its a fine line and i think individual calls need to be made on specific things. for instance, here what i think is all right.
names that are ok: Indians, Braves, Seminoles, Tribe, Fighting Irish.
names that are not ok: Redskins
logos that are ok: stylized letters with feathers in them
logos that are not ok: grinning cartoon redfaced man
logos that are on the border: washing redskins serious side portrait.
mascot related activities that are ok: bad ass Florida State Seminole dude riding horseback and stabbing a flaming spear in the middle of the football field.
mascot related activities that are NOT ok: that g.d. tomahawk chop and that ridiculous “indian” chant. i support eliminating it not because its racist or harkens back to a racist time, but because it’s effing dumb.
course you’re better off asking a Native American so who cares what i think.
Thanks for posting this, Ted. I found the comments section to be the most interesting part of the post. The comments show how dedicated many people are to maintaining and defending the status quo in conscious and subconscious ways. It is as if some commenters are asking for a personal letter from every First Nations man, woman, and child expressly stating their offense at these demonstrations of racism before they are willing to say it is offensive for people to dress up in war paint and headdresses while doing the tomahawk chop at a Braves game. If one person from that group says they aren’t offended by these displays then anyone who is must be overly sensitive. I would imagine that those who are arguing that it is okay to continue using the chop are also the same people who would turn around and say, “can’t you take a joke?” These are the markings of the modern racist; a person who does not espouse racist beliefs, nor would they admit to having racist beliefs to others or even to themselves. It is easy to identify and defend against racists who know they are racist and are willing to put their racist views out there for the whole world to see. It is a much harder task to take on racism in everyday people, people like you and me who have learned to abhor racism so much that we can’t confront our own racist beliefs because of the damage it does to our self-conception to think of ourselves as racist.
We are all prejudiced and racist and sexist in some way, shape, or form.
We have all absorbed these lessons just by living our lives in a dominant culture and stereotyping happens automatically before we even have a chance to perceive it (check out John Bargh’s work “The Unbearable Automaticity of Being”). The job of people who hope to combat racism (and I truly believe the people engaging in this debate in the comment section hope to combat racism, even those arguing on the side of the chop being harmless) is not to deny the racist aspects of our selves, but rather to confront them and to understand how they have an impact on our behavior and the many ways they come out in seemingly innocuous ways.
Making people feel as if they are an inferior other happens all the time and one of the most hurtful defenses of this “othering” is the accusation that a person who feels offense is uptight and simply can’t take a joke. Modern racists inevitably end up mocking the “PC police” for taking the fun out of everything and sanitizing the world. I have never encountered a better argument in favor of maintaining the status quo than “lighten up.”
Besides, if you can’t be clever or funny or interesting without mocking someone else or putting someone down, you probably aren’t as funny/clever/interesting as you think you are.
You could make fun of Favre as an example of a married professional football player who sends pictures of his junk to a woman who isn’t his wife. In that way you are making fun of the act of sexting penis pictures, not Favre himself. Or perhaps you could make fun of reckless quarterbacks who throw interceptions at really inopportune times using Favre as an example, thereby making fun of quarterback stupidity, not Favre himself. Either that, or we can amend my prior statement about funny and say you shouldn’t make fun of people because they are different. And then add an addendum that states making fun of multi-millionaires who play sports for a living is always okay if you are making fun of flaws specific to them, such as sending penis pictures to unsuspecting cheerleaders as a lame attempt at seduction. (I originally used the phrase “a lame attempt at a come on,” but that introduced a pun I was not willing to own.)
I agreed with most of what Joaquin said in his original post, but I have to disagree with the notion that it’s not okay to make fun of Brett Farve himself.
We, as a society, need to not only be able to be intelligent, and reflective on our shortcomings in our attempts to better ourselve, but also be able to mock d-bags who send people pics of their junk. I think that’s in the constitution.
Thanks for posting this, Ted. Watching the tomahawk chop during the ATL/SF series bummed me out more than usual (probably cuz there were so many Braves fans in the stands–a rarity!!) and I wondered if anyone else agreed with me or if people would think I’m crazy for thinking the whole thing is f’d up.
Tedquarters 
its a fine line and i think individual calls need to be made on specific things. for instance, here what i think is all right.
names that are ok: Indians, Braves, Seminoles, Tribe, Fighting Irish.
names that are not ok: Redskins
logos that are ok: stylized letters with feathers in them
logos that are not ok: grinning cartoon redfaced man
logos that are on the border: washing redskins serious side portrait.
mascot related activities that are ok: bad ass Florida State Seminole dude riding horseback and stabbing a flaming spear in the middle of the football field.
mascot related activities that are NOT ok: that g.d. tomahawk chop and that ridiculous “indian” chant. i support eliminating it not because its racist or harkens back to a racist time, but because it’s effing dumb.
course you’re better off asking a Native American so who cares what i think.
Nope, nope, nope. Even the “bad ass” depictions are problematic because of their context.
Thanks for posting this, Ted. I found the comments section to be the most interesting part of the post. The comments show how dedicated many people are to maintaining and defending the status quo in conscious and subconscious ways. It is as if some commenters are asking for a personal letter from every First Nations man, woman, and child expressly stating their offense at these demonstrations of racism before they are willing to say it is offensive for people to dress up in war paint and headdresses while doing the tomahawk chop at a Braves game. If one person from that group says they aren’t offended by these displays then anyone who is must be overly sensitive. I would imagine that those who are arguing that it is okay to continue using the chop are also the same people who would turn around and say, “can’t you take a joke?” These are the markings of the modern racist; a person who does not espouse racist beliefs, nor would they admit to having racist beliefs to others or even to themselves. It is easy to identify and defend against racists who know they are racist and are willing to put their racist views out there for the whole world to see. It is a much harder task to take on racism in everyday people, people like you and me who have learned to abhor racism so much that we can’t confront our own racist beliefs because of the damage it does to our self-conception to think of ourselves as racist.
We are all prejudiced and racist and sexist in some way, shape, or form.
We have all absorbed these lessons just by living our lives in a dominant culture and stereotyping happens automatically before we even have a chance to perceive it (check out John Bargh’s work “The Unbearable Automaticity of Being”). The job of people who hope to combat racism (and I truly believe the people engaging in this debate in the comment section hope to combat racism, even those arguing on the side of the chop being harmless) is not to deny the racist aspects of our selves, but rather to confront them and to understand how they have an impact on our behavior and the many ways they come out in seemingly innocuous ways.
Making people feel as if they are an inferior other happens all the time and one of the most hurtful defenses of this “othering” is the accusation that a person who feels offense is uptight and simply can’t take a joke. Modern racists inevitably end up mocking the “PC police” for taking the fun out of everything and sanitizing the world. I have never encountered a better argument in favor of maintaining the status quo than “lighten up.”
Besides, if you can’t be clever or funny or interesting without mocking someone else or putting someone down, you probably aren’t as funny/clever/interesting as you think you are.
I agree with most of what you say here, but can I still mock and put down Brett Favre?
You could make fun of Favre as an example of a married professional football player who sends pictures of his junk to a woman who isn’t his wife. In that way you are making fun of the act of sexting penis pictures, not Favre himself. Or perhaps you could make fun of reckless quarterbacks who throw interceptions at really inopportune times using Favre as an example, thereby making fun of quarterback stupidity, not Favre himself. Either that, or we can amend my prior statement about funny and say you shouldn’t make fun of people because they are different. And then add an addendum that states making fun of multi-millionaires who play sports for a living is always okay if you are making fun of flaws specific to them, such as sending penis pictures to unsuspecting cheerleaders as a lame attempt at seduction. (I originally used the phrase “a lame attempt at a come on,” but that introduced a pun I was not willing to own.)
I agreed with most of what Joaquin said in his original post, but I have to disagree with the notion that it’s not okay to make fun of Brett Farve himself.
We, as a society, need to not only be able to be intelligent, and reflective on our shortcomings in our attempts to better ourselve, but also be able to mock d-bags who send people pics of their junk. I think that’s in the constitution.
Thanks for posting this, Ted. Watching the tomahawk chop during the ATL/SF series bummed me out more than usual (probably cuz there were so many Braves fans in the stands–a rarity!!) and I wondered if anyone else agreed with me or if people would think I’m crazy for thinking the whole thing is f’d up.