And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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8 Mar 99 08:35:40 -0400
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Organization: The University of Michigan - Flint
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Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1999 08:35:19 EDT
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Subject: Re: Honey Magazine's premiere issue
A new publication, targeting a primary audience of African-Americans,
has premiered its magazine. This is evidently the second issue...the first
was
called the "preview issuse"...although the magazine is published 6 times a
year
so I don't understand the point of the "vanity" titles of premiere and
preview
and one has to wonder what they will call the rest of the issues.
Sorry...that's not even the point of this rant-and-rave. Honey magazine is
on the newstands and magazine racks in most drug stores and grocery stores.
The cover features a woman by the name of "Left Eye" Lopes who is wearing a
full-feathered war bonnet as an accessory to a very obviously American-Indian
rawhide-skinned-and fringed bikini design. This excessively offensive
photograph can be again found on other pages in the magazine. The "blurb" on
page 12 states, "Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes rocks an authentic Native American
headdress from the Lacotasu tribe and a swimsuit by Nicole Miller." Two more
photographs of the headdress appear in the magazine...one in the centerfold
photograph.
Contact information:
Editor: Jolcelyn Dingle & Kiema Mayo
Publisher: Dennis Page
President: Stanley Harris
1115 Broadway, New York, New York 10010
Telelphone: 1-212-807-7100
Fax: 212-807-7100
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
They do not yet have a web site. I cannot send copies of this cover and
subsequent photographs to everyone but please know that the use of this
headdress as an accessory to a bikini is so offensive.
Catherine Davids
Flint, Michigan
I will be sending them the following letter:
*************************************************
To:
Stanley Harris, Jocelyn Dingle, Kiema Mayo, & Dennis Page
From:
Catherine Davids, Michigan Representative
National Coalition on Racism in Sports & Media
Re: Spring 1999 issie of Honey magazine
Date:March 5, 1999
As an Eastern Cherokee woman I find the cover and subsequent photographs of a
traditional American Indian headdress used as a fashion accessory (to a
bikini)
to be patently offensive and a great dishonor to American Indian people and
to
our ancestors. The bikini has obviously been designed on traditional
American
Indian regalia and clothing. The model, "Left Eye" Lopes has her hand over
her
forehead looking out "over for buffalo" brainless stereotypical poses that
usually accompany somebody saying "how" instead of greetings or hello. The
cover is entitled "Pow Wow Power" and the intent and impact are all too
clear.
I for one do not appreciate our traditional Pow-Wows being reduced to a
sexual
definition. This is totally outrageous. A great disrespect at many levels.
It does not matter to me how you acquired the headdress.
These headdresses were not just made and worn by anyone. They had to be
earned
and the person wearing them garnered great respect for their wisdom and
knowledge. When we see warriors with headdresses we know that they have
achieved greatness in their lives. These headdresses are not casually passed
around or borrowed or lent out under any circumstances. For anyone to assume
and presume they can just wear a headdress is a great sacrilige. It is a
misappropriation of our culture...of our identity. The item has been used to
trivialize the very meaning of who our leaders and chiefs are and of the
great
importance they hold in our daily lives and in our hearts and minds from the
past. Please keep in mind that these headdresses are NOT called war
bonnets...thats another phony baloney Hollywood tradition of history to which
you have unfortunately subscribed. You support the tradition of everyone in
this country who feels that it is permissable to "play Indian" whether at
Halloween or Thanksgiving or in a movie or television program.
No American Indian woman would dress herself like this and yet you have
designed and created this fanciful look (perhaps from seeing too many Disney
movies) which only supports and adds to the disrespectful way that
mainstream society portrays us through sports teams mascots and corporate
icons.
That this has come from a minority based publication is of great concern to
me.
I urge you to quickly find yourselves a copy of Black Issues in Higher
Education (June 11, 1998) and read the article entitled "Plotting the
Assassination of Little Red Sambo." If that is not enough I urge you to
get a
copy of the documentary entitled "In Whose Honor" which has appeared on most
PBS stations. It is clear that your staff needs to be educated about the
devestating racism that American Indian people deal with every single day and
how these visual images and so-called clever play on words contribute to that
racism and stereotyping. Perhaps you should be looking back into history to
see how "minstrelesy" cartoons contributed to the "Little Black Sambo"
stereotype that still plagues African-American people.
Your magazine owes American Indian people a great apology. I urge you to
think
past your inherent freedoms of press and expression to consider that when
these
freedoms are used to objectify and dishonor an entire ethnic group of people
then what freedoms have you really cherished and shared. Freedom of the
press
means nothing when you use it to demean people and their traditions.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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