Native Americans speak on sports imagery

If it's a throwback to a certain type of imagery that they're reaching for in a new name, they can always go with The Washington Red Scare.

Nice post, Mr. Tea. Since the article is about Aboriginal voices, I'm going to quote some of the ones in the article here:

From E. Newton Jackson, professor of sports management at the University of North Florida and a member of the Cherokee Tribes of South Carolina: "How does one person tell another that they honor them best? How do we do that when I'm telling you that what you're saying and doing does not honor me?"

From John Orendorff, a U.S. Army colonel and Native American: "I often feel that the underlying point of these 'honors' is that my Indian heritage is owned by others. The message I'm constantly getting is: 'We own you. We will define how we honor you. Don't tell us whether you like it or not, because we own you. When we hunt down Osama bin Laden, we can refer to him as Geronimo -- which happens to be my son's name -- because we own you. You don't control how you're perceived. We control that. Because we own you.'"

From Lois Risling, land specialist for the Hoopa Valley Tribes, who attended Stanford University in the early 1970s, when the school's teams were known as the Indians and were cheered on to "scalp the [Cal] bear": "We were told it was an honor to have an Indian mascot chosen as the symbol as a great university. When 55 of us presented a petition to have the name and symbol changed, we were told we were all taking it too personal and should just get over it. When we said Prince Lightfoot [the school's live mascot at the time] was wearing clothing that was wrong, and that his dance was wrong, we were told, 'Stanford Indians dress like this, and anyone who goes to Stanford is a Stanford Indian, so that makes it OK.'"

Yeah it all needs renaming.  How about the Atlanta Millionaires vs. the Cleveland Megabucks?

Mr.Tea wrote:

I'd be curious to hear others opinions on this. I think the "Redskins" name is impossible to defend and clearly a slur but what about the Cleveland Indians, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Atlanta Braves, etc?

Cleveland has a terrible logo, as did Atlanta

-- but the Chiefs or Braves as words do not offend me, they are not devaluing anybody

6079_Smith_W wrote:

And of course the Saskatoon School Board finally forced a change to one of the teams here in town a few months ago. They are now the Redhawks.

Bedford Road Collegiate is where my siblings went to school.  Deep in the West side of Saskatoon it must have a large number of First Nations students, so changing the name makes sense in so many ways. 

While we are thinking of changing names of teams, perhaps the Blades could become more creative and choose an appropriate name from local flora and fauna.  Given their inability to achieve anything, maybe the "Chokecherries".  (sorry for the drift)

Deejay NDN wrote:

"Chiefs" were named after the Mayor of Kansas City. It's the logo that's cultural appropriation. If the logo was a Fireman's hat, no appropriation.

onlinediscountanvils wrote:

Deejay NDN wrote:

"Chiefs" were named after the Mayor of Kansas City. It's the logo that's cultural appropriation. If the logo was a Fireman's hat, no appropriation.

Agreed

Pondering wrote:

DaveW wrote:

Mr.Tea wrote:

I'd be curious to hear others opinions on this. I think the "Redskins" name is impossible to defend and clearly a slur but what about the Cleveland Indians, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Atlanta Braves, etc?

Cleveland has a terrible logo, as did Atlanta

-- but the Chiefs or Braves as words do not offend me, they are not devaluing anybody

They are disparaging because the teams were not chosen by FN people or by chiefs or by braves. They were selected by rich white men who name their teams things like "The Bears".

You might think that it is complementary to portray indigeneous people as strong warriors in the use of these terms but it isn't. It is reminiscent of racist portrayals of indigenous peoples as being more primitive and fearsome. 

If indigenous people want to name their teams or businesses "Chiefs or Braves" that is their right. 

Very true.

Privilege is central to racism. It is one of the active ingredients along with cluelessness (willful or otherwise).

Here is an example I saw on twitter and saved for its staggering ignorance. The writer who explains that he is white, male, and 42 claims everyone else is racist but him. The concept of privilege eludes him as he "explains" racism.

http://cagsil.hubpages.com/hub/Continuing-Issue-Racism-In-The-United-States-of-America

I used this example because it is so clear and it was at hand not becuase the example is from the US. I have heard from many Canadians who think just like he does.

The combination of cluelessness and privilege is powerful. If that writer understood privilege, he could not have written that article. This is why focusing on explaining privilege may be more effective than addressing hate in more general terms.

In Canada this is complicated by the fact that Canadians actually believe propaganda to the effect that First Nations People have advantages over other Canadians. So before you can begin to explain privilege you have to deal with propaganda that is often directly and explicitly supported and spread by our current government and all-to-often the media. If it seems that racism in this country towards First Nations is getting worse, we probably should start with how cluelessness and privilege interact.

How many Canadians are aware that FN people are shortchanged on education and access to healthcare? How many are aware, when they sneer at FN people saying it is their fault they live in remote communities, that it was white people who forced that upon them. (After hunting was destroyed in 19th century by white hunters, government policy was to withhold food to starve FN people onto reserves far away from the land the government wanted to appropriate from them. It was white people who created, and made exclusive, the hubs and wealth that they accuse the First Nations people of being remote from. Many of those treaty terms that are not being respected by Canada were obtained through starvation.)  Privilege (read power) and cluelessness fuel and enable racism.

The denial of privilege is also active in the discussion about health care services to refugees in which the government of Canada has consistently misrepresented what services they have access to and what is now being denied them in an attempt to have Canadians think refugees are better off than they are. Similarly, many Canadians think immigrants have benefits other Canadians do not, including quite a few misperceptions about programs for immigrants.

This is stating the obvious here but I don’t think it is obvious enough to those who need to hear it first.

Edmonton CFL club changes its name:

Quote:

Foam antlers are set to become part of the green and gold fan dress code, as Edmonton's CFL team has adopted a new name: the Edmonton Elks.

The football club officially announced the Elks name during a news conference Tuesday, following a year-long consultation process involving team partners, fans and even some linguistic experts.

Team president and CEO Chris Presson said the club was proud to announce its new name and said he felt confident they had taken the time needed to ensure they "got it right."

Wow, intersting bekayne.