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It seems impossible to imagine that there are human beings in our society who don’t know it’s wrong to wear redface, skewer an effigy of a Native American Indian, or continue to support professional sports mascots that tokenize, demean or dehumanize Native Americans.
And yet…there it is, everywhere you turn. We have chosen not to share the most horrifying images here on The Good Men Project, but we did want to point out an interesting poster, attributed to the National Congress of American Indians, that gives context to how degrading and racist using Native images and iconography for your mascot really is (photo, above).
If you wouldn’t wear a New York Jews or San Francisco Chinamen hat, you shouldn’t encourage sports teams to use Native images, names or iconography.
As Douglas Miles, artist, writer, designer and owner of Apache Skateboards, and collaborator in What Tribe explains, the poster “embarrasses the viewer into realizing the truth about the mascot issue.”
The truth is this: Today, the only ethnic or racial iconography/imagery being used for team mascots in the United States is done at the expense of Native people, and that reality shows the depths to which we have forgotten about the mass genocide that took place on the land we occupy, and how profoundly we dehumanize the cultures of Native people.
I’m not saying not to love the team from your city. But we each have a responsibility to speak out against the abuse and exploitation of Native Americans, and not to promote these images by wearing them, sharing them, or buying them.
If you wouldn’t let this exploitation and dehumanization happen to anybody else—Asian Americans, Jewish Americans, Black Americans—then why are you letting it happen here?
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Also read What’s the Difference Between Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Exchange?
*Author’s note: For a detailed history of campaigns to remove Native American Indian names and iconography from sports teams, visit this fantastic collection of information at NativeVillage.org
Let me just say that while some may say that the picture of their mascot should be updated, to which I agree, I do not find using various people to represent a team to be demeaning. Quite the contrary, I find that the reason these groups are used is because they convey strength, courage, and ability! I am of Scottish/ Irish heritage and am delighted when I see a highlander or an Irishman as the mascot. That is very flattering, so what gives?!!
(1) It is a little different for you as a white person, because racial labels do not carry a history of oppression for you. (2) Names like “Indian” and “Redskin” differ from names like “Irish” and “Highlander” because the former are names imposed on one race by another while the latter are names people chose for themselves.
My wife went to a school whose mascot was the Hurons (Eastern Michigan University). They changed their mascot to Eagles or something boring out of concern, although representatives of the Huron nation had publicly said they thought of it as an honor. (I thought, since the were EMU, they should have made it the fighting emus, but then I was a banana slug, so…) I find so many of these issues of social justice come down to an undefined point of realisticality. In other words, something is considered wrong or offensive to a group of others. Well, most people are… Read more »
The Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo icon is a pretty obvious example of something that’s just over-the-top. It’s hard for anyone to defend it. Even for an insensitive cynic like me, it’s impossible to see any redeeming qualities in it. There are some very valid reasons to try to get rid of it. However: One reason that it offends many white people is because it flies in the face of *newer* white stereotypes about native Americans. It looks obsolete because white people’s racist stereotypes have moved on to a very different set of racist stereotypes, and Wahoo just doesn’t fit the… Read more »
I suppose it would be some small consolation prize to change the team’s logo. We won’t give them their land back, but we could at least not insult them so much. That’s literally the least we could do. Seems like a place to start. Of course, it’s really easy for me to tell a corporation like the Cleveland Indians to change its name, spend a little of its money, none of which is mine, and which doesn’t cost me a damn thing, only makes me look like a better person. Win-win for me, and tiny crumb for aboriginal cultures. A… Read more »
It baffles me to that people are so confused as to why this is so problematic. I cannot imagine how a Native American child can possibly interpret seeing their heritage reduced to a mascot and their concerns about it degraded to being “too PC” . Why do these sports fanatics want to hold on to so ugly and violent???? Why is it so difficult to comprehend the concept of RESPECT?! I am not Native American but that does not mean I cannot empathize with a community who has had to and continues to deal with the blatant disrespect at the… Read more »
Here’s something not theoretical at all. It’s real life, and it happened to me just yesterday. I was in the public library using a computer. At a computer nearby, facing me, was a man wearing a Cleveland Indians baseball cap. (I live at least a thousand miles away from Cleveland, in a city with its own sports teams, so an Indians cap is not a common sight.) My first thought was, hey we were just arguing about this on the GMP, and damn if that cap isn’t just plain racist. Then, my second thought was to notice that the man… Read more »
So are ALL native American images out of line, or just the caricatures, like the Indians’ Chief Wahoo? Is there any image/nickname depicting Native Americans that would be acceptible?
Not in the context of being used for anything unrelated to NDN culture. There is no need for white people to objectify natives and use our images for something completely irrelevant to who we are.
Perhaps you should mention that to Douglas Miles of APACHE Skateboards……
I’m approving this comment because a few of you seem to think that Douglas is appropriating someone else’s culture – Douglas Miles is a Native American man. His company is called Apache Skateboards because he actually lives in San Carlos, Arizona on the San Carlos Apache Nation.
I assumed Douglas Miles is a Native American. I was replying to the statement “Not in the context of being used for anything unrelated to NDN culture. There is no need for white people to objectify natives and use our images for something completely irrelevant to who we are.” Meaning, I suppose, that its ok for Native Americans to do it…just not white people. Is it ok for African Americans? How about Asians? My point is..your argument to stop somebody from doing something you think is racially insensitive is not helped when you are racially insensitive in your argument.
Alex, AGAIN I wish you would do some research. Apache Skateboards isn’t exploiting the word “Apache” – it’s actually a large art and design project that is ALL about celebrating Native culture. They team up with people from other Native cultures for art exhibitions, films, and other big projects. It is, entirely, about culture. Check out the WHAT TRIBE work. http://apacheskateboards.com Feel free to check it out yourself. It’s amazing. So proud to have Douglas as a part of The Good Men Project. He’s a talented artist and writer. At some point, I’m going to start getting PISSED that people… Read more »
it’s really disgusting that white people get offended when you tell them they can’t use your culture to their advantage. Miles doesn’t appropriate and abuse the images of his people for profit, he built a respectful company honoring his heritage. The “Redskins” don’t honor any natives, the team name doesn’t even specify a tribe, it’s just a racist depiction of the generalized “injun” white America built for themselves after trying to wipe out the real NDNs. You don’t get to be offended, as a white man, when someone asks you to stop actively oppressing them & their people. If you… Read more »
“You don’t get to be offended, as a white man, when someone asks you to stop actively oppressing them & their people.” I respectfully disagree. Fortunately or unfortunately, everyone is allowed to feel offended at anything. That feeling may not be justified, but I’m not sure how one would enforce a system in which a feeling is not allowed. This is the brilliance and the frustrating part of the right of free expression. I have the right to tell someone he is not allowed to be offended, even if I’m wrong about that. He has the right to respond by… Read more »
Semantics.
The sentiment holds.
Respectfully, semantics are important, because semantics are entirely at the center of this issue. What does a symbol mean, in all its particular details? THAT is semantics. (Technically, maybe it’s “semiotics,” but there’s no need to be literal in all things. : – ) ) The specific details of the caricatured faces come with specific meanings for particular people. Semantics. What one person hears when he hears the word “Indian” is different from what another person hears when he hears the word “Indian.” THAT is semantics. Almost everyone in this discussion has been wrestling with semantics. It would be unfair,… Read more »
I think you’re right that I meant semiotics. Certainly people’s interpretation of words matter.
I mean, more accurately, that you’re being nitpicky about technical words that aren’t crucial to the heart of the conversation! 😉
You’re welcome. I will keep trying to do more, best I can.
If my mother is Native American and my father is not, do I only get to use half as many images? Or I get to use the same images but only 50% as often? Someone take me through the math on this one.
The problem is that there ISN’T any math to it. Life is shitty that way. There’s no math to people’s feelings. That’s why I think it’s usually best to start with this equation and go from there: If I do X, will it harm somebody? [Yes, No, Maybe] If I do NOT do X, will it harm somebody? [Yes, No, Maybe] Then you play through those scenarios. In this case, many many Native folks are telling us that it’s harming them in a number of ways – harming children’s self-esteem and identity as well as harming the way the outside… Read more »
That’s a fair way to look at it. I suppose the nitty gritty for the team owners would be how much it was going to cost to change the name and logo, but then again they would probably just pass that cost on to the ticket holders. The Devil Rays became the Rays without much effort at all, so it doesn’t seem like there would be much of a disruption. Hell, the NFL teams keep changing uniforms all the time to keep the merchandise flowing. I have a much more radical idea. This is just me talking, it’s not meant… Read more »
I think that’s a great solution. Though not being racist may get the job done, as well. I see no need to make everyone change because a few racists don’t want to lose some of their multi-million dollar income to change.
But I can get behind framing it as Chicago vs Detroit.
Write that in an op-ed and I’ll publish it 😉
I can already see some problems that have always been there but would come even more to the surface. Many of our place names are anglicized or misinterpreted or offensive versions of native words (Sioux City, anyone?) “Detroit” is probably an English version of a French version of a local native word. All those places named after famous “Indian killers,” like Jackson, Mississippi, all those places named after slaveholders, etc. At some point we’d have to say, “close enough” or “neutral enough.” The focus on mascots has been keeping our attention away from how deep a lot of this stuff… Read more »
What if it was a lacrosse team? As I understand it, Native Americans came up with that sport.
i don’t see much uproar about A Chicago restaurant whose Communion wafer-topped hamburger offended some critics has offered no apologies. The 10-ounce beef burger comes with braised goat shoulder, white cheddar cheese and Ghost chile aioli. It also comes topped with a wine reduction sauce and an unconsecrated host — the blood and body of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Blatant and intentional …
Funny thing how most of the people getting their self righteous panties in a wad over such mascots aren’t even Native Americans. Most of the whining about it comes from Berkeley type libs looking for another crusade du jour to pat themselves on the back forsupporting. For the record, I have a Sioux grandfather and a Cherokee grandmother, so I have enough Native blood in my veins to have an opinion on the matter. Not only am I NOT offended, I was angry when my college, Arkansas State, changes their mascot from the Indians to the Red Wolves.
I value the opinion of white people who understand racism over the opinions of white people who try to justify racism by claiming they’re some minute fraction native, and have never been active in Native life or Native politics. If you get your “panties in a wad” over the the changing of your college mascot, you should probably reevaluate your priorities.
“Funny thing how most of the people getting their self righteous panties in a wad over such mascots aren’t even Native Americans. Most of the whining about it comes from Berkeley type libs looking for another crusade du jour to pat themselves on the back forsupporting.” That’s a bold claim. Do you have any evidence to support it? Did you ask every single person who is”whining about it” and tabulate the results? Did you ever stop to think that some of those Berkeley types might have just as much Native blood as you? Lastly, just because you are not offended… Read more »
I understand your desire to be politically correct and agree that we can be insensitive. However, this present issue does nothing but show your historic ignorance. Before you take a stand, DO YOUR RSEARCH ! Far from being an insensitive cognomen, the term Indian used here represents honor and respect. The Cleveland Indians derive their name from a member of their team in the 1890’s.. His name was Louis Sockalexis, a Penobscot indian from Ogunquit Maine. He was the first native american to attend Holy Cross College, a Jesuit college, and my alma mater,in Worcester ,Mass, in the 1890’s. He… Read more »
Yes, Dan, I DID read about a little about history of the Indians. But to me, the origin is somewhat irrelevant when we’re given a mocking, red-faced, dopey mascot to represent this culture and race.
The intent in the beginning may have been pride. But the outcome is racism.
You should be ashamed of your ignorance and lack of sensitivity.
Calling someone ignorant and insensitive is an ad hominem attack that has nothing to do with their argument. My comments have been deleted for FAR less. I humbly suggest you delete your own comment.
Mike. First, I was just reflecting back to him what he said to me.
If the caricature had no feather it might as well be any male. The artist that created this was asked to create a “character of pure joy” and that’s what I see…not the “dopey” person you see. It also was originally in yellow but changed to red and black for team colors and then red and blue for updated team colors. He’s smiling…where’s the mocking? Unlike the other two designs here which were clearly made to cause a stir. The first one might as well be the Mad Doctors and the second has ever racist detail with buck teeth, lines… Read more »
Wait, another question, Dan. When so many people whose culture this mascot is supposed to represent tell you it’s offensive, WHY do you think YOU know better? No, seriously. Why do you think you are the one who can decide what’s right and wrong for these people who aren’t you, and who owe you nothing? Native Americans don’t owe you being their mascot, so if they don’t like it, take it down. I mean, for God’s sake. It’s so simple. Imagine if the first team Jackie Robinson had named itself the Negroes. (Or worse, but Negro was an accepted term… Read more »
Let me jump in here with a pragmatic question:
Does telling someone to feel ashamed really work?
That hasn’t worked on me since I was a teenager. It seems cruel to try that on children and counterproductive to try that on adults. The only utility I can see in calling for someone to feel shame is rallying other people around the speaker. But, telling someone he/she ought to feel a certain way rarely works. If it really did work, the world might be a helluva lot better place, actually.
I was just reflecting the original commenter.
Sometimes when I think someone’s being ridiculously hyperbolic I do that.
The Panawahpskek were overrun by Jesuits in the late 1600’s; it’s no wonder Louis was accepted into a Jesuit school. I bet all those white boys just laughed and laughed when they saw he could throw a ball. “Lookit the redskin throw! Who’da thunk it?!” Dan, take a minute to commiserate. Have some goddamn compassion, for a whole MINUTE. How honored would you feel if a team were named after your most stereotypical traits? If your highschool team were named after that aspect of YOU, that one you’re most afraid will get you ostracized? Big nose? Splotchy skin? Wimpy arms?… Read more »
The Sockalexis story is a bit of false etymology. When the name was adopted in 1915 it was selected from Area sports writers and none cited the former Native American player. It would appear that the name was selected largely because the Atlanta Braves had won the World Series in the previous season. The name “Indians” probably wouldn’t be offensive at all, if not for that stupid Chief Wahoo logo. That makes the name dehumanizing, and it should be changed. As a life-long Clevelan fan, I would like to submit “stepping stones” as the new team name. The logo can… Read more »
Talking about cultural, racial, or ethnic pride makes me a little uneasy. Ethnic pride is at best a mixed blessing. On the whole, the world today probably needs LESS ethnic pride, not MORE of it: white supremacists, Hutu vs. Tutsi, Arabs vs. Kurds, Han supremacists in China, etc. The Catholic/Protestant split in Northern Ireland is as much an ethnic split as a religious one. Certainly Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Balkan states could stand to lose a little ethnic pride. It’s hard to say that pride in one’s identity has helped humanity more than hurt humanity, especially if the twentieth… Read more »
Both the US and Canada spent most of the 20th century trying to destroy the culture and identity of First Nations people, especially by taking the children away and putting them in boarding schools. Identity pride of cultures/racial groups which have been dominant may be problematic, but of people who are trying to rebuild/restore an identity so badly ravaged is not a bad thing.
Vote with your Master Card, Google “Fighting Whites” and order a cap…
Fighting Irish. Would erase that line about native Americans being the last acceptable racist mascot, but I like the article. The most frequent argument you’ll hear from pro/wahoo fans is that it’s a cartoon and therefore irrelevant. Perhaps the next article could be on how pop culture icons shape reality
The Fighting Irish = Notre Dame = an Irish-American Catholic school using the Irish name. Thus your point is invalid. If a group of First Nations people wanted to start a team called the Indians/Braves/whatever, I’d be entirely content to let them figure that out together. But these are not First Nations teams sponsored/owned by First Nations organizations. As a third-generation Irish American, I would say that I’m not 100% on the Irish stereotypes, but they’ve also not hurt me, my dad, or my Granna. And if a sufficient number of us decide the “Fighting Irish” are a bad thing,… Read more »
As a person of Native descent I am offended by the use of Native caricatures and symbolism in sports. It dehumanizes and promotes a stereotype that diminishes Native culture the same way “blackface” does to African-American culture.
Nice article. People like to forget we’re a still living race. They’ll say “Indians are all dead, so it’s okay to objectify them,” but the truth is, there are 3,000,000 of us in the continental US alone. That’s not counting people in Canada, people in Alaska and Hawaii, people in the Caribbean, people south of the border (like the Kikapu, originally from Wisconsin), people living abroad… I have nieces and nephews who have to stare at this junk. It really hurts a kid when the whole entire world refuses to see them as anything but a gross caricature–a joke.
Thank you for your comment, Rose.
The whole “but what about the Vikings and Celtics” thing is a pretty lame argument. As far as I can tell there aren’t lots of Irish American or Swedish America taking offense and calling for the names to be changed. If there were I would be open to a discussion about changing their names. But there are a lot of people, including people I know, of American Indian ancestry out there taking offense to names like the Redskins. People of American Indian ancestry should be the ultimate arbiters of what people of American Indian ancestry find offensive and if they… Read more »
I’m not so sure about your observation. The Notre Dame mascot is a Leprechaun – which is a mythical character based on Irish folklore. To my mind, an analogous costume for Notre Dame would be a drunken Irishman.
The page of comments before this one addresses this issue quite well. It’s a very interesting conversation. For the record, if Irish folks wanted ND to change their logo, I’d support them, too.
I think the poster makes a very clear point and has a very coherent message. It shoots for the gut with a simple message which is pretty clear to most people. If you’re looking for a simple, straightforward, uncomplicated look at racism, then the poster is perfect. Now, that being said, the conclusions and reactions to the poster here are all over the place, and some are pretty flimsy. First of all, no one can actually “derail” a discussion on this website. There’s no microphone that only one person can use at a time. Someone can reply with something that… Read more »
Well, I don’t think anyone would say that a conversation gets technically derailed, but there is a generally-accepted use of the term in Internet culture that basically means manipulating a conversation to get away from the original point. Aside from that, you’re right. Whose voice counts? Whose doesn’t? My feeling is that is an unanswerable question, and as a white person it’s not my job to decide it for others’ cultures. In this case, I talked to the Native people I knew, did some research into who endorses changing the team names and who doesn’t (in this case, I looked… Read more »
Looking back on it, I can see that I was being overly literal about derailing and hijacking. I have some sort of Asperger’s when it comes to metaphors. Perhaps “smartass-pergers” would be more accurate…. : – ) I still think commenters overreact sometimes when it comes to the flow of discussion. Even “manipulating discussion” is a bit of overstatement. As a commenter with no moderating/editing power over the site whatsoever, I have no significant ability to actually shape discussion. Even if I wanted to shut down any particular line of argument, there is no way I could actually do so.… Read more »
I love a man who can admit he was being overly literal 😉
Okay, but not literally love him, right? : – )
Well, I don’t see us getting married, but I’ll totally give you a high five. 😉
I’m a huge Chicago Blackhawks fan. I’m curious as well as to whether or not their logo is seen as being as offensive as the Cleveland Indian’s logo is. I must admit, the Indian’s logo has always disturbed me a bit as it is very goofy looking (reminds me of DIsney’s Peter Pan’s “Indian” character designs) Meanwhile, the Blackhawk’s logo is much more graphicly designed and is often considered one of the best looking logos (or altogether jerseys) in all professional sports. I’d also like to point out that while the Chicago Blackhawks continue to use the 100 or so… Read more »
Using the name of an ethnic group as your team name is clearly bad, but why do you also have a problem with using their iconography? If there was a team called the San Francisco Dragons and they chose to make their logo a Chinese-style dragon rather than a European-style dragon in tribute to the city’s large Chinese population, what’s wrong with that?
What? This sounds like pure speculation. Let’s stick with the issue at hand, and that’s the Cleveland Indians.
The article brought up the issue of iconography, and that’s the part I’m disagreeing with. Using the iconography of an ethnic group isn’t the same as using the name of the group. If the Cleveland Indians named the team after a creature from Aboriginal mythology, would that be a problem (assuming the creature didn’t have religious significance)?
“This sounds like pure speculation. Let’s stick with the issue at hand, and that’s the Cleveland Indians.”
Well, now, to be fair, the poster featured in the article included two hypothetical sports teams, so the whole point of the illustration was speculation. If the people who agree with you get to speculate, then the people who disagree with you also get to speculate.
This is a really complicated discussion. I come down on your side, in the end. We had a rather virulent debate about this recently in the small town I live in. Usually, the “conversation” starts with the supporters of continued use of a name or logo saying that it is largely about tradition, and respect. This is eventually thrown into doubt, because as it becomes more obvious that they are on the losing side of the argument, accusations of “political correctness”, “stupid liberals”, or outright racist slurs, will begin to creep in. This, in any case, has been my experience.… Read more »
The people being represented get to decide what is or isn’t offensive.
I might not “get it,” but I should respect it.
Just curious if much of the offense is because of the cartooned imagery? What if the image was not so “goofy” but more elegant and refined or realistic? Would the offense be the same? If not, then I have to wonder if there isn’t at least a little bit of hypersensitivity here, as it is a mascot, which are generally cartooned, and lampooned as a rule. I think the question articulated in one of the other comments is pertinent about whether one really associates the idea of that mascot or even the team name with a current situation or Native… Read more »
Yo, it’d be nice if people didn’t use Jews to make a point, seeing as how we’re already a mascot for an English football team, the Totenham Spurs. So much for solidarity.
Lazer, thanks for making that point. It is painful to see the depictions of Jewish people and Chinese or Asian-Americans. It makes you cringe, and that’s the point. I can totally see both yours and a previous commenter’s complaint that using racist images, even if the point is to combat racism, can be problematic. As a white woman, I’m not one to decide if that’s offensive or not, but I hear you. I took to heart the face that “Chinaman” is a slur where “Jew” and “Indian” are not necessarily (though certainly people use those terms in a pejorative). That… Read more »
Saying that “not all tribes are opposed to teams that degrade our people is extremely short sighted. It’s a fact that not all Jews were opposed to the Nazis. So what? Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins, and all the rest of them are just plain wrong and those who support them in any way are just as wrong. Imagine the tables turning and all of a sudden there was a law against it – including a law making it a crime to support these teams. What would your excuse be? How would you say to Your Lord God Almighty if he… Read more »
Joanna,
You’ve done a very good job clearly stating your point and making a concise rebuttal to any counter-points. Racism against Natives flies under the radar so frequently.
D