AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Trump’s sickening take on the world of sports, vol. 23

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/03/2024 (961 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NFL’s Washington Redskins are now the Washington Commanders. The CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos are now the Edmonton Elks. Baseball’s Cleveland Indians are now the Guardians. And just a couple of hours away, the North Dakota Fighting Sioux are now the Fighting Hawks.

Slowly but surely, professional and amateur sports teams are increasingly aware of and sensitive to the negative impact of racist team names and mascots. Those on the left rightly see this as progress. Those on the perpetually aggrieved right somehow see this act of respect and basic human decency as an attack on the American way of life.

Enter the former president of the United States, who last weekend told a crowd of his assembled cult members at a rally that a certain politician isn’t “fit” to run for the U.S. Senate because in 2022 he changed the name of the sports team his family owns.

“Anybody that changes the name of the Cleveland Indians to the Cleveland Guardians should not a be a senator,” said the only former president in American history to be arrested and charged with multiple felony crimes.

So to recap, Trump thinks he is qualified to run for president even though he has been found guilty in civil court of rape and defaming the victim of his rape, found guilty of fraud in his business, in his charity and in his university, tried to overthrow the government, called people who are in jail for assaulting police officers “patriots” and “hostages” instead of criminals, interfered in an election, paid hush money to a porn star, called immigrants “animals” and “vermin,” and called Putin a “genius” and “savvy” for invading Ukraine while the rest of the sane, civilized world recoiled in horror at the death and destruction Putin unleashed.

In his delusional, rapidly decaying mind the former president thinks those abhorrent actions make him worthy of running for president. But changing Cleveland’s baseball team’s name from the racist Indians to the more inclusive Guardians, that disqualifies someone from running for the U.S. Senate.

Just think if a sports team was owned by a Native American and called the team the Jews, Mennos, Italians or Red Necks and had a mascot that mocked white culture.

Conservatives and right-wingers who fall back on the position of “but they’re only trying to show respect to native American culture” when a team is named Chiefs or Braves, need to read the next two paragraphs.

Dr. Stephanie Fryberg is a prof at the University of Michigan and an expert on the impact of Native American mascots. More than an expert, she is a member of the Tulalip Tribes. This is what she says the science – not gut feelings or personal emotions – says about racist team mascots:

“In addition, it is really important to draw a clear line between intent and impact. While the Chiefs may claim they intend to honor Native Peoples, the science does not support this assertion. The science clearly demonstrates that there are no benefits for Natives being used as mascots. Using natives as mascots is related to lower self-esteem, less achievement-related aspirations, greater anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation. None of these things are what you would associate with something done in the name of honoring a group.”

As the racist names of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, baseball’s Atlanta Braves and the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs make clear, there is still work to be done. It is the height of hypocrisy for white folks to decide which Indigenous names are okay and which are not. White people have no right to make that call.

Thankfully the tide is turning. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. prophetically once said “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice” and that certainly applies to the issue of sports team names and mascots. Fans and owners alike are increasingly not cool with having team names and mascots that denigrate the Indigenous peoples who first inhabited this continent.