Opinion | Sports

Kevin Blackistone: NFL fans are guilty of cultural appropriation

Monday, June 22, 2015

Zema Williams, also known as "Chief Zee," with a faux headdress and a faux tomahawk. Photo by Katidid213 / Wikipedia

Professor Kevin B. Blackistone calls on African American fans to join the fight against the Washington NFL team's racist mascot:

For much of my life, at least on fall and winter weekends, I was Rachel Dolezal.
I donned a T-shirt, sweatshirt or cap emblazoned with some image and nickname of my hometown football team and cheered it on. In the beginning, it was a gold-and-white spear and arrowhead festooned with a single feather. Then it became a burgundy R with a circle around it and a pair of white-and-burgundy feathers dangling down the back. Finally, the R gave way to the silhouette of a dark-skinned man with feathers cascading from his scalp.
He was an “American Indian,” as we’ve come to call the original and native people of the Americas. And the feathers, the golden spear and arrowhead, the paint that some who sat in RFK Stadium near Dad and me streaked on their faces, the headdresses that a few fans wore and nicknames they gave themselves, such as a guy who went by “Chief Zee,” were all that concocted Native American’s property — or his people’s.
We stole it. That’s called cultural appropriation. It’s misapplication. It’s misuse. It’s a callous disregard of the sensibilities of others who are not us.

Get the Story:
Kevin B. Blackistone: Washington football fans are as guilty of cultural appropriation as Rachel Dolezal (The Washington Post 6/19)