Is this really a racially insensitive statement, or a media overreaction? Photo via usatoday.com
I know that the whole “Redskins” name debate has dialed up in recent months. Sometimes tacked on to that debate is the status of the Cleveland “Indians” moniker in general, and the racially insensitive logo (at least in some people’s eyes) in particular.
But is this picture really that bad? Is this sort of reaction warranted here?
Are these guys really dressed up in “red-face” or are they dressed up more like a “clown-face” that happens to be red? I mean, the team colors are “red,” as evidenced by the red lettering on their jersey. I dunno. I didn’t think twice about this picture until I saw the story repeated several times in my RSS feed today. And my initial reaction is this: I didn’t think anything of it and certainly didn’t take it as insulting. But then again I’m a) not an American Indian an b) generally cynical when it comes to the general over-reaction in today’s climate against anything that is funny, sarcastic or anything even remotely resembling a politically incorrect statement.
I mean, it isn’t as if they colored their faces like this:
Not good. Photo via google images.
The two links that I posted happen to be from two websites that may be just trolling for readers. One is the click-ad opportunistic BusinessInsider website; they often post incredibly argumentative headlines and lists of pictures that force you to click through 20 items to pad their hit counters. The other is the USA Today, which has somewhat of a “stuffy” reputation in the sports reporting world for being overly “PC” in its columns and stances (see anything that Nancy Brennan has ever written or consider their relentless/continued coverage of everything Lance Armstrong when the other major sporting news outlets have long since let go of the coverage). So perhaps I’m just getting caught up in these two website’s trolling activities and over-reacting myself.
What do you think?