The world’s eyes are on Kansas City’s NFL champs. Time to drop the racist imagery | Opinion

The Kansas City football team has won the Super Bowl again.

And once again, the mockery of our Native American nations was seen worldwide and despite decades of opposition by tribes, tribal and urban Indian organizations, and individual Natives, the appearance of our acceptance of this mockery remains. One refrain also remains: that the team is honoring Native Americans.

The fight song the team plays over the stadium loudspeakers to rally the crowd is from a the theme to a cartoon that first aired in 1949, “The Adventures of Pow Wow.” This song is a Hollywood stereotype, not a traditional piece of tribal music, and does not honor Native Americans.

The “tomahawk chop” and stereotypical chanting by fans as show of team spirit during game and randomly at any time around Kansas City (or in the faces of Native Americans opposed to stereotypes) does not honor Native Americans.

The pounding of the big drum removes that style of drum from its place of importance within our culture, and does not honor those drum teachings or Native Americans.

In 2021, the Kansas City T-Bones announced a partnership with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and a renaming and rebranding of the team as the Kansas City Monarchs. Consider for a moment the repercussions that would have come had the new Monarch team utilized stereotypes in its branding and encouraged stereotypical fan celebrations with a stereotypical song.

There might be people in the African American community that would say that the stereotypes used does not bother them, but that would not negate the harm that is caused by the stereotypes and racism.

Decades of empirical research shows the damage these mascots and stereotypes cause to all: youths, individuals, communities and other minority people. It is not a matter of opinion, nor a matter of whether these mascots and stereotypes are offensive. They cause actual harm. It has been almost 20 years since the American Psychological Association called for immediate termination of Native American mascots, branding and imagery. The National Congress of American Indians launched its anti-mascot campaign in the 1960s. The Association on American Indian Affairs and IllumiNative also have anti-mascot campaigns. There have been individuals and organizations opposed to the stereotypes used in Kansas City football since the team moved to Kansas City from Dallas and changed its name.

Oklahoma’s Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole) signed a resolution calling for the elimination of stereotypical use of American Indian names and images in sports in 2001. Many other tribes have also released resolutions or statements opposing cultural appropriation, including the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians after a young member of their community was pictured in the media a few months ago wearing face paint and a costume feather headdress to show his team spirit for Kansas City’s football team.

Headdresses, face paint don’t honor Native Americans

The small changes the team’s leaders have made, such as banning headdresses and face paint in the stadium, make it obvious they are aware all of their imagery and branding is, at the very least, problematic. Moreover, it obviously does not stop fans from continuing to wear face paint and headdresses in other venues, or while tailgating at Kansas City’s stadium. We have witnessed several headdresses here despite the “ban,” and we saw three at the stadium in Las Vegas.

We all need to evaluate why Kansas City continues to tolerate being represented on the global stage by a football team using stereotypes of a race of human beings, their sacred objects and imagery as its mascot. We need to take a hard look at all of our roles in allowing this to continue.

In light of the Kansas City Council unanimously approving a resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis in 2019, and acknowledging that systemic racism occurs here, it is imperative to also acknowledge the racism experienced by the Native American people living and working in Kansas City and surrounding area because of our local NFL team’s imagery and branding permeating every facet of our region. We have heretofore not seen pressure put on the team’s leadership by state, county or city leadership to end the racism and discrimination inherent in the team’s imagery and in the fan behavior they instigate, which occurs in public infrastructure owned by Jackson County and funded by our tax dollars.

In fact, the Kansas City football team’s nonresident owners want Jackson County voters to approve a new sales tax for renovations at the stadium, to replace the existing tax set to expire sooner. This issue will be on the ballot in the April 2 election, despite the lease not being up for renewal until 2031.

Not only are there no specific plans given to taxpayers on precisely what renovations and improvements the taxpayer funds would be used for, the team has certainly not given any indication the money would be used to change the racist branding in the stadium. Therefore, a new tax will be upon the taxpayers to continue to fund the harm caused by the team owners’ chosen brand and imagery.

In addition to paying for it, we are expected to continue to tolerate being seen worldwide during the upcoming FIFA World Cup games as a city that tolerates and celebrates the dehumanizing of the original inhabitants of this land.

The Kansas City football team must change its name and imagery. It is what is best for Kansas City, our city’s image, and the overall health and mental well-being of all its residents.

Vote, call, email, text, tag in social media and otherwise let your city, county and state elected officials, Kansas City football team leadership, its sponsors, the NFL, your friends and relatives know that we all deserve better than to be represented by these harmful stereotypes and mascots — not just in Kansas City, but across the nation. And it would be a bonus if you can get Taylor Swift to boost this message, too.

Rhonda LeValdo is founder of the Not In Our Honor Coalition. She co-authored this with Gaylene Crouser, executive director of the Kansas City Indian Center and Not In Our Honor Coalition.