Exeter supporters petition for club to drop 'racist' Native American branding.

[13thWarrior]

Attacking this kind of thing only takes away attention from the real and despicable racism that still exists throughout the World.

I don't think it does act as a distraction. It increases awareness of small ways society can be better.

[RogerE]

As I understand it, the "Chief" in Exeter rugby originated from the term Navy Chief.  The adoption of American Indian paraphernalia is much more recent.

So they'll change their logo to a picture of Nelson.

Oh wait isn't he now a personna non-grata ?

[Wiltshire Wasp]

The Chiefs Tribe has a very balanced and quite long thread on this subject.  I found it well worth a read.

[WonkyWasp]

Still don't like it!

[Rossm]

I've never been comfortable with Exe fans wearing headdresses. My wife has some native american friends and I know that they would be upset or be offended when headdresses were used as a costume or a mascot.

[RogerE]

Had a look at that thread - very balanced, a credit to the supporters.

There does seem to be some consensus about associating the word chief to the ancient tribe of Dumnonii which had its seat of power in what is now Exeter. Although, according to a historian colleague, the chief of the tribe was actually a King (although the title was not an hereditary one).

[Neils]

Had a look at that thread - very balanced, a credit to the supporters.

There does seem to be some consensus about associating the word chief to the ancient tribe of Dumnonii which had its seat of power in what is now Exeter. Although, according to a historian colleague, the chief of the tribe was actually a King (although the title was not an hereditary one).

The problem with trying to associate it with past local history is that it has been usurped by a bunch of native american indian wannabes. They cannot backtrack now.

Bit like the EA fez wearers. The Ottomans liked slavery quite a bit including of the eunuch variety.

[RogerE]

The Christchurch Crusaders and Canterbury Chiefs both rebranded quite successfully to get away from their, politically sensitive(?),  images, whilst retaining their names.

In the case of Exeter it would be easy to rebrand and lose the headdress logo and mascot. It will be harder to persuade die-hard fans to stop the chant.

[InBetweenWasp]

Attacking this kind of thing only takes away attention from the real and despicable racism that still exists throughout the World.

I don't think it does act as a distraction. It increases awareness of small ways society can be better.

I think my line of thinking is probably similar to Old Geezer's.  For me, things like (which on the face of it seems much more like virue signalling than trying to make a meaningful impact, or change) this dilute the fundamental issue at heart of inequality and institutionalised racism amongst the likes of the US Police Forces.  We can't change history and I'm not sure that Chiefs, or Saracens are celebrating the historic negative connotations. 

We can sure as hell help shape the future and I think we're better of focussing our collectives efforts on that.  For those of us who are parents, ensuring that we bring our kids up to see people as people and equals, not different because of race, colour, sexuality etc...

It's been interesting hearing from some Black friends and their parents too on their views.  All said they had experienced racism in their lives, all agreed the police brutality in the US was unacceptable but all seemed sceptical of the impact of the protests and insinutated that actually, until bigger problems were solved the protests and Colston statue stuff detracted from the problems at heart more than they made things better.

Whilst I can hold my own opinion, being a white British male, I'm hardly qualified on the topic. 

[bigad82]

They should become the Exeter Windsocks.

[Lwasp]

Gathering global steam

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53276070

If the Redskins do change don’t see how the Chiefs can avoid it.

[coddy]

This is good news, Sport is leading the way at the moment in breaking down long existing racial discrimination which is in contrast to the Worlds Governments becoming increasingly the opposite.

[welsh wasp]

An interesting comment in the Exeter discussion about us needing to build our “cultural sensitivity”. That seems the theme of the discussion about changing the team style.
Might be appropriate for one or two comments here too. We need to learn from history rather than keep repeating it in our own words.

[Willie]

The World Wildlife Fund will be having words with our friends on the A46 soon.

Your instinct to conflate an ethnic minority with animals perfectly demonstrates the dehumanizing effect of racial stereotypes. This is exactly what Native American advocacy groups are campaigning against, thankfully with the increasing support of wider society, regardless of colour or creed.

Apart from being crap, it didn't offend anyone before, suddenly its an issue..meh.

I'm afraid you are just plain wrong.

The National Congress of American Indians launched a campaign to address stereotypes of Native people in popular culture and media, including sports mascots in 1968. LINK
Six years before Exeter adopted their ‘Indian’ brand in 1999, the NCAI passed a specific resolution  to “condemn the racist and condescending attitude of team owners, colleges and high schools, which continue to demean the members of our Nations” and called upon “all reasonable individuals in decision-making positions to voluntarily change racist and dehumanizing mascots.”

[Willie]

Attacking this kind of thing only takes away attention from the real and despicable racism that still exists throughout the World.

There's an overwhelming body of evidence in the field of social sciences that finds stereotypes, racial or otherwise, have very real harmful effects on all society. And it’s not just the harmful effect on the group being stereotyped either; exposure to any racial stereotype has been found to effect the way individuals view other completely unrelated groups. The theory is that when people are exposed to, for example, a seemingly harmless ‘American Indian’ stereotype there is a learned behaviour that reinforces the tendancy to stereotype ‘other’ groups as well. Swap the ‘Indian’ stereotype for an ‘African’ stereotype and the problem becomes clear. Native American civil rights may not currently be as visible as other groups, but that does not mean their rights are any less important.

If there are ‘bigger’ issues, the easiest way to address those is for society to make the simple changes to attitudes first. Us’ and ‘Them’ narratives are consistently found to have a negative effect on everyone involved.

The American Psychological Association, and other scientific bodies, have made specific calls for the “immediate retirement of American Indian Mascots, symbols, images, and personalities by Schools, Colleges, Universities, Athletic Teams, and Organizations.” LINK