jewish character cannot be played by a non-Mexican Jewish actor. And I have sympathy for her as a young actor navigating the insanity of online vitriol. But the ball is now in the court of Sean Durkin, the director of “Deep Cuts,” and A24, the studio behind the project. They must recast the role. So I call on them to replace A’zion with another Jewish actor — not because the character’s Mexican half does not matter, but because, after initially casting A’zion, replacing her with a non-Jewish actor will send the clear message that the character’s Jewish half does not matter. Because when a Jewish actor is cast and then replaced solely because the character’s Jewish identity is deemed irrelevant, that is not progress, it is erasure. (*it’s notable to me that people were fine suggesting an actress to play a half-Jewish character who has been appallingly antisemitic and openly supportive of terrorist groups on her social media, but furious that a Jewish actress was cast. Jews really do not count.)

not what it’s about. not what Purim’s about. not what Chanukah is about. this is just a way to demonize the entirety of Jewish culture and Judaism. no :)

Asiaphobia is when my caretaker tells me that Mongolia is just another part of China at the end of the day??? Hello?

I feel like if the people of the past hadn’t been so busy trying to erase other people’s mythologies and cultures, we would actually have a better understanding of the world around us and a lot more to work with Because even if the people of the past didn’t have the same information that we have today, they did have experiences and they did have stories passed down for Generations And in those stories is a little bit of truth, whether it be truth of some sort of natural disaster, some truth of how the environment worked, or some truth about some sort of migration that their ancestors took There’s always a little bit of Truth to inspire mythologies, cultures, and traditions, a really good example is that the myth of some sort of great flood thay is very prevalent in a lot of myths and while different cultures have different reasoning for it and different ideas of why deities made the flood, the fact is there was a flood due to certain changes in the climate at one point in time that did have an impact on many many people across the world It just really pains me to know how much information we have lost and how much more knowledge we could’ve had and how many more educated guesses we could have if the people of the past had actually been focused on having any sort of knowledge and actually gave a damn about learning more and didn’t make it their entire life’s mission to wipe out every single culture that wasn’t theirs Not only that, but by erasing so many mythologies and traditions and cultures and making them near impossible to dig up or know for sure has really put the brakes on us being able to compare different cultures and their stories and their understanding of the world, because it is so nice to be able to research and compare and find these little nuggets of Truth or understanding that seem to be universally shared But we can’t fucking do that without difficulty because people back in the day were insane and instead of trying to understand anybody they just decided that if you weren’t like them you had to die or be absorbed into their culture as much as possible I am once again foaming at the mouth

why tf do americans keep calling my hometown (and other towns/countries) by the names the colonizers gave it? decades ago? I don’t know that place. I’ve never heard that word in my life. we don’t actually speak the language you’re using. check the road signs to see what it’s actually called. except sike bc private companies that bought out half the city and tore down monuments are using the settlers’ language and names instead, and I just have to watch my hometown get more gentrified every time I come back. it was never the immigrants. it was always the west-backed entities that never spelled our names right.

Reinstate Black History Month, Pride Month, and other cultural events! Google has removed notable cultural events that previously were automatically on their calendars, including Black History Month, Pride Month, Indigenous Peoples Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and Holocaust Remembrance Day. This is literal erasure. All of our communities deserve to be reflected and represented! Urge Google to reinstate and bring back cultural events NOW! Why is this important? Google’s quiet removal of cultural events from their calendars last year is part of a broader trend of tech companies and businesses catering to far-right and extreme groups by rolling back inclusivity and diversity. The removal of holidays has come under scrutiny following news reports that Google is also scaling back their diversity hiring goals in response to Donald Trump’s executive orders, and has already swiftly changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to appease Trump. We have to use our leverage to remind Google that they should be tailoring their company to meet the needs and demands of the public—NOT serving as a proxy for Trump or Republicans. Show Google that their customers value diversity and inclusivity. Demand the STOP rolling back inclusive policies and bring back the automatic cultural events calendar! [You can sign via the link.]

um??? should go without saying, but even if this only affected/referred to Israelis, it remains xenophobic, antisemitic, ahistorical (Jews are indigenous to the Levant!), and generally gross.