Losing war over mascots?

Some comments from "pro-Indian" Kenn to mascot foe Richie Plass about the Bittersweet Winds website, along with my responses:

Part 1Richie...I hate to have to contest you again but...you need to be contested. You got your feelings hurt as a kid and you've been on a quest since then. Unfortunately, you don't seem to recognize this: Much of the country is now in an area where there used to be some Indians. They have respect for those Indians, and hold them in an honored way. They cared for them so much that when the school was built they wanted to name the team after them. They did not choose an Indian-oriented mascot to make fun of them!!! I have been trying to warn you...if you attempt to take away the Indian-oriented mascots you will have people who like you now...not like you...will hate the Indian. You will have won the battle and lost the war!!! You need to think really hard about what you're doing and stop it!Kenn's basic premise about choosing mascots is wrong. He postulates that schools have only two choices: to sincerely honor Indians or to make fun of them. Since he sees no overt signs of spoofing Indians, he concludes that schools must be honoring them.

Unfortunately, he missed a third option: to insincerely honor Indians. That is, to "honor" them with no mockery and apparent sincerity according to the white man's standard, which many Indians don't accept. In other words, to "honor" them in a phony way that isn't honorable at all.

This is what happens at many schools. They "honor" Indians by placing them in the distant past. By fictionalizing and fantasizing about their traditional beliefs and practices. By portraying them as one-dimensional warriors who lack culture, religion, or other markers of civilization.

What schools don't do is honor living, breathing Indians. They don't study their histories or cultures in depth. They don't meet with Indians and learn what they think. They don't act to ensure that federal and state governments uphold Indian rights.

I explained all this in Smashing People:  The "Honor" of Being an Athlete. The notion that a mascot is a worthy honor is the most worthless claim in the book. But if you think you can spin this old argument in a new way, let's hear it, Kenn.

Yeah, tell us how you know better than all the Indians who don't feel honored by being some sport team's pet poodle. You're "pro-Indian," but when Indians disagree with you, you tell them they're wrong. Once again, the Great White Father knows best.

Way to show how much you support Indians, buddy. What are you going to do next...slap their faces? Break their treaties? Terminate their tribes? I'm sure you can explain how these acts are in their best interests, too.



Part 2Now...on the above one you have the Cleveland Indians logo. This is a SMILING Indian (and Indians aren't famous for being big smilers so it does good PR for the Indian in that fashion...further...the people in Cleveland wanted to promote in a positive way the Penobscot and Shoshoni Indians that lived in that area. If America removes all symbols of the Indians from across the country...at schools, in towns, rivers, etc....it will almost be as if the Indian never existed. AND...when you take away the Indian logo...people that formerly APPRECIATED the Indian...will now HATE them. So, you may have won the battle, but you've lost the war. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT? I don't think so. So think CAREFULLY about your mission because 90% of all people in an area are NOT going to want to let you take away their mascot that's been in existence for 25, 50, or more years!

Again...I am generally pro-Indian but when it comes to this idea of your taking the use of Indian-oriented logos/mascots away, I and many like me will fight you to till the last man's down. You are WRONG on this.

KennComment:  So much stupidity...so little time.

Chief Wahoo isn't smiling pleasantly, bright boy. He's leering evilly like a skulking savage about to bushwhack someone. His devilish eyes and skin color confirm it.

FYI, Indians don't have bulbous noses or flame-broiled skin. Chief Wahoo is similar to other racist images--for instance, the hook-nosed, greedy Jew. It's a stupid, offensive caricature of an entire race.

Are you seriously arguing that this racist image is okay because it's smiling? I don't see any other racist images gracing America's sports logos. Not only is this red-skinned devil racist, but so is your support of it.



Which of these mascots do you find acceptable, Kenn? Tell us which ones so we can tell which ethnic groups you're prejudiced against. All of them, perhaps?

Your knowledge of Indians is pitiful. The Penobscot Indians live in Maine and the Shoshone Indians in Idaho and the surrounding states. Neither group resides within 700 miles of Cleveland.

How nice of you to prove our point. You "honor" Indians by being completely ignorant of them. You whoop and holler about a fictitious chief while knowing and caring nothing about real Indians.

In what way are you pro-Indian, Kenn? What have you done except "honor" Indians by stereotyping them as killers and marauders? If you've lifted one finger to help an actual Indian, I'll be surprised.

If mascots disappeared

No one's talking about removing anything except offensive sports team names, logos, and mascots. Your claim that activists intend to attack place names, statues, and so forth is false and scurrilous. It's like saying that if Congress bans nuclear bombs first, it'll ban pea-shooters next. It simply doesn't follow logically.

Let's stick to the actual topic, not your ridiculous straw-man argument. If America removes all its Indian mascots...it'll still have millions of places named after Indians. Millions of products named after or featuring the likenesses of Indians. Indians in textbooks...on statues...in movies and TV shows. Not to mention the millions of actual Indians whom you know nothing about.

There isn't the slightest chance in hell that Americans could eradicate the Indian presence from the land. It would require an alien spaceship with a couple of magical death rays: one to vaporize every building, monument, and ruin and one to erase every product label, book, and movie with an Indian connection. Needless to say, that isn't going to happen.

Here's a news flash, Kenn: Activists are removing mascots at a steady rate. There have been no anti-Indian riots or massacres as a result. People who have nothing to live for but their mascots may be upset, but they inevitably get over it. That's what you should do too: get over your love of racist kitsch.

But if you insist, keep fighting your losing battle. Keep stamping your feet while Chief Illiniwek, the Natick Redmen, the Fighting Sioux, and others disappear from the landscape. While you're at it, maybe your bitching and moaning will stop the tides from rolling in.

If that doesn't work, you can always film a commercial of yourself as the crying white guy once the last mascot is gone. You'll be a martyr to your cause: the white privilege that lets you stereotype minorities with impunity.

P.S. I suggest you watch the Daily Show's report on mascots. I trust you'll find it a comfort to see your beliefs and values upheld.

Below:  Another white guy cries over the vanishing Indian mascot.