My NEW Taki’s column: The Tragically Hip and cultural appropriation

If the commenters can find “JOOOOZ!” in their breakfast cereal (as Jim Goad has put it) then I shouldn’t get my hopes to high this week, or any.

I do expect there will be more than the usual number of those peculiar fellows who are still convinced, like alt-universe barroom boors, that bragging about how stupid you are makes you look smart…

Now, remember: Cultural appropriation is bad.

Jewish guy Steven Spielberg had no business making The Color Purple, right? White girl Gwen Stefani was a bitch for wearing an Indian headdress? And why should this Halloween be different from any other? Disney is “under fire for ‘full body brownface’ Moana Halloween costume,” and it’s not even October.

So here’s my point:

Gord Downie is no more an Indian than “Grey Owl.” (And guess what? When I Googled “Grey Owl” to provide you with background, the Historica page presented me with a pop-up about…Downie’s new project!)

Surely the proprietors of Indian, Inc.—the chiefs whose annual salaries are, in some cases, higher than the prime minister’s (with the added bonus of being tax-free)—are denouncing this presumptuous, pretentious, pale-faced “rock star’s” white privilege, eh? How dare he write about one of their own?

Ha, no.