The offended and the offenders, a virtue of understanding

Giancarlo Navas/ Staff Writer

Early Thursday, April 7, ESPN’s Bomani Jones sparked an introspective conversation that made a lot of America uncomfortable.

Filling in on the Mike and Mike morning show, Jones wore a shirt that mimicked the Cleveland Indians mascot, Chief Wahoo, and logo by replacing the word Indians with “caucasians” and had the Indians mascot edited to be a white person.

Jones’ intention was to make the viewers reflect on the offensive nature of using stereotypical caricature depictions of Native Americans as a mascot, a conversation that is long overdue.

Adopting Native American mascots is not an uncommon practice in sports. Before changing to Homer, a baseball head with the body of a human, the Atlanta Braves used the “screaming Indian”, named Chief Noc-A-Homa. The Washington “Redskins” not only use the derogatory term for Native Americans, but their logo and mascot is also a stereotypical representation of one. Both of which Jones calls “a flat out slur,” and “indefensible.”

Chief Wahoo came from a 1930’s comic strip that portrayed native Americans in a bad light with poor stereotypes. The Cleveland team has stated that they will reduce the logo prominence in the team, but not remove it completely as if to say, “we know this is kind of problematic, but we’re keeping it anyways. Be happy that at least we’re doing something.”

It’s all about making money off this offensive logo.

“The reason they won’t get rid of Chief Wahoo, which is completely indefensible, is they could still sell stuff with it,” said Jones on ESPN’s Molly’s take. “They can say they’re gonna de-emphasize it, but they’re not just gonna set money on fire.”

By wearing the altered shirt, Jones is asking those that have no problem with the original logo why they have a problem with this one. The simple answer is that when entitled white people see the same racialized stereotypes set on them, they go on the defensive. So why wouldn’t Native Americans feel the same way when they see themselves being represented in that light? A lot of “well you are being sensitive and this isn’t offensive” rhetoric gets thrown around, setting marginalized people even further in the outskirts.

This is the system we have in place, the one that allows those with race and class privilege to believe that they can exploit another group and then tell them that they have no reason to feel offended.

Before calling Jones an attention whore, think about his message and the importance of not making Native American people even more invisible for the sake of the entertainment of those that benefit from a racist and classist system.

It’s a conversation that needs to be had. Sports fans and the rest of the public needs to understand the significance of the logos and mascots that they are exposed to. They need to reflect and accept the kind of negative stereotypes that come with depictions of marginalized groups of people and use their privilege to stop it, not perpetuate it, especially if the source is a racist cartoon.