"Trail of beers" – the perfect example of mascot-induced stereotypes and racism

When I was at the United Nations conference last week, we held a meeting on indigenous issues. I brought up the mascot issue in one of the three questions allotted during the panel, and we discussed current work happening to resolve it. One guest in the room made the comment, “What about Chicago Blackhawks? I don’t ever hear anyone talking about them…”

I replied to her that they are talking, but that doesn’t mean you’ve heard much about it yet. When it comes to these kinds of issues, it’s mostly going to be our voices on social media until it causes a big enough stir to be covered by someone else.

I have also heard many people call the Blackhawks name and logo “one of the tamer ones” – which is true in one sense. It is true in the sense that it’s not intended to be a grotesque caricature with blood red skin, as with the Cleveland mascot, and it’s not a racial slur, as with the Washington team. But it’s still unacceptable to make racial-based mascots of any kind, including indigenous ones. This behavior seemed acceptable in a time when treating all sorts of non-Caucasian groups as inferior was part of normal behavior. It’s been taking a long time to get a voice, but the indigenous opinions far and wide are finally getting a chance to surface in the general public.

https://faithlessfaith.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/trail-of-beers-the-perfect-example-of-mascot-induced-stereotypes-and-racism/