Honour Who?
Atlanta Braves,
Names to honour the gladiators of the day, powerful names.
Names to make you picture the Brave First Nation, the powerful Native American, the strong Indian.
Mascots wearing fluorescent yellow, orange, blue, and green feathers in their headdress, leftover acid trip hallucination, or was it the mushrooms?
Dancing wildly, wielding that ever so famous foam-filled tomahawk, a weapon that makes you…well…giggle, just a bit
Dancing, beating its mouth making that familiar sound that draws you back to your childhood, you know the sound, think back to Saturday mornings and the Bugs Bunny show.
The stands come alive.
Thousands and thousands of nerf tomahawks cut the air up and down in unison,
as the tens of thousands of fans for a brief second, relive the fond memories of playing cowboys and Indians in their innocent youth.
Guess which one I always was!!!
Cowboys and Indians, funny the games kids play.
As I look back in vaults in which I keep, catalogue, and categorize my own childhood memories, I wonder…
Funny how I can’t seem to recall the neighbourhood kids playing
Blacks and KKK,
little white caps made from newspaper,
Mom’s best white bed sheets,
knotted up skipping ropes for a noose.
Nope, can’t recall that game at all,
but I do remember kids coming back from K-mart with those
GOD DAMNED fluorescent feathers, guns and hats.
Remember the rolls and rolls of red ticker-tape caps….mmm…mmm…mmm the sweet sulphur scent of our youth.
But I digress.
The sea of fans with their cute toy tomahawks,
and there is always that one person, scratch that…
hundreds of people,
with the fluorescent face paint, that would make a clown jealous,
matching headdress from birds caught just a little too close to the latest nuclear fallout, that somehow instantly are transformed into the almighty brave,
after all,
isn’t that how it worked with the REAL INDIANS?
News flash folks.. don’t tell anyone, but,
that’s all make believe.
Seriously, now this might be hard for you to get through your media, no SOCIETAL, brainwashed melon, but picture it.
How the hell could a Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, or Mohegan walk trough the dense brush wearing a nuclear reactive turkey on their head?
But wait…
There is one nation that looks like the brave, the warrior, the noble savage, of whom you idolize.
He is from the most well known tribe in the
as seen from coast to coast, the tribe that’s known the world over.
This brave you so eagerly honour and strive to be is from the Hollywood Tribe.
Yes, that fictitious character created from the imagination of two popular Americans we all know,
famous “what sells”
and his older, more famous brother, “Let’s keep a race down”
The racial stereotypes these two brothers have perpetrated and perpetuated
have caused a rip in the fabric of time,
in the quilt of culture,
in the identity of…us
I have seen these stereotypes weave their way into the collective culture of my people, my Mi’kmaq Brothers,
Mohegan sisters,
Walula, Tillamook, Coos, and Tututni cousins.
Cultures implanted, borrowed, and shared,
impregnation, assimilation..working just fucking fine.
You want to honour us?
Remove these names from your teams.
Begin to realize, using them,
the Braves, Indians, Redskins,
is no honour..
DISHONOUR!
Forget the
first introduced by the great showman and metal of honour winner
Buffalo Bill Cody.
Back in his day, white folk would dress up as the Hollywood Tribe
and circle the pioneers’ wagons in the show.
Not because that’s how it was, but because
that’s how it HAD to be.
You see… they performed in a ring, horses going round and round.
Amazing how
culutralistic facts, naw..Eurolistic fiction.
White guys, dressing up as Natives, 100 years ago,
interesting how time stands still when you want it to.
So,
next time you stand in line,
tomahawk in one hand,
ticket in the other,
fluorescent face paint with matching headdress,
pounding on you face to make that goddamn sound,
do me a small favour…pound just a little bit harder,
cause you sure as hell are not honouring me.
Two thumbs up Jude! By the way, I like the new look of your blog!
ReplyDelete--Maureen
So dressing up like KKK would be considered dishonouring them? You really are a little too black and white in the way you see and interpret things. Life in general has a lot more gray. It's great to be passionate about a belief or a cause, but not to the point of being blinded or jaded by it. You are educated but your personal bias clouds the clarity of your writing and judgement. Racism is a two way street and no one is immune or innocent from giving or receiving it. It's easy to criticise the past when you can't change it, how about be constructive and help us build a better future by working together instead of dividing everyone up? Start blogging about what everyone can do in a positive direction. Hold the people that made the actions, responsible for their actions, instead of the whole race. Something you should consider.
ReplyDeleteTalk about taking something out of context! Black and white in the way I see things? How can one actually see these teams as honouring someone? I am not holding a whole race responsible...that is ridiculous.. however, when you have a society that is still ingrained and filled with systemic and institutional racism, one has to talk about it and put it out there. Otherwise, things go one as usual.
ReplyDeleteThere is one fault in your statement...racism is not a two way street. The whole premise of racism is to take away power. The idea of race came about as a justification for slavery and colonialism...as a means to take power away from certain groups. Racism has persevered to this very day in this context, as a way to take away power. If race is a two way street, then I ask, what power is being taken away from mainstream society? Or, maybe, just maybe, it is the balancing of power that scares you
How can anyone actually see those teams as honouring someone, you ask? Who says they are honouring anyone? I would say that they, at the very least, give some level of recognition. Recognition in any positive form is a good thing, it doesn't always have to be historically accurate to have value to a culture or society as a whole. I would rather have a million people that get all warm and fuzzy when they hear "Washington Redskins" than all racial and angry. Maybe some child somewhere who loves the Redskins will want to look deeper into the meaning of their favorite team name and, god forbid, educate themselves on some history and culture? Do you think hiding anything "cultural" away is the better option?
ReplyDeleteSo you say you don't hold a whole race responsible because it's rediculous... What is your definition of "society" then? Is it every other race, other than the aboriginal race?
I think we need to talk about how politics in general is more about serving the good of the few over the many. How being a politician is often at odds with being a leader and that's why our country is so lost on many important issues. It's not the convenient and too often used "race card" to blame.
Racism, both systematic and institutional, have played a role in the past for sure but I believe the problems today have more to do with politics and bad management.
Racism is absolutely a two way street. If a minority group chooses to beat an innocent white individual, simply because of the colour of their skin, they are taking their power and humanity away from them. It's no different than if a white person or group did that to a visible minority for the same reasons.
We all have the power to be racist, act racist and be racially motivated and have at one time or another, whether we realized it or not. That makes us human but it does not make it right.
So I ask you, how do you define "mainstream Society"? who are they specifically? Power is not the title beside a person's name, power, or lack of, is defined by what we do, or fail to do as a person or a people.