Protesters who say Kansas City’s mascot and logo are offensive to American Indians gathered outside TCF Bank Stadium ahead of the Vikings-Chiefs football game Sunday morning.
“Sports is an incredible unifier if it is used correctly and wisely. But in this situation it’s unacceptable that the state of Minnesota accommodates this football team that is coming on Sunday,” LeMoine LaPointe, of the American Indian Movement Interpretive Center, said at a news conference Friday, according to WCCO.
Minneapolis-based National Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media (NCARSM) organized the “No Honor in Racism Rally,” with the group saying stereotypes like the Kansas City Chiefs mascot “damage not only the children and adult members of the targeted class – it provokes more acts of discrimination and instills a sense of entitlement to the perpetrators.”
“Mascots harm how we, as native people, are perceived. All sports mascots manufactured by non-indigenous people are discriminatory, harmful, completely unnecessary, and easily remedied,” the group says.
The group met outside of Northrop Auditorium around 8:45 a.m. Sunday and planned to march to TCF Bank Stadium ahead of the noon kickoff for the Minnesota-Kansas City game.
Last year, more than 3,000 protesters showed up for a similar rally held before the Vikings-Redskins game at TCF Bank Stadium. But unlike that rally, protesters Sunday focused not on the team’s name, but the organization and its fans’ behavior, the Pioneer Press reports, citing chief headdresses, chants and fans’ tomahawk chop as some of the group’s concerns.
"A lot of times it's not the name, it's the behavior it creates" -Clyde Bellecourt #NoHonorInRacism
— Java the Hutt (@leahjoy0523) October 18, 2015
“They don’t do this to any other race of human beings,” NCARSM co-founder Clyde Bellecourt said, the paper reports. “We’re gonna declare war – declare war – on this kind of insensitivity.”
Some tweets from Sunday’s rally:
.@chiefs fans walk past doing the tomahawk chop at the #NativeAmericans gathered. But it's about honor, right? pic.twitter.com/7tvRBCW8VV
— tara houska ᔖᐳᐌᑴ (@zhaabowekwe) October 18, 2015
#nohonorinracism #native #notyourmascot pic.twitter.com/f8b3I9Ner9
— @HTrostle on BlueSky♿️ (@HTrostle) October 18, 2015
"Why are they making fun of us?" Questions #NativeAmerican parents face from their kids. #NotYourMascot #StopTheChop pic.twitter.com/2VV78oqZZo
— tara houska ᔖᐳᐌᑴ (@zhaabowekwe) October 18, 2015
Protestors begin to march to TCF Bank Stadium. pic.twitter.com/GotafOVaX2
— Cleo Greene (@cgreeneWFAA) October 18, 2015
Rally outside TCF Bank Stadium against Mascot names. @kare11 pic.twitter.com/cbLXGdrnHD
— Matt (@mattpassolt) October 18, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1028957300457799&set=gm.417056201820856&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/NCARSM/photos/pcb.411778822348594/1680992648786606/?type=3
