If anyone's seen "Easy A," there is a scene early on the film where we're introduced to a headstrong religious zealot group on the school campus. One of the things they accomplished was changing the high school's basketball team's name from the Blue Devils to the Woodchucks. They handed out fliers that had a picture of the mascot and the words "Stop Cheering for Satan" written on it.
It was hilarious.
But then I thought about it and was like "What if someone wanted to change the Fredonia Blue Devils to something more woodland creature-y? Would we do it? How offensive are the Blue Devils?"
I think that when it comes to naming sports teams, you try to go for a name that has some sort of power behind it. "Blue Devils" implies some vague sense of power. "Warriors" imply a sense of leadership and bad-assery.
90% of the ethnic offense in sports teams stems from the naming of teams after Native Americans. I think that depending on the context of the situation and the images surrounding it, most names imply a sense of strength and spirit. I believe that Seminoles can make the case that they are very respectful to the image of the Native American people. They do the research, they try their hardest to respect the traditions, I feel like that's okay.
Having said that, The Cleveland Indians are a different story. Holy racist imagery, batman. Chief WaHoo is racist is every way possible and that's not okay and it's incredibly disrespectful.
I really think that the context surrounding the teams and the measures they take to maintain an image changes the offense behind the controversy.
No comments:
Post a Comment