If you paused for a moment while glancing at the cover image, I’m glad. On Thursday of last week (April 7, 2016) ESPN sports journalist Bomani Jones became the talk of social media. He didn’t say anything outlandish or offensive, but he did wear a t-shirt. The shirt read “Caucasians” and showcased an image similar to the mascot of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. Of course some people weren’t too happy about this.
My response…what a great way to wake people up. The Caucasians t-shirt made me look at my own contempt toward sports teams and their misrepresentation of minorities. In this particular case, I had never looked at the Cleveland Indians mascot as a true caricature. In my mind, the mascot had taken on some other connotation – it was just the way things had always been. As I dug deeper, I found that even I was more inclined to give the world of sports an “offensive pass” here and there. A quick Google search helped me realize that there are about 13 national sports teams with names and mascots derived from Native Americans or indigenous peoples. If you include high school teams with Redskin-related names alone that number is tripled – and that’s not including middle school and little league teams.
Some may say that it’s not that big of a deal, but I’d argue otherwise. I think about how outraged I’d be if there were teams named the Baltimore Banjo Lips or the Virginia Coons. I imagine some big-lipped, watermelon-eating mascot with some form of an afro on its head. It’s a disgusting image to conjure up, but one that I return to. I return to the image because that is exactly what has happened to Native Americans in the sports industry. The sports industry has profited at the expensive of the image of indigenous peoples by perpetuating stereotypes about them. Native Americans haven’t been able to shake the red-skinned, feather-wearing, wide-mouthed, happy warrior image for decades.
Stereotypes aside, national sports teams with racial epithets for names should be a thing of the past. It’s 2016! I’m ready for the age of hyped up white college kids painted and dressed up as Native Americans to be over. Native Americans are not costumes; they are people.
I support Bomani Jones because, without ever talking about it, he showed us that we discount the objections of minorities but account for the objections of the majority. As said by Jones himself, “To have a problem with the the logo of this (pointing to his shirt)... 
would be to have a problem with the Indians. But if you’re quiet about the Indians but have something to say about my shirt, I think it’s time for introspection.”
