Popular coffee chain Starbucks is under scrutiny after a symbol on a poster celebrating Native American Heritage Month resembles the same one used in the animated children’s show “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”
Starbucks locations around the country have displayed the posters in break rooms, back offices, and in view of customers, Business Insider reported.
The outrage comes as the misconceptions about Native Americans persist through the continued exploitation and misinterpretation of Native Americans in advertising, merchandising, and trademarks amongst popular brands. The National Musuem of the American Indian in Washington D.C. houses a permanent exhibit titled “Americans” that features ads, toys, film clips, toys, weapons and hundreds of other Native-themed objects, illustrating the paradox of everpresent false Native depictions in popular culture and absence of actual Native representation.
The southern water tribe was almost completely genocided by the fire nation, so I can understand their confusion of not being able to tell an animated fictional show from real indigenous people that actually got worse treatment, and that didn’t have any water bending abilities to defend themselves.