Woman behind the Redskins name change says the Chiefs should be on guard

[BigRedChief]

The fight took a monumental shift at a protest nine years at Arrowhead Stadium and it’s about to come full circle. No matter what you think of the issue, it will soon be ubiquitous in and around Kansas City’s greatest obsession other than barbecue.

The Chiefs are aware of it, and are preparing accordingly.


Back in 2005, a group calling itself Not In Our Honor protested before the Chiefs played Washington. The protesters were predominately American Indians, united in their anger over what they perceived as offensive stereotypes passed off as nicknames for sports teams. An older woman, Suzan Harjo, one of the leaders of the protest, met a younger woman named Amanda Blackhorse, then a student at Kansas.

They bonded over their passion for the issue, and that’s how the case known as Blackhorse et al v. Pro-Football Inc. came to be. Last week the plaintiffs prevailed when the United States Patent and Trademark Office canceled the trademarks of the Washington Redskins.


The case is under appeal, but you should know that the woman who took on and (at least for the moment) defeated the corporate entity that owns Washington’s NFL team would like to see the same type of case brought against the Chiefs.
As she says, the spark that started back in 2005 at Arrowhead has created a fire that will probably soon return.


“What happens there, it’s just insane the things they allow to go on,” Blackhorse says of the Chiefs and Arrowhead. “They are definitely in the group (of offensive teams), for sure.”


For now, the Chiefs are publicly silent on this. But they know the fight is likely coming, and they hope a few things work in their favor — most notably that it’s tough to compare their nickname with the one in Washington that is a dictionary-defined racial slur. Blackhorse’s group has also protested baseball’s Cleveland Indians, and that team has greatly scaled back its use of the cartoonish Chief Wahoo logo.


The Chiefs have similarly scaled back some of their more obvious plays on Indian stereotypes, and they hope they have some other advantages when the fight comes. The team is named after H. Roe Bartle, the mayor who was key in Kansas City landing the team from Dallas in 1962. Bartle’s nickname was “The Chief.”


The team stopped using a man dressed in traditional headgear as a mascot during pregame festivities many years ago. In the early 1990s, many of the Chiefs’ defensive players posed for a poster that today both looks absolutely ridiculous and would never be recreated.
The team does, however, play the tomahawk chop during games and welcomes fans in headgear and other stereotypes of Native American dress.


Those are some of the parts of the game day experience that Blackhorse calls “insane,” and why she expects a fight that’s gaining momentum and support nationally to come to Kansas City.


She knows that the vast majority of Chiefs fans will oppose her, but she also knows that the vast majority of fans in Washington opposed her, as well.


She says there is “no middle ground with this issue,” that once an ethnic group is used as a nickname for a sports team, the people in that ethic group lose control of their identity and humanity.


“I don’t want people to think I’m going around pointing fingers, like, ‘You’re a racist, you’re a racist, you’re a racist,’ ” she says. “That’s not the point. The point is we’re offended. You can love Native Americans to death. You can have admiration, love what we do, how we are, whatever, and still (hijack) our culture without understanding it that way.”


Wherever you stand on this issue, there is no denying that Blackhorse’s side is making progress. Teams are sensitive to and aware of perpetuating stereotypes so much more than in the past, in response to public sentiment.


The issue is further complicated by context, that this is a fight centered around Indians, who make up about 1 percent of the nation’s population and who, in Blackhorse’s words, “are invisible sometimes to people.”
That makes getting the message out a bit more difficult. A group of people that feels offended by widespread stereotyping isn’t big enough to get critical mass on its own.


That’s why Blackhorse says the movement needs the help of non-Indians, and part of why she’s so encouraged by developments in Congress and with the trademark case.


There is a lot of momentum here, which can be dangerous for teams like the Chiefs that will likely soon find themselves directly in the fight.
“I’m not sure there’s anything the (Chiefs) can do at this point other than look for another name,” Blackhorse says. “They could be the team that says, ‘You know what? We understand the issue and we don’t want to be Dan Snyder and fight this in court forever. We want to do the right thing and move forward and avoid this entire battle.’ I’m sure fans will be upset, but still, that’s doing the right thing.


“If they want to be sensitive to Native American people, that’s the thing to do.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt...#storylink=cpy

Early 90's

[Hammock Parties]

“I don’t want people to think I’m going around pointing fingers, like, ‘You’re a racist, you’re a racist, you’re a racist,’ ” she says. “That’s not the point. The point is we’re offended.

Too ****ing bad, lady. This is America. If you're offended, you have to deal with it. You don't get to wipe out the things that offend you unless they hurt someone. Like really hurt them.

Go cry in a corner and let people worry about things that ACTUALLY MATTER. There are poverty-stricken people in this country starving to death, people who can't find jobs, people struggling under the weight of massive debt, people who are ACTUALLY BEING DENIED CIVIL RIGHTS (sup gay people, luv u), and you come up in here like THE NAME OF A ****ING FOOTBALL TEAM THAT BRINGS PEOPLE JOY AND HAPPINESS (during the regular season) ****ING MATTERS ONE LITTLE SPECK?

Get the **** out of America. Go to some communist shithole where you can get away with forcing people to think and act just like you think they ought to, and where the government can get away with forcing private corporations to conform to some self-righteous bullshit standard that didn't even exist 10 years ago.

God dammit I'm voting for the Republicans in the next election.

[Discuss Thrower]

Welp...

[RINGLEADER]

LONG LIVE THE FIGHTERS!

[Hammock Parties]

Look at these jokers.

[Hammock Parties]

They do have a sense of humor.

[TimBone]

Can you contact this lady directly? Clay, you should be trolling the shit out of her.

[New World Order]

As usual in this country we are letting the minority rule over the majority.

Only pussies would be intimidated by 4 protesters holding posters.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Flybone McTimmerson

Can you contact this lady directly? Clay, you should be trolling the shit out of her.

No. This has gotten to this point because people started giving her attention.

But I'm beginning to understand how Redskins fans must feel. Idiots from out of nowhere are trying to take away something that they love and has been a part of their lives for decades. What are they gonna do, sue the Redskins every time they sing their fight song at a game? That's a load of crap, man.

God damn it pisses me off. The Clarks better not be forced to pay these people one thin dime.

I'd ****ing stand beside Pioli and Cassel against these idiots...

[Hammock Parties]

BETTER ****ING SUE AMAZON!

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Chief-Writ.../dp/B0094ITC9Y

[SDChiefs]

Now the senators are gonna have to change their name because it will offend the Senate and distract them from doing their job of doing nothing.

[TimBone]

Originally Posted by Count Zarth

No. This has gotten to this point because people started giving her attention.

But I'm beginning to understand how Redskins fans must feel. Idiots from out of nowhere are trying to take away something that they love and has been a part of their lives for decades. What are they gonna do, sue the Redskins every time they sing their fight song at a game? That's a load of crap, man.

God damn it pisses me off. The Clarks better not be forced to pay these people one thin dime.

I'd ****ing stand beside Pioli and Cassel against these idiots...

That's actually a very good point. I get the feeling, though, that Clark would fold like a cheap suit.

[Hammock Parties]

This is pissing me off so much I can't sleep.

[mikey23545]

Never would have guessed that just like most Feminazi protestors as well, both of them uglier than a mud fence.

[MMXcalibur]

Oversensitive, politically correct sons-a-bitches.

The tail wags the dog, gentlemen. Get ready to pick up new gear for your Kansas City Red Wolves.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by KCtotheSB

Oversensitive, politically correct sons-a-bitches.

The tail wags the dog, gentlemen. Get ready to pick up new gear for your Kansas City Red Wolves.

What are they gonna do?

ARREST ME for wearing CHIEFS gear?

I need a damn drink.