420+College Students=Cultural Appropriation

Do you all know what 4/20 is? I’m assuming that my college student readers do, but for anyone who doesn’t, 4/20 is National Pot Smoking Day. Here in Santa Cruz, or Stoner Cruz, 4/20 is a really big deal, and all the UCSC students come up to campus to a specific field to smoke. There are so many people that come that the school shuts down the buses to that side of campus in an attempt to control it. Either way, hundreds of people gather in this field and at 4:20 you can see a huge cloud of smoke rise up out of it.

This April was my first 4/20. I decided to go as a photographer, and of course, while I was there, I saw a blog post forming in my head! I was stricken by the images of native american culture in that field. Why do people associate marijuana with Native Americans? Why do they think that this is ok? What do you think?

My favorite of these: this guy on the drum was stonely wailing as he drummed away next to his big stick, and people danced around him.

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11. May 2011 by Juliana
Categories: Race | Tags: , , , | 1 comment

  • http://damarispalmer@gmail.com Damaris @Kitchen Corners

    weird. you and christian should have a conversation about this. he loves analyzing “nativism” (is that even a term?).