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Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour, a member of the Tk'emlúps Tes Secwépemc Indian band, went Halloween shopping recently with his sister and nieces at a mall in Kamloops, B.C., and saw costumes with names such as "Chief Many Feathers."
He complained to the store and posted photos of the costumes on Facebook.
He said his initial reaction to the costumes was that it made for "an awkward conversation to have with your children and nieces and nephews."
"I think we need to be thinking critically about selling these culturally appropriative and racist costumes," he said.
McNeil-Seymour said the symbolism of buying and putting on the costume of an indigenous person for a night can be troubling, especially in light of how First Nations people are viewed in Canada and some of the issues they are facing, such as the troubling cases of murdered and missing women.
"If we look at these costumes as a metaphor, so to speak … here are people going out and purchasing these cheap plastic costumes, and they're for a one-time use, and they're easily disposed of afterwards," he said.
McNeil-Seymour, a sessional instructor at Thompson Rivers University, said it's surprising to see how little some of his students know about the colonial history of Canada, including topics such as residential schools.
"The fact that this is the first time in their educational history that they're being taught these topics — at the university level — is really problematic," he said.
He says a lack of education across Canada about these issues could be the reason he sees so many people in comments on news websites and on his own Facebook page defending the right to wear Indian costumes and telling those who complain to "get over it."
McNeil-Seymour says most people understand that blackface has a racist history in American theatre and that painting yourself up as a black person isn't acceptable.
But many people still don't appreciate how offensive dressing in an Indian costume can be, he said.
"It's really funny when non-native persons will be all over, for instance, the blackface issue, but then, in another instance will be defending their right to be culturally appropriative and racist by wearing an indigenous-inspired costume," he said.
McNeil-Seymour says he has confronted people wearing headdresses at Halloween parties in the past.
"It is a really difficult discussion to have because obviously the person wearing the costume still is really invested in not hearing what you have to say," he said. "It's hard to approach that subject in a good and meaningful way because, typically, tensions usually flare in that moment."
He said posting photos of the costumes in the store and discussing the issue on social media can be more productive.
"I think that social media is a wonderful tool to be able to collectively address these issues. I think there is a lot of power in going public with these things."
"It really comes down to the person or persons of said culture," he said.
"If they say no, then no."
The Cincinnati Bearcats are 7-1 and Navy is 2-6 entering Saturday's football game at Nippert Stadium, with UC a 13 ½-point favorite. Still, memories remain harsh from last year's 42-32 win by the Midshipmen in Annapolis, Maryland.
UC allowed a program record 569 rushing yards to Navy's triple-option offense last season, while the Bearcats rushed for only 58 themselves. The service academies use the triple-option to help level the playing field, but it was mostly anything but when the two teams met last season.
Most college defenses rarely face the triple-option. The Bearcats admittedly were caught off guard by the speed and tempo at which Navy ran its offense.
"Last year it was a lot of guys' first time going against an offense where things just kind of hit us fast," said UC senior Malik Clements, a starter at the hybrid safety/linebacker position. "It kind of progressed. By the second half, it was already too late."
With more film from both last year and this season, UC feels more prepared.
"I feel we've got a good concept this year," Clements said. "I feel real comfortable with the scheme the coaches are preparing for us."
What is the secret to containing the triple-option?
"Basically just reading your keys and staying disciplined," Clements said. "They try to do a lot of movement. You try to just make sure you do your role."
This time, UC is catching Navy in a rare downward spiral. The Midshipmen have lost five straight games for the first time since 2011, and must win their final four games to qualify for a bowl for the seventh consecutive year. Navy has been to a bowl game in 14 of the last 15 seasons.
One reason Navy is down is its youth. The Midshipmen returned only four starters on offense and four on defense this year. The offensive running game ranks No. 3 nationally, which is not unusual. The passing offense is 128th, also not unusual since Navy rarely throws. But, Navy ranks only 109th nationally in scoring defense.
"They were a little bit older last year on their defense, maybe a little bit more man coverage," UC coach Luke Fickell said. "This year you see the youth, maybe, but they still give you fits. You see different techniques and they can give you some anxiety up front. They're still going to be multiple at what they do, playing some three-man (fronts) and some four-man."
Navy junior running back Malcolm Perry averages 107.9 yards rushing per game and has seven touchdowns. Perry rushed for 100 yards and a TD against UC last year.
Senior quarterback Zach Abey, who burned UC for 128 yards rushing and two TDs last year, is now the short-yardage QB and has a team-high 10 rushing TDs on only 25 carries. Senior Garret Lewis has started the last three games at quarterback, having thrown for 398 yards and two TDs with two interceptions.
"You've got the same type of offense and the same coach (Ken Niumatalolo) and a lot of the same things," Fickell said. "Still, you've got to study history in order to not repeat it. What they did what they did last year, it doesn't have a bearing on this year. I don't know what their record is, to be honest with you. There's some things you can throw out, but there will be some similar things this year to what we saw last year."
Fickell said the Navy offense is so rarely seen that his team occasionally spent time working against it in spring, summer and fall camps. And of course, that will be the focus this week.
"The main thing for us is to try to simulate it the best we can, the speed and the tempo," Fickell said. "Navy can override some of the momentum of things because of the type of kids they have, the maturity they have. Obviously this is maybe not the first thing for them, with the military and the things that they're doing.
"I don't care if they won their last four games or lost their last four games, you're gonna get the best effort they have. I don't think you can worry about the record, with the kind of kids they have and the kind of program they have."
NOTEWORTHY: This will be Navy's first football trip to Cincinnati. Navy holds a 3-0 lead in the all-time series.
UC is back home for the first time in nearly a month, with a bye week followed by games at Temple (24-17 overtime loss) and last Saturday at SMU (26-20 overtime win). UC will play three November home games for the first time in nine years.
CONNECTIONS: Navy has six Ohio natives on its roster, including senior linebacker Matt Stewart (Mason High School) and sophomore cornerback Micah Farrar (St. Xavier HS).
Two-way end Ron Beagle (Purcell High School, which later became Purcell Marian) was a two-time, first-team All-American and received the Maxwell Trophy in 1954.
Quarterback Roger Staubach, also from Purcell, won the 1963 Heisman Trophy and became a Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback with the Dallas Cowboys.
Running back Napoleon McCallum (Milford), who became Navy's career all-purpose yardage leader in the 1980s.
George Ryan, the former governor of Illinois who drew international notice by emptying his state’s death row, was convicted today of all charges brought against him in a sweeping federal corruption case.
After more than five months of sometimes complicated testimony in his federal case, and after weeks of still more tangled deliberations, a jury convicted Mr. Ryan, a Republican, of granting state business to associates in exchange for cash and presents for himself, his family and for his friends.
Mr. Ryan, who served one term as governor until 2003 and as the secretary of state before that, had been seen as an old-fashioned Illinois politician, more dealmaker, complete with cigar and a cocktail, than ideologue. In its way, then, his case seemed to put this state’s brand of politics on trial, asking jurors to do the difficult work of drawing a firm line between what was a crime and what was just another day in Springfield.
Perhaps one day the voters will actually wisen up a bit and quit voting Republican and Democrat so we can put some Greens and Libertarians in jail, too.
Okay, Stephen, you’ve convinced me to support the Zeese fusion campaign. Vote for our guy and we’ll help you convict him!
this is a little sad, as Ryan commuted the death sentences of everyone on death row in Ill. because of all the people getting exonerated by DNA evidence.
SONG FOR CHRISTMAS: Which school has topped our festive chart?
The countdown to Christmas is really underway now, with only two more days until the big event arrives.
We’ve loved watching the entries into our Song for Christmas competition, sponsored by Harveys of Halifax, and thought we would come up with our very own festive chart.
We’re delighted to announce that this year’s Christmas number one is Bradshaw Primary School, whose video was viewed the most by visitors to our website.
Remember, this is just for fun and your votes still count. The overall winner will be decided through a coupon vote in the paper.
Egypt’s Lesson — HURTING PEOPLE IS WRONG!!!!!
Seemingly emboldened by events in Tunisia and Egypt, there are reports about calls for anti- government rallies.
One cannot predict at the moment what sort of democracy Egypt will produce or even that it may not be taken over by a military junta.
But I am incurably optimistic here. The rebellion has happened and will most likely stimulate others such as that intimated by Al Jazeera in Iran. The log jam of petty tyrannies running many Muslim and African countries has been broken — and with the internet there is no putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. As soon as enough people have been educated in a nation, they will break the backs of its tyrants. We no longer live in a cold war world. Nations will be judged by their treatment of their own and others in need and not their military prowess.
Praise Allah that we have a president who cares about the well-being of people! Even the greediest of CEOs will feel this pressure as people speak out. I am proud to be an American who believes that we can always fix things if we work at it. And I think the brave Egyptians have shown us the way!
2 users commented in " Egypt’s Lesson — HURTING PEOPLE IS WRONG!!!!! "
Obama is not doing a thing, right or wrong.
It’s the people, and Global voices website says Arab bloggers have a timetable for revolution.
Iran (which is not Arab, of course) is having their demonstration today, the question is if the moderate leaders who requested the demonstration,will join in or will be arrested by the government.
Finally, Mubarak Stepped down, Now wait and watch for general election.
Once seen as uneducated thugs, the Taliban are producing dangerous new fighters who use the latest digital technology to plan and publicize attacks against NATO and Afghan forces, analysts say.
The militants recently released a video of a June 1 attack on a U.S. military base in the eastern province of Khost, on the border with Pakistan, showcasing far more developed techniques to plan the assault than previously thought.
The footage shows the fighters, in military uniforms, being briefed by their commander using a model and satellite images of the target, Forward Operating Base Salerno.
"First, we do this operation for God's sake, second may God accept this (attack) as revenge for the burning of the Koran in Bagram," the commander tells the fighters.
"We will do our best to avoid civilian casualties," he says after he explains to his men how they should enter the camp.
A huge truck bomb is seen destroying the entrance to the facility, before an assault force enters the base to carry out the second phase of the attack -- wearing U.S. military uniforms, according to the U.S.-based company IntelCenter.
The blast and fighting that followed were filmed from at least three angles, showing the militants' multiple observation points -- and their desire to produce a slick video afterward for propaganda purposes.
Analysts say such organized and complex attacks generate more publicity, require fewer fighters and give the insurgents the appearance of being stronger than they may actually be.
"Maybe in some cases they only want the media impact. On other occasions, we say to ourselves that it looks really serious. These videos show that they have real skills and technical knowledge," a Western official told AFP.
The film of the Khost attack was first obtained by Al-Jazeera but later posted on the Taliban's Voice of Jihad website.
"Far from showing a Taliban force weakened and on the ropes, the video is a clear reminder that the Taliban maintains the ability to prepare and execute large-scale attacks," wrote IntelCenter, which monitors jihadist websites.
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, almost all electronic products were outlawed as un-Islamic. Photographs of living things were illegal, and ownership of a video player could lead to a public lashing.
But now technology plays an essential role in the militants' reshaped strategy, with carefully planned surprise attacks in places that previously were spared heavy assaults, said analyst Waheed Wafa.
"Five years ago, for instance, the Taliban would attack in hundreds, mostly in remote towns. But now, 10 fighters can do an even better job in sophisticated attacks in big cities," he said.
"The Taliban also want to show that they are very clean, organized and high-tech, and that comes whenever a party in conflict feels that it has a chance to come back to power."
Afghan writer and analyst Waheed Mujda, a former official in the Taliban regime, added: "It is a new generation of Taliban, they are very high-tech and that is because they face a high-tech army as their enemy.
"They use GPS, they use Google Maps, they use cameras and almost every digital age technology. They can inflict more casualties on their enemy if their attacks are well planned."
NATO's U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the Afghan interior ministry dismissed the video as a propaganda stunt.
It is "simply an attempt by the insurgents to sensationalize this action," ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Guenter Katz told AFP.
"What this video really shows is the insurgents' selfish efforts to recruit and propagandize more young men to needlessly die for a failed cause."
An ISAF spokesman said one U.S. soldier and an Afghan civilian working on the base were killed in the attack, more than 10 American soldiers were seriously wounded and about 115 were slightly hurt.
Two buildings were damaged, including the dining room, and 14 insurgents were killed.
Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi dismissed the video as propaganda and said it would not demoralize ordinary Afghans.
But he told AFP: "It also raises questions where they got all that training and how they obtained about 10 tons of explosives."
Home » Blogs » Big Picture Parenting » When is Anger at Children Healthy?
Burning with rage at our children is a nearly universal experience, and yet it is one that most moms feel great shame and remorse about. It is frightening to find ourselves capable of wrath and perhaps even violent impulses toward those whom we love so greatly. Could it be okay or possibly even important to feel fiery, hot anger toward our kids?
Jung’s concept of the archetype can be helpful in allowing us to come to terms with this dark side of ourselves. Jung posited that there are inborn patterns that precede experience, priming us to respond to certain experiences or images. He called these patterns archetypes, and always stressed that an encounter with archetypal energy will leave our conscious personality feeling dwarfed. According to Jung, the archetype of the Great Mother is one of the big ones – turning up eternally in art, myth, and dreams. Archetypes, importantly, always have two poles, a positive and a negative one, and one pole cannot exist without the other. When the positive aspect of the mother archetype gets constellated, the negative aspect is never very far away.
This makes a lot of sense in practical terms. When we become a mother, we fall deeply in love with our child. We feel protective, maternal, and nurturing. But it is precisely because we love our child so deeply that we can feel such depths of rage and frustration toward him or her. Then for a moment, we may embody the dark aspect of the archetype – the Negative Mother.
While most images of the archetype in Western culture show the positive and negative aspects split and personified by different mythological figures, other cultures have retained both poles of the archetype in one image. In Hindu mythology, Kali is both the giver and taker of life, she who gives birth to new life, but is also capable of devouring her offspring.
We all have both potentials within us, and it can be frightening and confusing to get in touch with our potential for rage and darkness. Verbal abuse can be very damaging, as our children are likely to take in the negative things we say to them, and those thoughts may become part of their self-concept. But is our anger always negative? I think not.
There are many possible benefits to our children experiencing us as capable of anger at times, and I aim to explore some of these in upcoming blog posts. To start, what might it look like if we never got angry with our child? Would that be a good thing?
When my daughter was four, I befriended Beth, who also had a four-year-old daughter named Mindi. Beth was a very thoughtful and intelligent person who herself had been subjected to much abusive treatment as a child by a raging, alcoholic father. She confided in me that she had felt very damaged by this, and had sworn when she became pregnant that she would never speak harshly to her child. She told me about the tremendous self-restraint she had cultivated in order to keep this promise to herself.
One day, my daughter and I were visiting Beth and Mindi at their home. While my daughter and Mindi were playing, Beth went upstairs for a moment. With her mother was out of sight, Mindi pushed my daughter, knocking her down. I witnessed the incident quite clearly. Mindi’s aggression was entirely unprovoked, as far as I could tell. My daughter began crying. “It’s not okay to push someone, Mindi,” I said, while tending to my daughter. At that moment, Beth returned. “Mindi doesn’t push,” she answered me, matter of factly. I was quite flummoxed and wasn’t sure what to say.
It was clear that Beth genuinely believed that her daughter was incapable of aggression. It was as if she had so effectively cut herself off from her own aggression that she could not imagine it to exist in her child. Anger had been so effectively banished from consciousness in this family that it was free to roam unchecked in the unconscious, behind mom’s back, as it were. It struck me that Mindi was not being helped by having her aggressiveness erased so completely. She never got to see her mother angry, and therefore never learned that anger can be normal and healthy, or that people can survive being angry at one another.
There was a poor but good little girl who lived alone with her mother, and they no longer had anything to eat. So the child went into the forest, and there an aged woman met her who was aware of her sorrow, and presented her with a little pot, which when she said, “Cook, little pot, cook,” would cook good, sweet porridge, and when she said, “Stop, little pot,” it ceased to cook. The girl took the pot home to her mother, and now they were freed from their poverty and hunger, and ate sweet porridge as often as they chose. Once on a time when the girl had gone out, her mother said, “Cook, little pot, cook.” And it did cook and she ate till she was satisfied, and then she wanted the pot to stop cooking, but did not know the word. So it went on cooking and the porridge rose over the edge, and still it cooked on until the kitchen and whole house were full, and then the next house, and then the whole street, just as if it wanted to satisfy the hunger of the whole world, and there was the greatest distress, but no one knew how to stop it. At last when only one single house remained, the child came home and just said, “Stop, little pot,” and it stopped and gave up cooking, and whosoever wished to return to the town had to eat his way back.
This is a story of a mother who is “too much of a good thing.” It hints at how destructive and dangerous that can be. The mother in this story doesn’t know how to say “stop,” and as such the sweet porridge threatens the whole town. It is anger that helps us to find our “no,” that helps us put our foot down and put an end to that which doesn’t serve us or is destructive.
It is perhaps not a coincidence that the destructive action in the story involves a pot that is boiling over. Beth could not allow her own anger into her relationship with her daughter. Where did it go? Perhaps it boiled over in sweetness, filling the room with a sticky ooze that doesn’t leave room to breathe. Beth was unable to say “no” to Mindi’s inappropriate aggression, and therefore her daughter was not getting help in learning to contain these impulses. Some anger on Beth’s part would likely have helped Mindi to metabolize her own entirely normal hostility, which likely would have felt relieving to the child.
Soon after this incident, I found my own “no,” and stopped spending time with Beth and Mindi. Though I appreciated Beth’s intelligence and depth, I wasn’t willing let my daughter become a victim to the over-flowing sweet porridge that ruled the psychological dynamic in her home.

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