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So I’m on annual leave and not responding to emails, but there’s been a Daily Mail piece that misrepresents my 2016 comments about the @ExeterChiefs’ name. I’d like to clarify my position in a thread. @ExChiefs4Change
The DM article, which I shan’t link to, makes it seem as if my 2016 comments about the appropriateness of changing the team’s name are a response to the club’s July 2020 decision to keep their name but ditch the mascot.
For the record: retiring the mascot is a great first step. But my position on the uniforms and supporters’ clothing and behavior remains unchanged from what I wrote in 2016 for @ExeterCIGH https://imperialglobalexeter.com/2016/06/09/playing-indian-exeter-rugby-in-a-postcolonial-age/, and I think the name will only work with a rebrand of the clothing
It’s not okay to “Play Indian.” This stance on the kit imagery & fan practices has been amply expanded, argued, and evidenced by @ExChiefs4Change.
If you think you’re honoring Native Americans by wearing the chief image or a headdress, or doing the tomahawk chop at matches, then you’re not listening.
Back in 2016 several journalists pressed me on the question of whether the chief image and fan behavior was racist, and I dodged the question. Major news outlets published articles about how I’d called the team and their fans racist, anyway.
For the record: yes of course it’s all racist. It’s also the wrong question. I am grateful for work by @DrIbram that urges us to move past debating whether something is or isn’t racist, and that asks us instead to think about how we can work to be actively antiracist.
Antiracism is important in the UK as well as the US, because racism is also systemic in the UK. So the main question to my mind has to be: what can Exeter Chiefs fans and the club do to be antiracist? Let’s take a look at the club’s recent statement https://www.exeterchiefs.co.uk/news/club-statement-6572
The biggest tell is the club’s last line: “The club will be making no further comment on the matter.” This is a problem because being antiracist requires room to screw up. We all will! We have to acknowledge that the work of being antiracist must be continuous and ongoing.
But there’s also a lot more that could be said about this statement. What in the world does “certain sections from the Native American community” mean? People who agree with the imagery? People who disagree? What tribal affiliations are we talking about here?
And having fans and players from different countries and cultures is great! But it doesn’t guarantee that you’re working to be antiracist. This paragraph reads like the tired “I have black friends/relatives so I therefore cannot be racist” argument. It’s not convincing.
And of course players, coaches, and families have positive things to say. But that doesn’t mean that we can ignore all the negative things that non-players, non-coaches, and non-families have said, and have been saying, for almost half a decade now.
If the Exeter Chiefs want to rebrand themselves, draw on Devonian history, and remove all Native American imagery so they can keep the name, then great, I think the name is great! If not, then it’s clear that the work continues.
