Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
In these times it's tough.
I try and figure things out but as a white man you quickly realize it's not yours to analyze. How could you possibly?
But isn't there a difference between say the Red Skins and Braves? Indians and Blackhawks? Can you no longer refer to a culture/people at all?
I'm Irish ... but the Celtics and Fighting Irish don't bother me, and honestly the Irish logo is about as caricature as you can get!
What about the Vikings? Trojans? Dallas Cowboys? Closer to home ... Canucks?
Apologies if I've offended anyone with any of that ... certainly not my intent.
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I do think there are differences among teams using Native American mascots.
Blackhawks: I don’t think this one is particularly egregious, and it seems to be more or less respectful- the Blackhawks jersey is consistently ranked as one of the best in the sport, for whatever that’s worth.
Braves: to me, this is akin to Warriors etc - it’s a military role in a society. The tomahawk chop is aggressively racist.
Chiefs: Chief is an office. The leader of the tribe. A team can be the Chiefs, the Kings, the Senators... it’s a position of power. Again, we see the aggressively racist tomahawk chop (with the accompanying aggressively racist Peter Pan music) make an appearance, which is vastly more disrespectful than the name Chiefs.
Indians: This one’s racist. Native Americans aren’t Indians. My wife is Bengali. She’s Indian. Chief Wahoo is aggressively racist; he’s a racist caricature, and there’s a reason he isn’t on the hat anymore. Brockmire had the right idea, change their name to the Cleveland Colonizers and make the logo a Virginian in a powdered wig holding a bloody bayonet between his teeth.
Redskins: Obviously racist. Call someone a redskin, see how respectful it sounds. There’s no way to refer to anyone by *insert colour * skin and not be racist. Stop doing it.
I think you can use tribal names - Florida State is the Seminoles, Illinois has the Fighting Illini, and I think you could argue you’re invoking the spirit of those cultures, and I think that with a little tact and care, there is a way to tastefully pull that off. I think that requires a lot of awareness, and I’m thoroughly unconvinced America is in possession of such awareness in its current state.
The difference between, say, the Fighting Illini and the Irish is that America didn’t wipe the Irish off the map, they were just ####ty to them when they arrived in New York.
There are local tribes in all these jurisdictions- reach out to them and see if there’s a way to invoke Native American imagery in a way that tells the story of these people and raises awareness about their respective plights. Because those are real and need to be taken seriously.
And to Dan Snyder, from one white skin to another, go #### yourself.