Q: What’s wrong with the tomahawk chop? A: Well, besides the fact that it’s stupid, it’s kinda racist. There’s an interesting article in today’s NY Times about a controversy in Illinois (my current state of residence) where at the University of Illinois, they still have a mascot called “Chief Illiniwek.” Defenders of the Chief, who was invented by the school’s assistant marching band director in 1926, 6 years after women were given the right to vote, and some 30 years before the civil rights movement, claim that he is a symbol of respect for Native American culture. Maybe if white Americans had a better track record of respecting minorities and native cultures, that might be somewhat easier to believe. As it is, it’s hard for me to believe that having this kid dance around like a buffoon at football and basketball games is a way to educate people about Native American cultures.
And yet that argument, and others even more stupid, are made. “Chief Illiniwek is part of my geographic heritage. For anyone to dismiss that because I’m Caucasian, that’s racist,” says Roger Huddleston, president of the Honor the Chief Society, and if not a racist, certainly an asshole.
I realize that these people have their reasons for wanting to preserve such mascots as the one pictured in the center of the illustration below, 
but can we stop pretending that they are anything but stupid? Here’s another quote: “I’m a Native American,” said John Gadaut, who is white. “I was born and bred in Illinois. The chief means something to me, too. People keep saying we have a mascot. No, we have a symbol.”
If you’d like to do something about these truly offensive artifacts of America’s racist past, please visit the
National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media ( NCRSM ) which has suggestions on things you can do.