jpx7
Very Flirtatious, but Doubts What Love Is.
I don't think the Blackhawks generate the same level of outcry, because they're named after a specific member of a specific tribe—likewise, I haven't heard much outcry about the Illini representations of University of Illinois—and moreover the Blackhawks have also proactively sought indigenous participation in discussions around their representation, like FSU has with the Seminole tribe (and, as much as it pains me to say anything positive about FSU, I think they've genuinely done a good job relative to other sports teams).
That seems to be the big gulf: indigenous peoples, for the most part, aren't saying never speak of or celebrate our various cultures, they're just asking for a say in how and when and why they're represented (in these cases, by large entertainment corporations, for the profit of non-native peoples). And I'm very sympathetic to the idea that they'd like to not be represented by an outright slur (Washington's NFL team), by a historical misnomer that generalizes what is actually a very diverse set of native tribes, languages, and cultures (Indians), or what could easily be construed as a caricature of otherizing savagery (Braves).
If the Braves were smart, given that—unlike the other two negative examples—their name is open to a lot of various meanings, they'd have gotten ahead of this years ago: for instance, slowly but surely phasing out the tomahawk and other faux-indigenous iconography, replacing it with jingoistic, Home of the Braves US-patriotism bull****. This might've allowed the team to keep the name while appeasing (almost) everybody: native peoples would no longer have complaints about (mis)representation, while I'd bet the Venn diagram of (a) people triggered by "catering" to a minority group and (b) people who'd gorge themselves on the jingoism angle is, essentially, a circle. The team's faceless corporate ownership is even called Liberty Media, providing top-down synergy for this re-branding—and really, given that the Braves are owned by a bottom-line-oriented corporation, as opposed to a dollars-plus-ego-driven lead owner, I'm a little surprised they haven't tried to do something like this already.
