Venting

[gryphonsegg]

I've never been a sports fan, so I never paid that much attention to sports team logos and mascots. I became aware at some point that naming sports teams "the Indians" or vaguely Native American/American Indian-associated things like "the Chiefs" or "the Braves" was a thing. I never liked the thing, and I agreed that those Native-themed team names, symbols, and mascots should be changed, but it was not an issue that weighed heavily on my mind. Maybe it was because I grew up in a part of the south that didn't have its own Native-themed team, so the example most familiar to me for a long time was the Atlanta Braves, a team that I've always seen symbolized by a weapon rather than a caricature of a Native American person. If there's also a stereotyped image of an "Indian brave" for that team, I never was interested in baseball team merchandise enough to find it.

But now I'm in graduate school in a different state from the one where I grew up. I don't want to connect my journal too much to my RL professional identity, so let's just say I'm at a university in a different region of the US. My university does not have Native-themed mascot, but a nearby city does have a sports team with a Native-themed mascot, and that team has a lot of fans here. And their main merchandising symbol is NOT a weapon. It's a caricature. In fact, it is THE most dehumanizing Native caricature I have ever seen. And it's everywhere in this town. I can't even describe what I feel every time I see that image, except to say that it's really bad. So bad that I avoid going to certain stores that sell things I like because they also have promotional items for that team with that image prominently display, and seeing makes me feel like crap and keep feeling like crap for a few minutes after I can no longer see it. But I can't avoid it when it's stuck on cars in the science division parking lot or printed on t-shirts and hoodies that students wear around campus. It's just . . . there, popping up in my face when I least expect it. I really, really hate it, but don't feel safe talking about how much I hate it or why to anyone I get to spend any time with in person around here.

Comments

[surrealistdreamer]

I understand this feeling a lot. And I'm sorry you have to deal with it.

[gryphonsegg]

Thank you.

Another thing-- There doesn't seem to be any controversy in the local area over this team's name and logo like there is over other teams' logos, names, etc., even though this particular logo is more dehumanizing than most. The area where I am now is supposed to be so much more progressive and less racist than the area around Atlanta, where there has been ongoing low-level controversy with occasional blow-ups over Braves fans doing the "tomahawk chop."

[surrealistdreamer]

I dunno man. Probably just the whole "We're very progressive and to maintain that image we just won't talk about or acknowledge anything that contradicts that"