Chief of Cherokee Nation wants Jeep to stop using tribe’s name

[ThatRobGuy]

I'm talking about commercial branding of specific products. Generic names for food items arise organically in the culture, and thats fine. But taking a peoples name to brand your own private product.... no.

That still leaves us with a lot of names that are going to have to be changed...and I feel like ignoring context leads to messiness, and who gets to decide which groups are afforded that "protection" of never having their group identity used in a name?

Obviously isn't not just as simple as "circumstances of birth vs. circumstances of choice", because I assume people would have the same complaints about religious names being used.

So who gets to decide which "group affiliations" get to be "important enough" to require "naming protection"?

For instance, hair color is a circumstance of birth...suppose a group of Blonde people feel that they don't want things named after their hair color, should no brand be able to use the word blonde in the name?

It gets even messier if a person (who's a part of that group) founds a company/brand with a name reflecting their own culture (out of appreciation for their own culture), but then when they retire and hand the company over to someone else who may not be, does the company have to change its name at that point?

Cultural appropriation can be bad, but personally I err on the permissive side. Thats a whole other, but related, topic.

Unless it's an attempt to mock, I don't see how anyone views appropriation as a bad thing.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... as the old saying goes.




To me, the things I find to be more "insulting" (in tone) than cars being named after indigenous tribes, are things like this, which I would refer to as "Soft Bigotry"

An organization called "Hip Hop Health", who's CEO is a white lady, and a board comprised of mostly (middle-aged to old) white guys, who are basically implying that "the way to reach out to black kids to make them aware that the vaccine is safe is rap music!"

I can see the board meeting in my mind now like some sort of satirical comedy sketch.

(actual board member)

James Whitehead: "We understand your community has some concerns about the vaccines due to the fact that government has mislead the black community before with regards to medical treatments...but why don't you cool cats listen to this totally fresh jam we made about how dope the vaccine is, and how you can get back to kicking it with your homeys after you take it! I think we'd all be totally down with that, am I right gang?!?!

 

[durangodawood]

....So who gets to decide which "group affiliations" get to be "important enough" to require "naming protection"?....

The company ownership decides, factoring in public pressure and changing cultural norms. I'm not advocating any govt coercion here.

 

[Kenny'sID]

I wonder how many of the folks taking an uncharitable view of the Chief actually bothered to read the article in the OP rather than just the headline.

Why don't you tell us what you think we missed? As it is, your commrnt means very little.

 

[cow451]

The Washington Lobbyists.
The Washington Monuments.
The DC Universe.
The Washington Two Hundred Dollar Lunches.

The Washington Orange Heads

 

[Aussie Pete]

Why would that give him more credibility?