yesterday hubby and i decided to go to the International Festival here in our uptown(we're special, so it's uptown, not downtown).

Now we have lots of people from all over the world who live here but we should have known things weren't as good as we hoped they'd be when we went to the beers of the world tent...miller light, bud light, corona and henieken. excuse me? i could go to any Food Lion for those. i mean, damn, they have a better international stock at the wine vault just down the street.

there were only a few booths with people selling things. one from equador, senegal, and a native american booth. being a cynic, i had to wonder how many items were made in taiwan.

now just let me rant on that a sec, and i'm sure it's all gonna come across as so NOT politically correct.

in the "native american" booth were three black people. none were wearing native dress, save maybe for a feather in their hair. they had lovely names like snowy dove, dark eagle...and, for three bucks, you could have your picture taken with them. yep, that's right. most native americans have been fighting against exploitation of themselves and their culture, yet these three people would gladly prostitute themselves to make a buck.

listen, i grew up in oklahoma and arkansas. i lived most of my life 50 miles from the seat of the cherokee nation. they may put on cultural shows, demonstrating their ancient dances, dress, and way of life,(actually, they have tsi la gi, the story of the trail of tears and a recreation of a cherokee village to show how life back then was) but they wouldn't put up a booth and charge you money to "have your picture taken with a real life indian!" besides, i'm thinking these three only had a few drops of indian blood in them. and most of the true native american's i've met in my life have names like Betty, Richard, Lester or Kathy and they don't exploit their heritage.

course, it only takes 1/16 to be a member of the cherokee nation...but it seems those with the least amount, seem to flaunt it the most.

what's wrong with liking yourself as a whole? not picking one piece of your heritage over another? but i guess that wouldn't make them "special" and then they'd be just another Joe, like me and you.