The other night the @Braves dimmed the lights so their fans could once again perform the disgusting tomahawk chop, lit by their phone flashlights and amplified by their faclke Native chant. This despite years of Natives opposing the chop as racist.
Speaking as a Mvskoke and Semvnole violently targeted by @Braves fans for vocally opposing the use of Native iconography by Atlanta I can tell you it doesn't matter what we say about it.
If it did then the team and fans would have listened in 2019 when Chief Richard Sneed of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians said of the tomahawk chop, “That’s just so stereotypical, like old-school Hollywood. Come on, guys. It’s 2020. Let’s move on. Find something else.”
Atlanta removed the "Chop On" sign in July 2020 though they are firm that they won't be changing their name and they're still "reviewing" whether or not to stop the racist "tomahawk chop".
The chop, chant, and name stereotype Natives in that we are only seen as the "warrior" trope, a monolithic relic of the past. Society continually disallows us from defining who and what we are. We struggle to be heard because you decide how we're seen.
On their site they include "chop on" in a word search for kids. One of our struggles as Natives is fighting to be represented in modern American society. For some children this is their only experience with "Native" culture,
a stereotype that consign us to the dustbin of history and erases our vibrant, living tribal identities.
mlb.com/braves/fans/en…
Our youth deserve to see positive, contemporary representations of themselves just like everyone else. We are not logos or stereotypes.
mlb.com/braves/fans/en…
Our youth deserve to see positive, contemporary representations of themselves just like everyone else. We are not logos or stereotypes.
We are Congresspeople, ballerinas, artists, authors, musicians, scientists. Yet the average American can probably do the tomahawk chop faster than they can name even 3 of them.
That's important. Most people are lucky. They can turn on the TV, open a book, or pick up a magazine and see people who look like them. They live in a world where they can see portayals of fully formed human beings that have their same experiences and real emotions.
We get to see caricatures, stereotypes, red facepaint, and the chop. That's not ok. It's pretty disgusting.
To be perfectly blunt, how we are portrayed or viewed by society at large should not be left up to the descendants of those who did everything in their power to exterminate not only our cultures but us as well.
Appropriating them now to serve their own needs while disregarding the humanity and dignity of Natives is nothing more than cultural genocide.
Our relatives fought against incredible odds to survive. The very least we can do is make certain they live on by making their voices heard. That's the real way to honor them, not as branding for a team that allows for our denigration.
Those voices that echo in our hearts do not live in the Atlanta name. They have been silenced for years by the scornful tomahawk chop and chant, a racist trope that Atlanta has not only refused to ban but encourages.
Our relatives no longer exist as long as Atlanta has that name and does the chop. Neither do we. Until those are gone we are nothing but the stereotypes they've decided to let us be, instead of the human beings we are.
Make no mistake. This is not something that Atlanta should have to "review" or stand firm on because the say it's an honor. Real honor is showing respect to others humanity. That level of respect should be innate, not something up for debate or measured in dollars and cents.
Bowing down to those rather than listening to Native people when we say it's harmful and ask for it to stop isn't "brave" at all. It's taking what you want from us to line your pockets without thought or care as to the real cost of what you're doing to others.
It keeps us as "others" instead of real people, contemporary fully formed human beings that are contributing members of society above and beyond some team name or racist hand motion.
It keeps us where your forefathers forced us, a part of the past that "america" refuses to acknowledge so that it doesn't have to take responsibility for or correct those sins they see as committed long ago.
It keeps you comfortable as you continue those sins while telling yourselves it's just a game.
Well, our lives are not "just a game". They mean something to us and they should mean something to you. They should mean enough to stop the chop and #changethename.
Well, our lives are not "just a game". They mean something to us and they should mean something to you. They should mean enough to stop the chop and #changethename.
There you go.
I know you're just going to make fun of it and dismiss it but now you can't say you haven't had it explained to you in detail.
If you still don't get it then it's not the explanation. It's willful ignorance and no amount of explaining can help with that.
I know you're just going to make fun of it and dismiss it but now you can't say you haven't had it explained to you in detail.
If you still don't get it then it's not the explanation. It's willful ignorance and no amount of explaining can help with that.
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