blackmagicalgirlmisandry:

This is West Indian culture, celebrating our heritage and our country of origin.

A post has been circulating on tumblr accusing Nicki Minaj of appropriating (Plains) Native American and First Nations tradition by wearing a feather crown in her new tour promo. The OP has apologized but since some people won’t do their research or let this go I made this post.

This is a very small collection of a variety of feather headdresses that are worn during carnival season in Trinidad, Tobago, Jamaica, Haiti, Canada, and the US. The style of each carnival crown varies depending on the carnival season, the different themes for each island, the individual designer who creates the crown, and the colors representing the flag of each island. Nicki has done some racist and insensitive things in her career, but celebrating her culture is not appropriation, especially when this promo is put into the context that carnival is only a few months away in the Caribbean. Carnival crowns and headdresses look somewhat similar to war bonnets only because they are designed to celebrate the Native and African roots of West Indian nations. Carnival crowns =/= war bonnets, seriously people just do your research before you speak on things that you have no understanding of.