In case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty crass for a liberal. You know, a wimpy, limpy, namby, pamby lib-bib-bib-eral. Well to be perfectly honest, I think that political correctness or "pc" is quite possibly what caused Reagan to take hold as strongly as he did. And we did it to ourselves. Now, starting tonight, I'd like to set the record right, beginning with team mascots with American Indian icons.
The Washington Redskins. The Cleavland Indians. The Atlanta Braves. The Cincinnati Reds. And dozens if not hundreds of more at other levels in sports right down to school mascots and team names. So what's the big deal? It goes without saying that most of these names stem from a period of time when such names were used as a derogatory statement towards American Indians. By the way, it's American Indian -- as in American Indian Movement -- not Native American, as that's not only not preferred, but also historically inaccurate to boot. Regardless of when or by who, the name of the team, simply by existing hearkens back to certain notions of racism, suppression, and even extermination.
In addition to American Indian derived names, we have teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Oakland Raiders, and the Pittsburgh Pirates all of which are used to compare their teams to some sort of dark raw aggressive behavior. That's all these names stand for, visceral manhood in it's 1950's textbook definition. The Jacksonville Jaguars. The Texas Rangers. The Indianapolis Colts. The Seattle Mariners. All of these team's iconography reach for power and masculine qualities. It's competition after all, at least they're not trying to fool anyone. They want to win and they decorate their houses as such.
If one wants to debate the morality of such a desire, be my guest, but this isn't the time or place for such an idiotic argument. Mankind is strong -- mankind equals both men and women for the record, if you didn't realize that already (words are a means to meaning and nothing more -- so mankind it is) -- As I was saying, mankind is strong because of conflict. The idea that everyone is a winner is damaging to the health of mankind for once you are inevitably knocked down, how will you pick yourself back up unless you know how to? You won't. You'll flounder and fail continuously.
Like with those who declare everyone should be a winner all the time, miss out on a key point that those who complain about teams names and iconography also miss out on. They look to remedy the symptom and not the disease. In the case of team iconography, the symptom is that at some point in the past, American Indians were seen as savage and therefore viciously and viscerally powerful -- perfect to iconograph a sports team with for the aforementioned reasons. They would be powerful and dominant. The disease is racism.
If we change all the names of the teams worldwide who use iconography such as I mentioned, it wouldn't change a damn thing about racism towards American Indians. Not one thing, except now you have a bunch of resentful sports fans. What we have here is an opportunity to own up to the past. Acknowledge it. And move on to cure the problem today. Nothing can be done by suppressing or lamenting ashamedly the past treatment of American Indians. That won't help them any more than changing team names. What you can do however is realize that such treatment is still going on today and is fixable. We need to learn to accept our brothers and sisters as equals at long last, different from us in skin color, but similar in many other ways too. And besides, acknowledging differences in skin color is not bad or wrong and has no inherently evil or racist connotation, it is those who use it for nefarious reasons -- suppression or extermination for example -- that tarnish skin color. Be proud to be white. Be proud to be black. Be proud to be brown, or red, or yellow, or any other skin tone moniker. Be proud that here and now you harbor no ill will towards another because of their skin color. And, please, leave sports teams alone. Maybe the Braves are VALIANT! Maybe the Indians are HARD WORKING! Maybe one man's buccaneer is another's HERO! Maybe the X City Redskins are just as PROUD as the Y City Eagles! Maybe the Jaguars PROTECT their families!
Such iconography doesn't need to have a negative connotation. And besides, while we instill these good values in place of racism and oppression, what's to stop us from teaching our children the meaning of such good values and the folly of bad ones.
The Washington Redskins. The Cleavland Indians. The Atlanta Braves. The Cincinnati Reds. And dozens if not hundreds of more at other levels in sports right down to school mascots and team names. So what's the big deal? It goes without saying that most of these names stem from a period of time when such names were used as a derogatory statement towards American Indians. By the way, it's American Indian -- as in American Indian Movement -- not Native American, as that's not only not preferred, but also historically inaccurate to boot. Regardless of when or by who, the name of the team, simply by existing hearkens back to certain notions of racism, suppression, and even extermination.
In addition to American Indian derived names, we have teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Oakland Raiders, and the Pittsburgh Pirates all of which are used to compare their teams to some sort of dark raw aggressive behavior. That's all these names stand for, visceral manhood in it's 1950's textbook definition. The Jacksonville Jaguars. The Texas Rangers. The Indianapolis Colts. The Seattle Mariners. All of these team's iconography reach for power and masculine qualities. It's competition after all, at least they're not trying to fool anyone. They want to win and they decorate their houses as such.
If one wants to debate the morality of such a desire, be my guest, but this isn't the time or place for such an idiotic argument. Mankind is strong -- mankind equals both men and women for the record, if you didn't realize that already (words are a means to meaning and nothing more -- so mankind it is) -- As I was saying, mankind is strong because of conflict. The idea that everyone is a winner is damaging to the health of mankind for once you are inevitably knocked down, how will you pick yourself back up unless you know how to? You won't. You'll flounder and fail continuously.
Like with those who declare everyone should be a winner all the time, miss out on a key point that those who complain about teams names and iconography also miss out on. They look to remedy the symptom and not the disease. In the case of team iconography, the symptom is that at some point in the past, American Indians were seen as savage and therefore viciously and viscerally powerful -- perfect to iconograph a sports team with for the aforementioned reasons. They would be powerful and dominant. The disease is racism.
If we change all the names of the teams worldwide who use iconography such as I mentioned, it wouldn't change a damn thing about racism towards American Indians. Not one thing, except now you have a bunch of resentful sports fans. What we have here is an opportunity to own up to the past. Acknowledge it. And move on to cure the problem today. Nothing can be done by suppressing or lamenting ashamedly the past treatment of American Indians. That won't help them any more than changing team names. What you can do however is realize that such treatment is still going on today and is fixable. We need to learn to accept our brothers and sisters as equals at long last, different from us in skin color, but similar in many other ways too. And besides, acknowledging differences in skin color is not bad or wrong and has no inherently evil or racist connotation, it is those who use it for nefarious reasons -- suppression or extermination for example -- that tarnish skin color. Be proud to be white. Be proud to be black. Be proud to be brown, or red, or yellow, or any other skin tone moniker. Be proud that here and now you harbor no ill will towards another because of their skin color. And, please, leave sports teams alone. Maybe the Braves are VALIANT! Maybe the Indians are HARD WORKING! Maybe one man's buccaneer is another's HERO! Maybe the X City Redskins are just as PROUD as the Y City Eagles! Maybe the Jaguars PROTECT their families!
Such iconography doesn't need to have a negative connotation. And besides, while we instill these good values in place of racism and oppression, what's to stop us from teaching our children the meaning of such good values and the folly of bad ones.
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