Fox News personality Tucker Carlson was criticized after he was photographed wearing an Indigenous headdress while standing next to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Carlson interviewed Bolsonaro earlier this week in Brazil at Palácio da Alvorada as part of a segment on on "the rise of Chinese power and influence in the country" for Tucker Carlson Originals, his series on Fox Nation.
After the interview, Bolsonaro reportedly handed Carlson an Indigenous headdress and asked him to wear it for a photo op. According to Veja, a Brazilian news outlet, Carlson laughed but avoided posing.
Carlson later posted a photograph of the moment to Twitter, which you can see below.
\u201chttps://t.co/yVNMjHKsf8\u201d— Tucker Carlson (@Tucker Carlson) 1656508016
The reaction to the photograph was largely negative and sparked a debate about cultural appropriation, the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity.
Cultural appropriation can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from minority cultures, as has often been the case in regard to Indigenous people who've worked for cultural preservation, criticized both past and ongoing colonial rule, and advocated for collective intellectual property rights of the originating, minority cultures.
Many were offended by the sight of Carlson wearing a cocar, or war bonnet, because many Indigenous peoples consider the wearing of headdresses without the express permission of tribal leaders to be an affront to their culture and traditions.
\u201cThere is so much to unpack in this clueless and offensive photo. But what bothers me almost as much as these two clowns yukking it up with a sacred (and truly stunning) cocar is that all the news stories refer to it as\u2026\u201d— Emilio M. Bruna (@Emilio M. Bruna) 1656560054
\u201c\u201cIts a shame that the Brazilian cavalry hasn\u2019t been as efficient as the Americans, who exterminated the Indians.\u201d-Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil, 1998. \n\nIndigenous people have been so targeted by Bolsonaro that they asked that he be investigated for crimes against humanity.\u201d— Ruth H. Robertson (Red Road Woman) (@Ruth H. Robertson (Red Road Woman)) 1656554016
\u201cIf i say what's on my mind, i will get suspended\u201d— KUMATETSU STAN BLM Komaedaling \ud83d\uddff (@KUMATETSU STAN BLM Komaedaling \ud83d\uddff) 1656551569
\u201cThe white power hour goes on tour.\u201d— Nahia Sanzo (@Nahia Sanzo) 1656533436
\u201cThis is who Bolsonaro is. Not as much the president of Brazil as much as a proud lackey of the US right wing. And that\u2019s exactly why he\u2019s gonna lose in October.\u201d— Austin \u270f\ufe0f G (@Austin \u270f\ufe0f G) 1656529919
\u201cTheres so many layers of BAD in this\u201d— Glub\ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddf7 commissions open (@Glub\ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddf7 commissions open) 1656555928
\u201cthis is absolutely outrageous and disrespectful. just disgusted by this photo \ud83e\udd2e\u201d— Joel C. (@Joel C.) 1656601209
\u201cThis is Brazilian president Bolsonaro, and he has said multiple times he wants a genocide/ethnic cleansing of natives in his country. And here\u2019s Tucker being racist with him\u201d— Private holder (@Private holder) 1656536619
\u201cWonder how Tucker's favorite guest feels about Carlson cozying up to the authoritarian leader who threatened to imprison him?\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1656546245
The incident has further been characterized as yet another example of Bolsonaro's hostility toward Indigenous peoples.
During his presidency, Bolsonaro has rolled back protections for Indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest and facilitated its destruction through deforestation, expressing a desire to expand nuclear and hydroelectric power into the Amazon
Bolsonaro has been heavily criticized by environmentalists and Indigenous groups alike for opposing lands reserved for Indigenous tribes, going so far as to strip Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI), a Brazilian governmental protection agency that establishes and carries out policies relating to indigenous peoples, of the responsibility to identify and demarcate Indigenous lands.
