The Truth About Courtney Veale From Below Deck Med

Publish date: 2024-05-06

Among Courtney Veale's many Instagram posts from her time working on other yachts before "Below Deck Med" is a group picture of herself and the crew celebrating American Thanksgiving in the British Virgin Islands, wearing Thanksgiving-themed costumes. Courtney is dressed as a turkey, and her mates are dressed as Native Americans, including feathered headdresses and face paint. In fact, she posted the photo twice, once in 2019, and again as a throwback in 2020. Yeah, not cool.

If we were giving her all kinds of slack, we know that having grown up in the U.K., Courtney may not be as familiar with the significance of Native American cultural appropriation as Americans are, or as aware of how offensive this is to Indigenous people. But seeing as she was supposedly celebrating Thanksgiving, we're having some trouble totally buying that. And even more troubling are the hashtags she included beneath the post, which included #redindians.

No matter how you frame it, that's definitely not okay.

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