Stephanie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >
> Wade, you're going to love to hate this one....
>
> So, what we have here is a Native American young
> man who is graduating from school and decides to
> make a little nod to his native heritage by
> wearing a bolo tie. The school does not feel that
> his bolo TIE is a tie at all, withholds his
> diploma. Gee, did we just slip back a century or
> so in forcing native americans to conform again?

Eh, this is certainly cultural discrimination.... but I'm not so sure it's mainstream vs Native American type discimination.

Fact of the matter, for every Indian who has ever worn a bolo there are likely fifty or a hundred Whites who have done so.

This sounds more like snooty east coast vs the "western" two thirds of America.

> Graduation is one of the most important days for a
> young man/woman's early life. It's an
> achievement. I can completely understand why this
> young man would want to show his native
> pride--especially with some of the misconceptions
> and stereotypes there are out there.
>
> OY.
>
> Stephanie

Yep. And in this case, I'd suggest he try emailing a copy of this article to senators & congressmen from western states..... starting with Texas! Then send it to the White house, & ask the official "presidential" opinion as to whether a bolo tie counts as a "real" tie.

What do you want to bet that after a few dozen rankings politicos (or western raised corporate execs, or western raised alumni of that school) call up setting the record straight re bolo ties..... that the school would back down.

Heck, bolo's are the only ties I'll wear! I've even got two handed down from my grandfather!

Heh, maybe your family would appreciate the weirdness of one bolo tie I picked up at a quasi-pawn shop. It's a BEAUTIFULLY made Eagle Kachina.... all hand made & impressive looking as hell. The "weird" part is that instead of being silver & turquoise (which it looks), it's made of some type of pewter (??? heavy like lead, very soft metal, but never tarnishes???) with blue plastic "stones".

I paid $10 for it after disabusing the store owner of the notion that he could get away with "suggesting" to me that it was silver/turquoise.

And if it HAD been real materials, it would easily be worth $400 plus..... so what freaks me out is that it's obviously handmade. I can't imagine anybody putting that much effort into it using el cheapo materials.... when $15-$25 worth of decent materials would have resulted in a piece worth far, far more. Any thoughts?

Kenuchelover




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2005 01:32AM by kenuchelover.