As an Ohio resident, thirty minutes outside Cleveland and a girlfriend of a huge baseball fan, I have been attending Cleveland Indians baseball games at Jacobs’s field since I was a young girl. Prior to watching the movie Chief Illiniwek, I never realized how the name Cleveland Indians could be offensive. Once watching the movie, I now question whether or not I will be attending baseball games with my boyfriend in the spring.
Once speaking to my boyfriend about the movie, he mentioned how often times he has seen Native American protestors standing outside the stadium with signs about the connotation of the team’s name being offensive to their heritage. How could I have been so blind not to have seen them? The movie showed me how Native Americans feel about being affiliated with a comedic character of their traditional culture such University of Illinois "Chiefs". Although the Cleveland Indian is a cartoon character, I can see how I may take offense if a sport team decided to make their team mascot a cartoon character of a preppy, Caucasian woman in her twenties. How would feel if a sports team made a mascot cartoon character of you?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Kara,
I too live outside Cleveland and spend a lot of time going to Indians games...it's the one Cleveland sport I always pay attention to :)
The video made me think a lot too...I was very torn after watching it. Part of me was saying I don't see how it's hurting anyone...and part of me was saying of course it's offensive you stupid fool. But I think in the end what I've decided is this: of the long list of teams using Native Americans as mascots, to me, the Indians is one of the least offensive teams. They use the name and they use the cartoon characterization--at least over the years the Chief Wahoo logo has become less blatantly "Native American" in idea. At least in no longer has a yellow/orange colored face--it's blue and red to match the team colors. Also, the team's mascot, as you know, is a big pink blob named Slider. I feel like as a team, the Indians isn't drawing on imagery of Native Americans the way some other teams do. So while I'm not saying that there's nothing wrong with the Indians name, etc., is it as bad as having a "chief" run around at games doing a made up "Native American" dance?
Post a Comment