Cultural Etiquette: A Guide for the Well-Intentioned

By Amoja Three Rivers

"This guide is to help people avoid some of the obvious as well as not so obvious pitfalls of unwitting racism and anti-Semitism."

Amoja Three Rivers' "Cultural Etiquette: A Guide for the Well-Intentioned," originally published in 1990 and "slightly revised" in 1991, was intended as an antidote to the poison of microaggressions committed by people of all racial and ethnic groups in writing and thinking about as well as speaking and interacting with Black/Indigenous/People of Color and Jewish people. Long before Franchesca Ramsey's "Sh#t White Girls Say to Black Girls" YouTube video and all the videos and blogs that grew from it, "Cultural Etiquette" was a thoughtful, witty account of the things no one should say to members of racial and ethnic groups subjected to systemic oppression in the United States, with chapter headings such as "What Is Ethnocentrism and What Should I Take For It?" and "Just Don’t Do This. Okay?"

This ebook edition is authorized by the next-of-kin of the late Amoja Three Rivers and is published by the author's designated custodian of her writings. It preserves all of Three Rivers' words with only tiny changes in punctuation, spelling corrections and formatting necessary for an ebook.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephani Maari Booker
• Release date: Aug 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463393147

Amoja Three Rivers

Amoja Three Rivers (1946-2015) described herself as "an american-born African, Choctaw, Tsalagi, Ojibway Jew." For decades she was a tireless activist, theorist, and teacher who lived and advocated for intersectionality in anti-oppression action and thinking long before it was fashionable. Three Rivers was one of the founders of the Womyn of Colour Tent and Sanctuary at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, an international feminist music festival held every August for four decades. In 1990, she published "Cultural Etiquette: A Guide for the Well-Intentioned" through Market Wimmin, a womanist business she co-founded. The book was revised in 1991. Over the years, she continued to self-publish and sell the book as she was able financially and as challenges to her health allowed. After attending and being honored at the last Michigan Womyn's Music Festival in 2015, Amoja Three Rivers died from a sudden and brief illness in December of that year.

Book preview

CULTURAL ETIQUETTE

A GUIDE FOR THE

WELL-INTENTIONED

Copyright 1990, 1991, 2018

Athena Persephoni Publications

Dedicated to all our relations.

CULTURAL ETIQUETTE: A Guide for the Well-Intentioned. Copyright 2018 by the estate of Amoja Three Rivers. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review, critical article or scholarly journal.

Originally published by Market Wimmin in 1990, with a revised edition published in 1991.

Cover designed by Amoja Three Rivers and Ruth Steinberger.

Graphics by Ruth Steinberger.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Athena Persephoni Publications

Minneapolis, MN 55411

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND CREDITS

INTRODUCTION

DEFINING OURSELVES

WHAT IS ETHNOCENTRICISM AND WHAT CAN I TAKE FOR IT?

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

A FEW LIES LAID BARE

JUST DON'T DO THIS. OKAY?

SEEING RED

CONTEMPLATIONS

TAKING ACTION

EPILOGUE

NOTES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and CREDITS

I would like to express my gratitude

To Margarita Benitez

Judy Chen

Alix Dobkin

Fong Hermes

Carol Hwang

Lola Lai Jong

Loba Nemajea

Billie Potts

Irenia Quitiquit

Ruth Segal

For their suggestions, advice and sisterhood.

To Marie Beaumont and the other women of the Womyn of Color Tent, of the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, and to all the festival family, for their strength, support and inspiration.

To Sara Lucia Hoagland, for guidance through the Land of Printing and Publishing, and for engineering practicalities.

To Lynn Clark, for help in hard times.

To Blanche Jackson, for