Question for DU KC Chiefs fans

[Clash City Rocker]

How can you root for a team that does that racist chant? Does it bother you that your team is mocking Native Americans? I usually change the channel or turn off the TV when I hear it.

[radalpha]

1. Chiefs Tomahawk Chant

I have always considered it a way to recognize and honor a very proud and worthy people.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. They routinely say they don't feel honored by it, so maybe it should change.

[DURHAM D]

4. Who is "they"?

Members of my family are First Americans and they are big Chief fans.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Oh, people have been protesting the use of Native imagery and mascots in sports and the wider

culture for decades. Both Natives and non-Natives.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

3. Not a Chiefs fan, but the team are not the one's doing the chant

I'd say if one boycotts going to games at Arrowhead because of it, that's adequate penance.

[hlthe2b]

5. The team has "outlawed" racist/stereotype clothing and the chant. Can they do more? Yes

but as one who has worked with 27 high schools on this issue in Colorado, I can assure you that the tribes I worked with were most concerned with the extremes of the issue that paint the most negative portrayal of Native Americans--e.g., the "Redskins" and their associated ridiculing mascots. Names like "Chiefs" and "Warriors" certainly were disliked by some but there were no consensus views--especially if those school teams had never indulged in demeaning symbols, logos, mascots, or gestures/chants and some of those schools retained the names.


Eventually, the Atlanta Braves and KC Chiefs may be renamed, but there are previously published viewpoints on the latter team (at least) that argue against tribe consensus in MO too. That tribes outside the region disagree is noted, however.

But, it isn't as though the KC franchise has ignored the issue nor shown a willingness to change and remove as much as they have direct control over among the fans. I would also point out that the issue of an arrowhead as a logo was not mentioned by a single consulting tribal member in our Colorado reviews as being offensive with respect to the one high school that had used it as their logo. Obviously, others may disagree.

Oh, and to the OP, I don't root for obnoxious fans on either side and there surely are some for both teams. I do root for Mahomes who, if you know his story and history, is one of the nicest, most ethical, collaborative, and talented, yet nonegotistical quarterbacks I've seen in years. Like Henry Winkler, who has expressed his unabashed "fanboy" admiration because of who Mahomes is and tries to be, I find that worth rooting for.

[lapfog_1]

9. I am 3/8ths native american

moreover I was born and raised near Kansas City.

I always thought some of the symbols used by the Chiefs were OK... such as the arrowhead. As a young lad I would routinely find arrowheads and axeheads on our property in Johnson County KS. My father collected them and created a display case for them including any thoughts or speculations on what tribe might have created them, etc.

As a Chiefs fan in the Len Dawson era (Superbowl I, IV), the feathered war bonnet and "war paint" horse that the main cheerleader mascot would ride around the stadium after every touchdown was the only Native American imagery associated with the football team that I can remember (other than the name/logo). Nobody did the "war whoop" or tomahawk chop. That all came later and was borrowed from Atlanta Braves and the racist aholes there. I wish someone in the more polite midwest would point this out and the fans would drop it.

Later I attended the Univ. of Kansas... mascot Jayhawk, celebration at basketball games was "waving fields of wheat" and the haunting Rock Chalk chant (referring to the limestone bluff on which the University was built) to be perfectly fine with everyone... no complaints from any group that i can recall.

https://www.google.com/search?q=rock+chalk+chant&oq=rock+chalk+chant&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i512l5j0i22i30i625l4.5740j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid 1c03c77,vid:h51be27dN8c

I think the Chiefs should be renamed and do something similar to the Univ of Kansas... name the team after a geological artifact or historical aspect of the region.

[MuseRider]

7. I have always hated

that. HATED it. I am not a big sports fan and football would be my least favorite except for Patrick Mahomes. I have to say that because I am not a true fan so what I say likely means nothing to anyone who supports them as their team.

It is disgusting, that chant. The pre game beating of the drum that is either for some rich person or a winner of something but it is also disgusting. Then there is the costuming and the tomahawk chop. It is wrong but I can tell you knowing people who are absolutely NOT racist that it will not end even if the team calls for an end to it. I actually heard fans of another team doing that same chant.

There are a lot of us out here who would LOVE to see it ended. There are plenty of people but no where near enough to stop it. The people who make such a deal out of it will never stop unless they start kicking people out for doing it and I do not see that happening. There are still people I consider people who would never do anything like this but they do it, tradition (BS) or just "their" team (BS) the remainder are those you see at Trump rallies. They are going to have to start hauling them out of the game and I just do not see that happening.

I watch Mahomes and only when he is on the field. I could not care less who actually wins. He is a dancer with amazing talent and he is fun to watch. My entire family will be here and the feelings about the chop and chant and all the other things is mixed. Mostly it is something like, "that is not offensive it is honoring the toughness" or some such, they know better. It goes like this, if you don't like it don't watch it (I never have until Mahomes). I KNOW they know better but they have grown up with this. To me that is NO excuse.

I am old enough to remember the "Indian" dressed in full costume with the full headdress flying around the field on a painted up horse. I think they did that for baseball? I never paid much attention actually but my whole family did. I thought getting rid of that would be the start of the change but so far it has not.

So, it DOES bother me and I am never silent about it but after all these years I wonder if there are enough of us to change it. I am hoping that when or if they get that new stadium they will feel able to change it because they certainly do not have the guts to do it now.

[GusBob]

8. News for ya'

I work for the IHS
there are more than a few KC fans amongst the NA population here
as a general rule they have more important things to worry about, and they do, trust me

[hlthe2b]

10. Good on you. I have had some past work via IHS and N. Americans in the Southwest too.

and for the one or two who don't know, Indian Health Service (IHS). And yeah, they sure as hell have much more imminent (and serious) issues to face on a daily basis. That is where I'd most like us to direct our support and attention.

[GusBob]

12. yes

Also as a general rule, they get irked when non-natives try to fight their cultural battles for them

For instance, on this very topic, there was a non-native woman who lives on the Rez and the last time the KCC were in the SB, she tried to make it an issue here in the clinic and on Facebook, along lines of the OP here

It was received with pretty much of "meh"

[gratuitous]

11. Interesting question; I have one for football fans

How can you watch and support a sport in which young men are grinding up their brains for your entertainment? Does it bother you to watch your heroes of yesterday live out their lives in terrible, crippling pain, often dying 10 or 20 years before their time?

After 50 years as a fan, I couldn't go on after that study came out on the post-mortem examination of former players' brains that showed all but one of them showed signs of CTE. I got thinking about players like Lyle Alzado, Jim Otto, and Darryl Stingley. I just couldn't do it anymore.

[Solomon]

13. I hate the team for that very reason. That chant is racist as hell.

I get so angry I have to turn the game off unless the other team is in the process of crushing them in which case I gloat.