<+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+>
 

[forwarded by Bruce Two Eagles; Thanks!]

>To: "mascot" <mascot_mini@onelist.com>
>Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2000 15:14:49 -0500
>From: "Robert Eurich" <reurich@pikeonline.net>
>Subject: [mascot_mini] chicago editorial on rocker
>
>From: "Robert Eurich" <reurich@pikeonline.net>
>
>Sunday February 6, 2000
>Chicago Sun-Times
>http://www.suntimes.com/output/mitchell/mitch06.html
>
>Team name worse than statements by Rocker
>
>February 6, 2000
>
>BY MARY MITCHELL SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
>
>
>I couldn't care less what Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker has to say about
>minorities, homosexuals and foreigners.
>
>The man's a baseball player, not the leader of a movement.
>
>But it is interesting that so many people were apparently offended by his
published
>remarks that Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig felt compelled to fine him
$20,000 and
>suspend him for three months. Rocker also had to undergo psychological
testing and
>must take sensitivity training.
>
>Too bad more of us aren't as disturbed by the offense Native Americans
suffer every
>time the Atlanta Braves play. If we were, the Braves would have to change
the team's
>symbol to something that doesn't offend any racial group.
>
>But it is easier to punish a single player for making bigoted remarks than
it is to
>challenge an ownership group and the team's fans to re-evaluate their way of
>thinking.
>
>Frankly, most of us could use a little sensitivity training.
>
>My 14-year-old daughter was dumbfounded when her white teacher was
offended because
>my daughter referred to plain white gym shoes as "white girls."
>
>The term is used so cavalierly among black kids, that she didn't realize
white people
>might find it offensive.
>
>And my oldest daughter had to remind me that it is politically incorrect
to blame my
>Mexican neighbors for the empty Corona bottles in my yard.
>
>There are things that we say that aren't racial slurs, but they are bigoted
>nonetheless. When uttered publicly, our biases offend people.
>
>Sensitivity training might help Rocker understand this.
>
>Still, it took a call from a Native American for me to understand just how
>hypocritical Selig's decision to suspend Rocker really is.
>
>Leonard Malatare is a receptionist and secretary at the Native American
Educational
>Service College on the North Side. He is of the Salish tribe from the
Flathead Indian
>Reservation in northwestern Montana.
>
>As far as he's concerned, Selig has a lot of nerve punishing Rocker for
his comments
>when the Atlanta Braves still call themselves the Atlanta Braves, and fans
still show
>up with their faces painted red and waving mock tomahawks.
>
>"We're trying to educate our children to grow up and become leaders in the
community
>and all the time we have to deal with racism from all the other races
because of
>institutions like the Atlanta Braves," said Malatare.
>
>This is a subject that comes up over and over again.
>
>While the P.C. police have shamed just about every other institution into
shape, some
>sports teams are still hanging onto their offensive mascots.
>
>The call to retire the University of Illinois Chief Illiniwek as a symbol
of the
>university has fallen on deaf ears because many of us don't understand why
Native
>Americans find the symbol degrading.
>
>More important, we apparently don't care.
>
>A poll conducted a couple of years ago among Illinois residents found that
77 percent
>said they supported keeping the symbol even though Native American
activists have
>campaigned against the symbol for 10 years.
>
>It doesn't matter that Native Americans, as well as some sociology
professors at the
>university, point out that the Chief's headdress, face paint and gymnastic
routine
>performed to drum music is not only offensive, but sacrilegious.
>
>While supporters argue that the image honors the memory of the Illini people,
>shouldn't Native Americans have the last word on what honors their
ancestors and what
>denigrates them?
>
>In a recent interview, a doctoral candidate in the sociology department at
the
>school, who is also the adoptive mother of a Native American child, said
she was
>shocked when she first saw Chief Illiniwek.
>
>"I could not believe a university would perpetuate that inaccurate and
stereotypical
>imagery," she said. "How could they dehumanize Native Americans in that way?"
>
>The answer is simple enough. Who is going to force them not to?
>
>Malatare suspects that Rocker's punishment has more to do with baseball's
bottom line
>than it does the industry's desire to be sensitive.
>
>"When Rocker made those racial slurs about women and all the people in New
York, it
>was so visible that people got angry and it threatened to affect baseball
>economically," he said.
>
>"When they offend Native Americans, it doesn't affect them in that way.
Native
>Americans are so few in number they don't have a voice big enough to say
you are
>hurting us."
>
>Rocker's comments aren't nearly as offensive as the disregard we have for our
>indigenous people.
>
 

<+>=<+>
KOLA Information: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm
KOLA Petitions: http://kola-hq.hypermart.net
KOLA Greeting Cards: http://users.skynet.be/kola/cards.htm
<+>=<+>
if you want to be removed from the KOLA
Email Newslist, just send us a message with
"unsub" in the subject or text body
<+>=<+>