Cultural Appropriation | Misappropriations and The ManKind Project

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Greetings, and welcome to real
men field.

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I'm your host Andy Grant.
I'm a coach author speaker.

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And healer, please visit v&e
Grant.com to learn more about

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that right now.
I should be volunteering at a

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new Warrior training Adventure.
It's a weekend event run by the

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mankind project.
But a couple weeks ago, October

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11th to be exact, it was
canceled by mkp USA.

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All the planned new Warrior
training Adventures NW Tas were

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canceled in the United States,
for the rest of 2022.

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The cancellations were due to
charges of cultural

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appropriation from a group of
Native American Elders, called

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spirit.
Now, since I have talked about

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and recommended the nwt a often
on this show and just two

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episodes ago, episode 275
regular guy chat with Ken, my

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guests can shared his excitement
about going to this weekend, the

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one that should be happening
right now because of all that I

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felt it was important to address
this.

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I had considered doing a panel
of men coming together or

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finding an expert on cultural
appropriation.

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But in the End, I decided to
share what I'm struggling with

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because whenever I do that, I
always find that other people

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are feeling the same way, okay?
But first off, let me clarify,

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that I am a middle-aged white
American.

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I have no insight into what it
means to be Native American or

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any other race or culture for
that matter.

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I'm sharing my opinions and
asking questions.

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I'm not representing any other
individual or group.

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And perhaps most importantly,
I'm willing to be wrong about

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everything that I think I know.
When I discovered that all nwt

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A's were canceled, I was shocked
disappointed and hurt my nwt.

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A was a phenomenal growth
experience for me.

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It was back in October of 2016.
Now there were a lots of Native

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American ritual and ceremony and
it was presented very

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respectfully, and honoring where
they came from and getting full

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acknowledgement.
It was stressed, how much

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training the mankind Men had
with the Lakota people to learn,

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what would be doing?
After hearing the cancellation

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news, my first thought was that
all I had been told that my nwt

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a was a lie or perhaps all the
details of training in the

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handing down from tribes wasn't
accurate everywhere across the

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country.
I thought cultural appropriation

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meant taking something from
another culture and claiming it

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as your own mkp.
Never did that in anything that

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I was involved.
Nobody and mkp claimed to have

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invented the sweat lodge or any
other rituals that I took pardon

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and the sweat lodge seems to be
the main point of contention but

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it is just one of many different
events that make up the entire

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nwt a weekend.
And my brief research found that

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many cultures have used, sweat
lodges for purification,

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healing, and relaxation, and
most commonly known are the

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Native Americans but also the
Mayans, the Aztecs and across

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Europe.
As early as the 5th Century.

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This proof of sweat lodges Now,
in mkp statement about the

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cancellation said, a public
campaign against the mankind

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project, over concerns about
cultural appropriation launched

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in the evening of October 6th
2022.

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One aspect of the campaign
encourages public protests at

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nwt a locations across the
country.

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The locations of our events are
published after assessing the

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content on the website.
It became apparent that to

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proceed would put mkp
participants and volunteers at

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risk.
So the events will cancelled out

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of concern of clashes of
protests of making me, you know,

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what should be a really peaceful
support of space, not that at

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all.
So, you know how to unpack this,

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I thought, well, let's start
with a definition of cultural

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appropriation.
And this is really the first

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challenge that there's no legal
definition.

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This is one is one no definition
that everybody agrees to because

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this is not a crime, right?
It's a relatively.

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Recent term in society.
But here's ago, his, the most

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General thing I could find
cultural appropriation, is the

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inappropriate or unacknowledged
adoption of an element or

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elements of one culture or
identity by members of another

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culture, or identity.
This can be controversial when

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members of a dominant culture
appropriate from Minority

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cultures.
So appropriate is just to take

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it right to take it and claim it
as yours, which is kind of what

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I thought.
But again I thought cultural

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appropriation was An issue.
If I said now we're going to do

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the ceremony which comes from
the Eskimo people that I met in

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2025, you know, whatever it is.
But so mkp is now kind of on

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pause with these weekend events
and their attempted to create a

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healthy inclusive.
Way to handle the processes of

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the weekend and be respectful to
indigenous people.

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So threatened with lawsuits and
protest mkp USA canceled the

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weekend trainings until everyone
had more clarity of how to move

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forward so the good so good can
come out of this.

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I by hope but Spirit or claims
that mkp has not received

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permission properly from
indigenous tribes, the native

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people who did gift mkp what
they've been doing for 30 years.

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Spirit says it wasn't valid so
they write all their all at an

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impasse So approximately thirty
years ago, a Native American

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leader taught mankind project
Representatives, how to properly

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do a sweat lodge.
And, you know, there was a

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handing down there was a
teaching, but this organization

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today says that that person was
not a tribe leader and that they

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are the tribal leaders who only
can decide to do that and they

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wanted to stop.
So that's that's the big

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sticking point.
Now, hopefully this will all

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lead to an even better and WT
experience for everyone in the

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future.
But you know my biggest concern

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was not for me, not volunteering
this weekend but it was for the

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men who are going to come step
forward because, you know, this

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being in the news, this being
kind of a controversy, it puts

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a, you know, it definitely puts
a shadow across the whole event.

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And when I did the weekend, I
had no idea a sweat lodge was

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part of it.
You just go, you know, you kind

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of go in blindly and, and step
into the unknown.

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Phone and all that fear that
brings up.

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And you know just this this
culture Clash is just one of

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those fears that had not even
crossed my mind but America is a

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Melting Pot of hundreds of
cultures borrowing from other

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cultures is it's inevitable and
I think it can be positive to

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me, it's the evolution of
society.

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But it seems to me that so many
people feel some level of

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entitlement to never be
offended.

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And that's a big problem we have
today. you know, there were so

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many just silly questions and
some have obvious answers but

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Major League Baseball and the
NFL have only recently gotten

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rid of old bigoted names and
mascot images things that

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perpetuated negative stereotypes
and poured salt into Old Wounds.

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So you know as a society we're
moving forward, we're healing.

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But but again if if you're a
member of that hurt culture, if

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you were part of the people that
Society has been hurting and

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stepping on, I'm sure it all.
Seems like way too little and

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way too late.
I get that Centuries ago, people

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came to North America and saw
natives as less than them.

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The letter from spiritwood,
which I will link to everything,

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I'm referencing will be linked
in the show notes that letter

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from spirit, makes it clear that
native people are still hurting

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Now, to me mkp has been trying
to honor the native practices

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they use.
But it was not seen that way by

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all Native leaders.
Now, I'm recording this a couple

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days from Halloween and each
year, it seems that there are

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more costumes accused of
cultural appropriation and you

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know the wrong outfit can have
you called a racist and you

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know, to me it boy.
It just all seems like it's an

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attack on imagination and play,
but but again I recognize and

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know that I speak from a place
of privilege.

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So I could be wrong about
everything.

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I think that's okay.
We're all the growth is the

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point of this.
Conversation with myself and

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hopefully hopefully it triggers
some other conversations out

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there.
You have trying to clarify,

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cultural appropriation, can be a
maddening never-ending debate.

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In closing, I'll share
something.

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A friend of mine said, regarding
the mkp cancellations, there is

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no culture or ritual.
That is not derivative of

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others, but the white man is the
face of the Predator to so many

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other cultures, Hearing that
really helped me see?

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This from a different
perspective and and imagine the

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the decades, the centuries of
Oppression and another man said

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you can do the right thing and
still have it be the wrong

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thing.
And that can be a really

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uncomfortable challenging place
to be.

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So cultural appropriation, it's
confusing, it's blurry.

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I still don't get it.
If you get it and would like to

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educate me.
I'm glad to talk to you on a

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show or just privately if that's
what you prefer.

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Wherever you are discovering
real men feel please like

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subscribe, follow, comment,
share and until next time be

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good to yourself.