#educational day on tumblr dot com for both me and this anon methinks

[darcyolsson]

i unfortunately can’t find the post about it, but the two wolves meme is racist — it’s appropriation of native american folklore or something like that, i think. not calling you out or anything i promise, this is just smth i would’ve liked to know when i used the meme but i don’t see it widely spoken about on here even though the meme is kinda popular here. the site that provides info on how memes started has more info i think, if you’d like to know more (i am sorry — i’m aware i haven’t given a great explanation, i just can’t remember the exact context of the post i saw abt this😭)

hi! i went and googled it myself, and you're a little bit wrong, this is what wikipedia has to say:

The story of the Two Wolves is a memetic legend of unknown origin, commonly attributed to Cherokee or other indigenous American peoples in popular retelling. (...) As its origins cannot be credibly traced to authentic indigenous sources, the “Two Wolves” story is considered an example of fakelore.

the meme, in turn, is based on this fake story, and the issue with it is that fake stories like these are fabricated by white people based on false perceptions of Native folklore.

i genuinely had not made the connection to native american folklore, i literally just thought the meme was about. wolves. lol. but it's good to have this context, i can def see how it comes off a little icky regardless! i can't find any native americans talking about this particular meme online but in cases like this it's best to play things safe i think

also, i mean this genuinely and kindly: the next time you come across something like this, google it yourself. it's more important to genuinely understand why something is offensive than to completely try to avoid everything that may be problematic. especially if you're passing on knowledge to someone else, try to make sure that the information you're spreading is correct. otherwise, you might end up in a situation like this, where the problematic aspect of the meme is that this is a fake story attributed to native americans by white people, and you've accidentally contributed to that. again, i'm not trying to berate you, but try and keep that in mind next time you come across a post like that :)