Oh dear, it seems someone has stolen “Chief Zee“’s tomahawk.

My heart goes out to the dear gent … OK, no, that would be a lie - it doesn’t.

The guy still seems totally incapable of understanding just how downright offensive and racist his antics are considered by many.

I guess it can only be a total ignorance of the issues he ends up being a caricature of that he thinks it must be a “prank”. It doesn’t seem to even remotely cross his mind, given his remarks, that anyone might just have taken his tomahawk because of how racist his portrayal of NDNs is.

It’s kind of funny though. You’d never call tearing down a KKK cross, or swiping the noose from someone who showed up at a football game dressed like a Klansman, “theft” (petty or otherwise) so it’s kind of a stretch for anyone to say this was “stolen”, as some media have portrayed it.

Whatever the reason behind it being taken, I honestly hope someone has tossed it in the Chesapeake Bay or something. I don’t care if the guy has been carrying it for 25 years, it’s no different in context than a KKK cross or a noose.

It’s too much to hope that some “well meaning” person won’t replace it for the guy, however. What do they care? Thanks to people like Zema Williams, racism against the People seems perfectly acceptable to the majority of the population.

One only has to look at the recent legal judgment that returns a fraction of the $60+ billion owed to the People from the Land Trust debacle to see it - or the legal system preserving the football team’s name to preserve the sheer volume of money they makes from the franchise, racism be damned.

The media is all about how today is doubly historic - 45 years to the day the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. made his “I have a dream” speech and the day Barack Obama will become the first black presidential nominee for a major political party …

The theft of Zema Williams’ tomahawk isn’t anywhere near “up there” with those events, or Rosa Parks refusing to be forced to sit in the back of a bus, but it’s still funny as hell and a huge poke in the eye to this “icon” of a racially hypocritical group - the fans themselves.

I just guess the first inhabitants of this land are going to be the last beneficiaries of the end of racism.

Related posts:

• Bad Taste
  It seems del.icio.us is having a minor problem with its auto-post function. In theory, as I wander the web, I can add links of interest to my del.icio.us account, and once a day del.icio.us posts my latest links collation into this blog. In theory. It looks like it's borked - I'm not the
• links for 2008-06-12
  BBC NEWS - Canada apology for native schools (tags: FirstNations First-Nations) BBC NEWS - Legacy of Canada's residential schools (tags: BBC christianity culture government NativeAmerican racism religion First-Nations FirstNations abuse Canada indigenous) BBC NEWS - 'They wanted to brainwash us' (tags: abuse First-Nations FirstNations culture canada amerindian amerindians child+abuse Civil+Rights genocide indian NativeAmerican native-americans native

We’re at the BAIC powwow this weekend, and honoured to get to listen to the music of Nammy-award winner Arvil Bird.

One of the things he mentioned this weekend is his take on the difference between a soldier and a warrior - a soldier serves and follows orders, but a warrior serves and follows his/her heart to do the right thing.

I love powwows, you always get a fresh perspective on things!

It’s been a great powwow so far, it’s been good to reconnect with our friends. This is the “start” of powwow season for us, as it’s one of the few powwows locally we can get to.  We met up with Becca as planned, and she loves the beadwork Pat’s been working on for her!

I’ve been bragging on Tainee’s beadwork to anyone I can corner

I used the Patriot Guard Rider regalia on the Tank yesterday, and happily showed it off to a professional photographer.

| |

Hopefully we can actually get some pictures of our own today. It’s hard to remember to take any when we’re so entranced by the great dancers and fantastic singers!  I did manage to get one of Cuz Louis though, in full regalia!

Related posts:

• links for 2008-04-27
  BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | South East Wales | Protests against military academy (tags: NIMBY ingrates veterans UnitedKingdom uk prejudice RAF RoyalMarines Marine Military MinistryofDefence MoD hypocrisy RoyalNavy Army) BBC NEWS | UK | England | Manchester | Student military recruitment row (tags: NIMBY ingrates veterans UnitedKingdom uk prejudice RAF RoyalMarines
• Selective Opinions
  Luntz, Maslansky, is a "Strategic Research" company that does market research, focus groups and the like for corporations and politicians.  We're signed up for their alerts asking for participants in these research projects, and they come in reasonably regularly. Imagine our excitement at one received last week, for research being done
• Stunned Amazement
  Almost everything coming out of the UK about veterans of late has been bad - the state of equipment for the British armed forces, the attitudes of the civilians. Especially the attitudes of the civilians. So it hit me right in the gut to read on the BBC's news site about Hailing
• Cynical, me? Nah!
  Cute ... Hasbro and Mattel try to preserve their copyright of Scrabble, asking Facebook to pull a cloned version of it, and within a day there's a group with 13,000+ people on it all protesting. Someone instructs people to go out and assault and kidnap people in wheelchairs, and the response is
• Dishonour
  I'm not sure which is the more enraging right now. That a hotel seems to have a company policy to refuse accommodation for any service member in the UK. Or that the (parent?) company has the gall to call itself "American Amusements" with such a policy in place. What The Fuck? Such a policy sure as

Woohoo!!! Baltimore American Indian Center (BAIC) has posted details about their next powwow.

Happily, it’s going to be at Patterson Park in Baltimore again this year. It’s a wonderful place - not to mention we know we can reach it in chairs
I have pictures from last year’s powwow up on my Picasa pictures page. We’re looking forwards to meeting everyone again this year!

Now I just need to start working on regalia for the Tank and Pat’s new chair

Related posts:

• The Difference Between A Soldier And A Warrior
  We're at the BAIC powwow this weekend, and honoured to get to listen to the music of Nammy-award winner Arvil Bird. One of the things he mentioned this weekend is his take on the difference between a soldier and a warrior - a soldier serves and follows orders, but a warrior
• links for 2008-04-17
  Flying Thunder Flight to the Wall Wings & Rotors Air Museum's four combat-certified, Vietnam era helicopters will escort over 300,000 motorcycle riders from California to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC on the annual Memorial Day Rolling Thunder’s “Ride to the Wall 200 (tags: Veterans rollingthunder Motorcycle motorcycles biker patriotguard) Rolling Thunder

Junk mail tends to get skipped over around here pretty quickly, but I guess advertisers have finally figured this out, and will do anything to get people’s attention.

They certainly did with the copy of “Auto Selector” that arrived here the other day. Right on the front page, ignoring the large black GMC SUV covering most of it, is a picture of some black guy dressed up in some caricature of American Indian regalia, complete with obligatory mini-skirted-and-high-heeled girl beside him.

Underneath the picture however reads the text “Spotlight on Chief Zee” with a page.

Oh dear.

It’s hard to describe the page people are directed to, so here’s a scanned copy of the top half of it (click for the full sized image).

This is all for a large car dealership in Maryland and Virginia, who also bought the entire back page for their map, which gives a URL. Their website is even worse, if that even be possible. They have a series of videos there, and if the full page advertisement above made me ill, one video in particular makes me downright sick to my stomach¹.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Now, not so long ago, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie Myers, managed to get into seriously hot water for awarding a prize for “Most original costume” to an employee who showed up wearing striped clothing, fake dreadlocks, and in blackface. The employee was placed on administrative leave, questions were asked in Congress, Ms Myers had to apologize profusely to people for how offensive the costume had been, and for her lack of judgment in awarding it a prize.

So I’m curious. I’m pretty sure (as are others) that Zema Williams (AKA “Chief Zee”) would be rightfully offended (as would everyone else) if I showed up dressed in blackface, with fake dreadlocks, at a football game and jumped up and down shouting “Go niggers, go!”. If the head of the second most powerful law enforcement agency in the country has to eat humble pie because one of the 16,000 employees under her command showed up in a “racially insensitive” costume, why is it that still, in the Capital of the United States, a black man can wander around, make commercials, dressed up as a “Native American”, be used as a sales tool, make stupid videos, have a day named after him, and there’s nary a peep from these “racial minority” groups?

The cynic in me wants to think that the reason for the silence is selective racism - African-Americans have gotten to the stage where they have “clout” enough to jump on racism, but as long as they’re OK, they don’t care about (and indeed participate in) racism directed at Native Americans. Somehow, racism is alright, as long as it’s not directed at them? Marion Barry, also an African-American, was the Mayor of Washington DC, and he named a day after “Chief Zee” - I guess he didn’t mind the that he was honouring a racist caricature of American Indians. After all, it wasn’t his race that was being stereotyped, right?

If the advertisement is to be believed, Zema Williams tries to do good work throughout the area - but every single appearance he makes dressed like that, whether it be for charity, senior citizens, kids, or anything else, is poisoned. He is effectively promoting that same racial bigotry that he would be up in arms about if, for example, someone went to a senior citizens event dressed in blackface. I bet he was pretty steamed when he heard about the ICE halloween party, but his appearances are just as bad, just as bigoted, just as racist, as that incident.

Robertson’s, a manufacturer of preserves, had a well known brand image called a “Golliwog”, and it had to stop using it as it was deemed “racially insensitive”. The Golliwog dolls, likewise, have fallen out of fashion, as being “racially insensitive” and no more do performers on stage don blackface - all of these things are the result of changing perceptions of race. What was once perfectly acceptable has been gradually weeded out as people have grown to understand that racism is unacceptable and divisive.

Yet Zema Williams seems perfectly happy to do exactly what his forefathers spent decades, even centuries, fighting against, and the nation’s capital cheers every weekend for a football team whose name screams out memories of genocidal policies and acts of brutality. In one hundred years time, people will look back on pictures of Zema Williams, and the football team, and all they will see, all they will know, is that all they stood for was a legacy of racism. It won’t matter if Zema Williams did charity work, helped people who needed it - all people will see is a man dressing up as a warped parody of an American Indian.

The NFL permits the football team to have a “racially insensitive” name because it’s all about the money - and who cares, it’s only a bunch of Indians, right? The NFL seems to believe it can can take that stance because the general population has come to that prejudiced point of view themselves - blacks, hispanics, asians all. Somehow, it even managed to permeate the halls of “Justice”, so one lone judge felt perfectly confident in arbitrarily overturning the decision of three copyright judges, seemingly placing money over racial equality. Worse is the attempts by a new style of Holocaust Deniers to brush the past under the carpet, things which, if were done with respect towards any other minority in the US, would result in massive media coverage, demonstrations and boycotts.

The car dealership in question, Eastern Motors, will never admit it’s promoting racial stereotypes - but I bet they won’t ever hire someone to do pseudo-voodoo dances in their promotional videos, or dress up in blackface with fake dreadlocks and appear in their print advertisements.

Racism is resurgent in the United States in recent years - all the noose incidents garner international attention, and the authorities rightfully jump on such things fast - Is it really any wonder why racism is still so prevalent though, when those who complain about it turn around and do it themselves? Letting one instance of racism pass as somehow being acceptable opens the doors to others, and racists aren’t selective - they hate anything “different”. When you celebrate racism, you can only expect racism to be aimed right back at you.

It’s very hard to be sympathetic towards African-Americans facing the sordid memories nooses bring back, of unenlightened times when racism was rampant and they were considered something less than human - when a large number of them practice those self same racist beliefs on a weekly basis. Only this week, I commented in my blog about the bigotry some had aimed towards the victims of the illegal street race in Accokeek and how despicable it was - then I see things like this.

Zema Williams may be the unofficial mascot of the local football team, but in his “costume”, he’s a mascot of racism too. The football team’s name enshrines one of the darkest periods in US history², and his dress trivializes and mocks the victims of those times, as well as the traditions and cultures which have survived even so.

I guess they just don’t get it.

1. [Edit February 26th 2008] I discovered that the dealership in question actually has a YouTube account showing many of their commercials - this isn’t the only one there featuring Zema Williams, but the end of it is pretty representative of some disgusting racial mockery [back]
2. “Back not so long ago, when there was a bounty on the heads of the Indian people… the trappers would bring in Indian scalps along with the other skins that they had managed to trap or shoot,” says Holder, whose arguments were included in a recent court filing in support of Harjo’s claim. “Trappers and hunters began using the term ‘redskin’ …they would tell the owner that they had bearskin, deerskins…and ‘redskins.’ The term came from the bloody mess that one saw when looking at the scalp …thus the term ‘red’…skin… So, you see when we see or hear that term…we don’t see a football team… we don’t see a game being played…we don’t see any ‘honor’…we see the bloody pieces of scalps that were hacked off of our men, women and even our children… we hear the screams as our people were killed…and ‘skinned’ just like animals. So, yes, …you can safely say that the term is considered extremely offensive.”

   - Tina Holder, Source: New America Media [back]

Comments

• February 22, 2008, The Den....Join other posting addicts in here! - Page 760 - PowWows.com Gathering writes: [...] day by rattling a few (racists') cages. Miika wrote it all up much more eloquently than I can : They just don`t get it, do they? | Moonwolf`s Lair __________________ ========================================= "The cavalry didn't come [...]
• February 22, 2008, Chief Zee - PowWows.com Gathering writes: [...] up as a Leprechaun all the time. Thankfully, the 'Net lets people make noise rather well - They just don`t get it, do they? | Moonwolf`s Lair :) __________________ It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of [...]

Related posts:

• Ahh Diddums
  Oh dear, it seems someone has stolen "Chief Zee"'s tomahawk. My heart goes out to the dear gent ... OK, no, that would be a lie - it doesn't. The guy still seems totally incapable of understanding just how downright offensive and racist his antics are considered by many. I guess it can

I discovered SoundClick has a widget that I can embed here that plays more Nakoda Lodge, so, here it is

Related posts:

• Thoughts
  People "back home" are seriously fucked up when it comes to veterans. Recently, a group of disabled veterans from the only real rehabilitation center in the UK were at a local public swimming pool. One lane was roped off for them to use. A few of the locals objected to their

Yes, I used the N word. I did it on purpose.

The United States football team for the Capital city itself is called the Washington Redskins.

That’s the same level of racial epithet as calling the team the “Washington Niggers”.

It’s got nothing to do with the racial makeup of the team, it’s about the team’s name itself.

“Redskins” is a word loaded with racist hatred, bigotry, and was commonly associated with the attempted genocide perpetrated on the Native American Indians by the white settlers.

It has enough history of that hatred, of that genocidal approach, that is is certainly as offensive in daily use as the N word.

Yet for some reason, no-one cares. You can bet if the team was named that way, there’s be an uproar of outcry, demonstrations, riots - all quite understandable and justifiable.

So why is the same level of racism celebrated in the nation’s capital, plastered over cars and flags, mentioned on respectable TV channels?

Using it this way is celebrating the murder of millions - more than died in the Holocaust, celebrating stealing the land, celebrating trying to wipe the Amerindians out. Using the N word would be celebrating slavery, segregation, discrimination.

Why is one condoned when the other would most certainly be despised?

People say that the term is a mark of respect to the Amerindians. What they really mean is that the mega millions the NFL and the team rakes in time and again, merchandising rights and everything else, is more important than recognizing the deeply racist use of the word.

That this happens in the nations capital is simply a reflection of the continued bigotry and discrimination against the American Indians by the descendants of mass murdering settlers.

The fight for civil rights, the fight for an end to racism, stopped when one racial group got somewhere. They support it as long as it doesn’t target them. They don’t care, they got a start on equality.

The civil rights version of “I’m alright now Jack, screw you.”

So when you want to rant and rail at me for using the N word, remember this the next time you use the word “Redskins”. if you can use that to describe Amerindians, I can use it back. Fair’s fair, right?

Or does discrimination go so deeply that people will think they’re somehow “better”, and so can be bigoted but be immune in return?

Does it really take an 800lb gorilla to notice racism now?

Related posts:

• Speaking english?
  I love the quality of grammar in the media: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In first-ever tests for commercial airplanes carrying passengers, as many as three American Airlines jets will be equipped with a shoulder-fired missile defense system. You just know some bright spark is going to have read this, and think there's
• The Blame Game
  Having looked around the 'Net, I know I'm not the only one who thinks the survivors and family members of those killed during the street racing accident in Accokeek, Maryland, last weekend are kind of missing the point. It's been widely reported in the news that the brother of one of
• links for 2008-05-30
  HGS to Test Lupus Drug as MS Treatment - washingtonpost.com (tags: MS MultipleSclerosis) BBC NEWS - Council admits spying on family If you give it, they will abuse it (tags: surveillance poole dorset unitedkingdom uk UKGovernment) BBC NEWS - Family's shock at council spying If you give it, they will abuse it (tags: uk UKGovernment UnitedKingdom poole
• links for 2008-04-17
  Flying Thunder Flight to the Wall Wings & Rotors Air Museum's four combat-certified, Vietnam era helicopters will escort over 300,000 motorcycle riders from California to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC on the annual Memorial Day Rolling Thunder’s “Ride to the Wall 200 (tags: Veterans rollingthunder Motorcycle motorcycles biker patriotguard) Rolling Thunder
• links for 2008-04-25
  US court says IP addresses are private | OUT-LAW.COM A US court has ruled that users have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their internet surfing records and that police must obtain warrants from higher than usual courts in order to force ISPs to hand over records. (tags: Out-Law legal) BBC - Cult

Related posts:

• links for 2008-04-26
  DRM sucks redux: Microsoft to nuke MSN Music DRM keys DRM sucks redux: Microsoft to nuke MSN Music DRM keys (tags: DRM MSN Microsoft entertainment copyfight copyright audio music playsforsure) Walter Reed and Beyond (washingtonpost.com) A bridge page on the Washington Post's website with articles and stories about Walter Reed Hospital and veteran's issues (tags:
• Fearless
  Music is the product of muses, but it can be a muse in and of itself, a trait that I use a lot - when I'm writing, I'll have music in the background that I don't "hear", but it's there and keeps the words flowing for example. Likewise, music can reach
• The Girl In The Corner
  In online shooter games, I'm "The girl in the corner" ... Unfortunately, most of my opponents are a little too young to get the reference. Thankfully, with the help of Google and YouTube, I found a video of the original song the title comes from, so here it is
• Nailing it
  El Reg was kind enough to tell geekdom of Nine Inch Nails' new album, Ghosts. Why would El Reg care? Probably because of the way NiN is distributing it. The first nine tracks are available for free download, with the option to order the rest of the album (36
• The Difference Between A Soldier And A Warrior
  We're at the BAIC powwow this weekend, and honoured to get to listen to the music of Nammy-award winner Arvil Bird. One of the things he mentioned this weekend is his take on the difference between a soldier and a warrior - a soldier serves and follows orders, but a warrior