{"id":510,"date":"2013-10-16T16:47:23","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T14:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=510"},"modified":"2015-04-27T21:09:21","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T19:09:21","slug":"cowboys-and-indians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/cowboys-and-indians\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys and Indians"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past Monday, October 14, was Columbus Day<\/b> \u2014 the federal holiday in the US that commemorates<\/span> the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas on October 12, 1492.<\/p>\n

Notice I did not say “the discovery by Christopher Columbus of the New World”. Political correctness has put an end to that phrasing. I would, however, take the unpopular position that he did discover the Americas, because they were new to him \u2014 in the same way that you can discover gold somewhere even though it’s actually been there for millions of years.<\/p>\n

Although people love to debate this question of semantics, it’s irrelevant compared to the systematic exploitation<\/span>, mistreatment, enslavement<\/span> and genocide<\/span> of the native peoples of the New World which Columbus himself started the day he arrived.<\/p>\n

These are historical facts that lie well<\/span> in the past. There is no dispute that they happened. No one today is meant to be held responsible. We are all grown-ups and ought to be able to talk about this. However, the United States is still reluctant to<\/span> have this conversation.<\/p>\n

Honor or insult?<\/h2>\n

One sign of this is the way that sports teams can still have names like the Cleveland Indians<\/b>, the Atlanta Braves<\/span><\/strong> and the Washington Redskins<\/b>. Two weeks ago, in an interview with the Associated Press, Barack Obama commented:<\/p>\n

“If I were the owner of the team and I knew that the name of my team, even if they’ve had a storied<\/span> history, was offending<\/span> a sizable<\/span> group of people, I’d think about changing it. … All these mascots and team names related to Native Americans: Native Americans feel pretty strongly about it, and I don’t know whether our attachment to a particular name should override<\/span> the real, legitimate concerns<\/span> that people have about these things.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He was talking about the Redskins, and as is the custom<\/span> in America, he heard back from the Redskins’ attorney<\/span>, Lanny J. Davis:<\/p>\n

“In the highly respected Annenberg Institute poll<\/span> (taken 2004) … nine out of ten Native Americans said they were not bothered by the name ‘Washington Redskins.’ … The name ‘Washington Redskins’ is 80 years old. It’s our history and legacy<\/span> and tradition. We Redskins fans sing ‘Hail to<\/span> the Redskins’ every Sunday as a word of honor, not disparagement<\/span>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The New York Jews?<\/h2>\n

The National Congress of American Indians begs to differ<\/span>. It says that such team names came about during a time when racism was the norm in society and non-white players weren’t allowed in professional sports teams. In 2001, the NCAI made a simple poster that showed why certain team mascots are offensive<\/span>. The poster showed<\/a> three baseball caps<\/span>: one for the “New York Jews<\/span>“, one for the “San Francisco Chinamen”, and one for the Cleveland Indians. A cartoon Jew could be slightly reminiscent of<\/span> drawings in Der St\u00fcrmer<\/i>. “Chinaman” has always been an offensive word. The grinning<\/span>, red-skinned, feather-wearing native on the Cleveland Indians logo<\/a> is no less of a caricature, but he is a real mascot.<\/p>\n

Native Americans are more likely than other groups to experience racist violence<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The NCAI says that, while effective in 2001, its poster is too blatant<\/span> by the standards of 2013. Nonetheless<\/span>, in a report published this month<\/a>, the organization notes that racism is still a big problem. The Department of Justice has found that “American Indians are more likely than people of other races to experience violence at the hands of someone of a different race.”<\/p>\n

Some spectators<\/span> see the inclusion of Native American mascots as one of the few ways for the largely forgotten native population to remain in the public consciousness<\/span>. A few teams, including the Central Michigan University Chippewas<\/b> and the Florida State University Seminoles<\/b>, have even received permission<\/a> from the corresponding<\/span> Native American groups to use their names. In 2005, Chief Osceola of the Seminole Tribe<\/span> of Florida said it was an “honor” to be associated with FSU.<\/p>\n

Still, these two teams are the exception<\/span>; the NCAA<\/span>, which coordinates college teams, has a policy of moving away from Native American imagery. The professional leagues still have a way to go to catch up. Perhaps, just to send the right message, the Dallas Cowboys<\/b> should start by changing their name. With no more cowboys and no more Indians, maybe we could start to put the past behind us.<\/p>\n

\n

Shutdown update:<\/b> A majority of Democrats and Republicans in Congress are able to agree that they want to end the government shutdown<\/a>. But when Democratic Congressman Chris van Hollen<\/b> from Maryland made a motion<\/span> last Saturday to “open the government now”, he was told that he could not<\/a> because of a rule change that the Republican majority had approved<\/span> an hour before the shutdown. The rule change means that only one person, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor<\/b> “or his designee<\/span>” \u2014 not any of the 435 representatives as before \u2014 can call for a vote on ending the shutdown.<\/p>\n

“Why were the rules rigged<\/span> to keep the government shut down?” van Hollen asked the presiding<\/span> speaker, Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah.<\/p>\n

“The gentleman will suspend<\/span>,” said Chaffetz.<\/p>\n

“Democracy has been suspended<\/span>, Mr. Speaker,” said van Hollen.<\/p>\n

\n

Shutdown finale:<\/b> Under pressure from donors<\/span>, economists, the US Chamber of Commerce<\/span>, voters, and very bad poll numbers<\/span>, a large majority of the House of Representatives agreed (285\u2013144) on the evening of October 16 to a Senate plan (81\u201318) to reopen the government. In the end, only minimal compromise was needed. The 16-day partial shutdown of US government services cost the US economy $24 billion<\/strong>, according to the financial ratings agency Standard & Poor’s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past Monday, October 14, was Columbus Day \u2014 the federal holiday in the US that commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas on October 12, 1492. Notice I did not say “the discovery by Christopher Columbus of the New World”. Political correctness has put an end to that phrasing. I would, however, take the unpopular position that … >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,65],"tags":[27,22,102,69,66,121],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1633,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions\/1633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}