Quote:
Originally Posted by MrBojangles
Here's an idea  (EDIT: referring to below "Caucasians" picture, not sure how to include it with the quote) |
This would probably be considered offensive by a lot of people for different reasons. There would be complaints that this logo excludes non-whites and therefor it is racist!
I view the Indians logo as just a silly caraciture. Is it meant to be offensive? No, I don't think so. It's a traditional logo from less sensitive times. Today we live in a time of extreme political correctness. Yes, in the past native americans were treated horribly and were slaughtered by the thousands. With this in the back of peoples minds when they see a carricature of an "indian" they have a knee-jerk reaction: Ooh, this is racist! This has become an automatic reflex were people are even afraid if they do not react this way they might be considered racist. Oh, the horror!
If the Cleveland baseball team called themselves Indian Killers with a logo showing native American women and children being trampled by horses and being shot in the back by soldiers riding those horses, well that might be a little bit racist. But a silly caricature? What about the below logo of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Is this also racist? Does this portray all Irish as being leprechauns with a hot temper?
I don't see a major difference between the two logo's. They are both carricatures. I do see a major difference in the way people react to both logo's. An interesting sociological question why this is so. You could even turn this around and argue that people who react very different to both logo's are being racist. Both logo's reflect a certain group of people but subconsiously people apparently do not view these groups as being equal. The poor "indians" can't stand up for themselves and need to be protected? People feel responsible for the terrible way the native Americans were treated by their ancestors and therefor native americans can only be portrait in a positive way? A carricature of an Irishman is allowed but a carricature of an "indian" is not done?
If someone were to make a carricature about my own "race" and heritage, would I be offended? No chance. If people did their best to offend me, at best I would find it mildy ammusing, at worst sleep-inducingly boring.
Is the Indians logo a silly caricature? Yes it is, very silly indeed.
Is the Indians logo insensitive? Perhaps, but not more than the ND logo.
Is the Indians logo meant to degrade native Americans? I do not think this was the intention of the designer. People need to stop being so damn sensitive. These days anything that can be perceived as racist even in the slightest is automatically considered to be racist and if you do not agree you are a racist. This needs to stop.
Should the Indians change their logo? I don't care, they can change it if they want to. I'm not really fan of the logo anyway.
Do the Indians NEED to change the logo because it is racist? No, they do not NEED to change it. Calling this racism in my minds degrades the term racism and is offensive to victims of real racism.
Oh, by the way. Irish need not to reply.