i-was-a-dragon:

candycoatedracism:

An angsty post about cultural appropriation towards pagans

No it is not. Not even close.

Up top: The Ouija board is a board game that was invented in 1890, not a religious or cultural matter of any kind. It is so new, that it is actually currently patented by Hasbro, which is why most versions you see don’t actually say Ouija on them. The mystical history of the ouija board was pretty much invented out of whole cloth by its creators, and even if they were true, their version of events is actually cultural appropriation from the chinese, so no, there is literally nothing that a white pagan could legitimately be upset about in the use of the Ouija board in jewelry and nailart.

The five-pointed-star is a symbol that has been so widely used in history, it’s current ‘wicca’ meaning is actually the odd man out, here. Using it as a protective symbol is within it’s historical uses, and if it were in fact being misused in these images it is not being used in a way that is causing you harm.

But the biggest difference is that the pictures on the bottom? They’re part of an ongoing problem in american culture. Seeing a pagan symbol used in a way you don’t agree with may be upsetting, but native people are so marginalized and fetishized that some people believe they are imaginary. Native women suffer outrageous statistics or rape, violence, and murder. The projected lifespan of a native person is drastically shorter than that of a white person due to outside factors. Asian women in the US are seen as a fetish and ‘geisha dolls’, while the men are considered a joke. Blacks in the US are unjustly incarcerated, murdered with impunity, and suffer levels of violence and discrimination I’m only just beginning to understand.

So unless the Ouija board and Supernatural are causing genocide and rape, do not compare the two. It’s okay to be upset about something, but do not claim that misplaced anger is even close to the legitimate anger the bottom images should cause.