Blackhawks' logo deemed offensive

[KamaAina]

No, not the Chicago ones, a junior team in Ontario.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/is-this-hockey-logo-offensive-135504336.html

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t logos of questionable taste, given the current climate, in the hockey world; and one of them may be on its way out.

Thorold is a town in Ontario, and their junior hockey team is the Thorold Blackhawks. The name isn’t the issue, but the teams’ logo – a caricature of a First Nations warrior that bears more than a passing resemblance to Mama Fratelli from “The Goonies” – has come under intense scrutiny for the last year.

The movement was sparked by a Facebook page called “Is The Thorold Blackhawks Logo Offensive?”, which used the Redskins controversy as a jumping-off point for its own critique of the logo. Soon local newspapers were editorializing on the matter, and members of the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church congregation in Thorold wrote a letter to the teams’ owners asking that they change the logo. (And when you lose the church in Thorold, well …)

The owners raised the usual counterarguments about honoring First Nations culture and how the logo is a part of their own deep-rooted history in the community, but that didn’t turn the tide.

[Nye Bevan]

1. About on a par with the Cleveland Indians logo.

[SidDithers]

2. But in better focus...

Sid

[Fred Sanders]

4. Racism in sports is institutionalized, the racist symbols are a legacy of that.

[DreamGypsy]

3. The Atlanta Braves is an OK name...

...but the tomahawk is pretty tacky. Still it is more palatable than the 1957-1966 logo



And then there's the whole background of The Noble Savage: The Brave:

The male version of the noble savage is The Brave. He is peaceful, kills only to eat or to defend his family, and is not wasteful. The Brave is a spiritual, mystic guardian of the land who exists in harmony with, and as icon of America's wilderness past, as if he were an eagle or a buffalo rather than human. He is often represented in picturesque nature, showcasing some "natural" skill admired for its primitive purity, like hunting buffalo or riding a horse. The Brave imagery usually includes excessive traditional dress (especially a splendid headdress), thereby reinforcing his flawless naturalness. As a mythic icon of the past, the Brave lacks humanity. Consequentially, the Brave is always shown as stoic, lacking any real emotion, especially humor. This section also includes imagery that romanticizes the traditional Native lifestyle since it is often a key part of Brave depictions

This fabrication of the American Indian by White American culture began around the 1820s, driven by the desire to create a mythic American past. Other heroic mythologies created around this time include imagery about Christopher Columbus, the Pilgrims and their first Thanksgiving, and the casting of the Founding Fathers as demigods. With the Indians East of Appalachia subdued (and ultimately removed by the 1830s), anxiety about them subsided temporarily, allowing for national feelings about Indians to develop into a kind of schizophrenic depiction of them. There were still plenty of "bad" Indians in the American consciousness, but now there was room for re-invention, and the noble savage was created. Perhaps the single largest contribution to the creation of the Noble Savage was the publication of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha in 1855. Longfellow's Hiawatha was an Indian with magic powers from the Lake Superior region who became a prophet and a guide. From the body of a stranger he conquered, Hiawatha got corn. He defeated disease-bearing Pearl-Feather with the help of a woodpecker, whose feather tuft he streaked with red. He invented picture writing. Following the death of his beloved Minnehaha and the coming of the white man, Hiawatha left his tribe to travel through the Portals of the Sunset to the Land of the Hereafter. The poem was enormously successful and, when taught in the elementary classroom, fully romanticized the Indian in the minds of numerous American generations.

Westward expansion soon brought "civilization" across the Appalachians in large numbers, and into conflict with Plains Indians, especially after the Civil War and the building of the transcontinental railroads, and once again negative images of Indians took center stage. By 1890, following the destruction of the buffalo, the surrender of Sitting Bull, and the tragedy at Wounded Knee, the "Indian threat" had been permanently extinguished. This again allowed for the re-emergence of the Noble Savage. Wild West shows run by Buffalo Bill and others perpetuated both the noble and ignoble savage stereotypes, and even featured real Indians in the show, including Sitting Bull, and Geronimo.

<snip>

What followed was a nostalgic romanticizing of what had been. The rampant exploitation of natural resources, and the conquering, or in some cases extermination of Natives was recast in the popular imagination as a necessary, if bittersweet consequence of progress. Indians could be depicted in all of their "natural" glory, as noble savages, mythical icons of America's wilderness past. This phenomenon allowed Americans to largely forget the ugly consequences of their expansionist past. Additionally, even though the Noble Savage is defended as being a "positive" stereotype, the result is historical amnesia and the dehumanization of real people who still exist. By cementing the Indian as an "other" from the past, it allows modern society to largely ignore the existence and plight of Native Americans today.

And just to add a little music to the story, here's Tom Russell and Andrew Hardin playing Tom's song from the Man From God Knows Where Recording:

Sitting Bull in Venice

Look at me brave Sitting Bull in this gondola canoe.
Bill Cody brings us smoke and meat, so what are we to do?
We came across the water in a boat no man could row
To play war in from of strangers in Bill Cody's Wild West Show.

Thanks for the post, KamaAina