Yes, even if you’ve never had any negative thoughts or feelings about Asians before in your life, looking at Chief Wahoo, the mere existence of Chief Wahoo, can change your opinions of a whole separate ethnicity.
That according to a new study in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, which probably confirms that Clevelanders and Indians fans are inclined to stereotype and hate just about every group in the world.
When activists petition to remove Native American mascots from the logos of sports teams, the answer of traditionalists often boils down to: What’s the harm?
Newly published research provides an unexpected answer. It suggests exposure to one stereotype — however whimsical or benign in its intent — apparently activates others.
Native American mascots and logos have long been the subject of much debate. Should schools and teams get rid of them? Are they racist? Does it really matter? Should a bunch of middle-aged white people get to make those decisions? What does it really hurt?
What you should be asking is: How does Chief Wahoo effect my view of Polish people? Can one seemingly innocent logo representing Native Americans actively change my perception of the Irish?
Yes, yes it can apparently.
A research team led by psychologist Chu Kim-Prieto of The College of New Jersey examined the way our brains react to seeing or reading about a Native American sports team mascot. It conducted two experiments using Chief Illiniwek, a mythical figure who served as the official symbol of University of Illinois athletics from the 1920s until 2007.
In the first study, conducted on the University of Illinois’ Champaign-Urbana campus, 79 students selected at random filled out a 25-item “Scale of Anti-Asian American Stereotypes.” Participants rated on a one-to-five scale whether they agreed with such statements as “Asian Americans are motivated to obtain too much power in our society.”
For one-third of the survey takers, the questionnaire was pulled out of a folder decorated with stickers depicting Chief Illiniwek. For another third, the folder was festooned with the capital letter “I,” the alternate logo of U of I athletics. For the final third, the folder was blank.
The results: Those exposed to the image of the mascot, however peripherally, endorsed anti-Asian American stereotypes to a greater extent than those in the other two groups.
A second experiment showed similar results.
Their conclusion: “One’s reliance on stereotypes appears to be heightened with increased exposure to stereotypes, regardless of whom the stereotype is portraying.”
(Full gory scientific details and numbers and stuff can be found here.)
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This article appears in Apr 21-27, 2010.
Did Matt Millen publicly apologize to you yet?
I’m missing the numbers on that abstract you have linked. The assertions made regarding the study are vague at best.
With teabaggers (and their ilk – vis-a-vis republicans, Texas Board of Education, evangelicals, Palinistas et. al.) and the new immigration law in Arizona, it is becoming more and more apparent that white people only ‘tolerate’ their ethnic brethren. Would there not be an outcry for a team named the “Polacks’, ‘Honkies’, ‘Wops’, “Limeys’ or the ‘Krauts’? What is undeniable is that fact that the groups mentioned above are becoming more and more adamant about changing or reversing the current face of America. Much as the Europeans did from the 16th through the 20th centuries by simply eliminating the aboriginals and any references to them. Case in point, Pekin, Illinois’ high school mascot name was the ‘Chinks’…(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekin,_Illino…), after quite a bit of nudging, they finally dropped the offensive moniker (and logo)- it was as if they didn’t know it offended anyone. And that is usually the case especially with the ignorant, less educated “wrap ourselves in the flag and carry a bible” types. Unfortunately, we aren’t allowed to single these people out for departure on the next slow boat to a Darwinian garbage dump. I don’t think that it is that people do not care, they are just too stupid to notice.
Hear, hear Elder Gothfather. Can you imagine if a team called itself the “Fighting Irish”? Or the “Celtics”? The outpouring of anger from the Irish-American community–and from angry, non-Irish white evangelical racists on their behalf–would be deafening.
Thankfully we have thoughtful, tolerant persons like yourself who can help us understand which of our fellow citizens belong in the “Darwinian garbage dump” and which do not.
On a side note, I think you meant “viz.” or perhaps “e.g.” rather than “vis-a-vis.”
I agree as well, I’ve been a pirate in Somalia my entire life and to be associated with some looser baseball team in Pittsburg fires me blood up. Arrrr!
As a Catholic I’m deeply offended by teams named the Cardinals, Saints and Padres. No, wait, I’m not at all offended.
Sports Illustrated published a poll in their 3/4/2002 issue showing that the majority of Native Americans were not offended by Indian team names. If they’re not offended then it is just silly for others to take offense on their behalf.
Further, intent is what is important in symbols. The Confederate flag symbolized enslavement of blacks. The swastika symbolizes killing Jews and overrunning Europe. All Chief Wahoo symbolizes is bad baseball. On a scale of evil, Chief Wahoo doesn’t compare to the stars and bars or Nazis at all.
if you want to draw little chief wahoos all over your room, go for it.
but stop using it to represent me and my city and my baseball team to the rest of the country.
@zamboni driver
I’d like to see the numbers on Native Americans approving of “Indian” sports teams. How many were polled? Which regions? In any case, it’s not ALL use of Native Americans history or culture for sports franchises that is frowned upon. Look at the Florida State Seminoles — they are endorsed by the Seminole tribe in Florida because they chose to work together to promote the history and tradition of the people there. They use symbols and imagery that is respectful and works for both sides. They use the proper name “Seminole”, who are a distinct tribe, different than the Choctaws, Calusas, and Apalachees of Florida. Both sides are happy. Now look at what we’ve done in Cleveland — local Natives are upset because we use a stereotypical caricature and call them by a name they never asked for. We refuse to work with them and the problem gets pushed back every year. We aren’t promoting the bravery, resilience, honor of Native Americans — we are pushing a cartoon that belittles real people who exist in our own state.
To help answer some really dumb questions raised in this post:
“Should schools and teams get rid of them?”
The Tribe should get rid of Wahoo.
“Are they racist?”
Wahoo is a sambo. It’s inherently demeaning. Drawn with the intent to demean. Yes.
“Should a bunch of middle-aged white people get to make those decisions?”
Are a bunch of middle-aged white people responsible for the symbol existing and persisting? Yes. So, yes.
“What does it really hurt?”
What did it really hurt to make Rosa Parks sit in the back of the bus?
Tahoe, I cited the article. Sports Illustrated’s back issues are all on line nowadays. Google is your friend. Any problems you have with the polls methodology should be taken up with Sports Illustrated, the article’s writers and their pollster, the Peter Harris Research Group. Go read it there. Or go commission your own poll to rebut it, and be sure to show all your work.
I always wondered why you can’t use native Americans as mascots for sports teams, but cigarettes are OK.
Maybe the Jersey boys are onto something. White Middle-Class Suburban Man always makes me want to punch a Hispanic.
I’ve also wondered what Native Americans feel about being used as mascots for censorship. Chief Wahoo is no worse than Notre Dame’s mascot, whom no one has a problem with. And Brutus Buckeye is named after a political assassin.
Correct me if I’m wrong. But isn’t there a plaque in Heritage Park at Progressive Field of a Penobscot Indian by the Name of Louis Francis “Chief” Sockalexis and on that plaque doesn’t it say that when the Cleveland Indians changed their name from the Cleveland Naps to the Indians it was in Honor of Him? I understand how some could take Chief Wahoo badly but the name Indian is something you should be proud of. I know I was proud to be part of the Cleveland Indians as a fan throughout the ninties and even though the team isn’t doing well right now that doesn’t take away the history. It’s only a name that has become a part of our city that means something. All the great players we had, the tragedies we’ve been through, the words Cleveland Indians lifts our spirits up and it is something we all should be proud of.
Chief Wahoo is an embarrassment to Northeast Ohio. Native American mascots cannot be compared to Irish or Cathloic mascots–America did not commit genocide against Irish or Catholics.
I was born and raised in Ohio and proudly donned my Chief Wahoo hat for years. I bought into the excuse that the disfigured caricature and name actually honored Louis Sockalexis, an member of the Penobscot tribe who played for Cleveland for two years. As professor Kimberly Roppolo states in her essay “Symbolic Racism, History, and Reality: The Real Problem With Indian Mascots”: “I realize that many people see no problem with the use of American Indians as sports mascots … we are in a day and age where racial tolerance and tolerance for all kinds of diversity have increased. But this is not the case with racism against American Indians, largely so ingrained in the American consciousness that it is invisible.”
What began as belittling Native Americans to cover up national guilt has become mindless racism we associate with entertainment — that I, a 23-year-old Caucasian, associated with trips to Jacobs Field with my father. We must demand sports teams stop brainwashing children to associate blind hate with family and tradition. Revert to an old name: the Cleveland Blues, Cleveland Spiders, Cleveland Naps. Transition to a “C” logo on the hats and uniforms. I am ashamed of my state for being so ignorant, and I hope my generation is the one to get rid of it.
Chief Wahoo is an embarrassment to Northeast Ohio. Native American mascots cannot be compared to Irish or Catholic mascots–America did not commit genocide against the Irish or Catholics.
I was born and raised in Ohio and proudly donned my Chief Wahoo hat for years. I bought into the excuse that the disfigured caricature and name actually honored Louis Sockalexis, an member of the Penobscot tribe who played for Cleveland for two years. As professor Kimberly Roppolo states in her essay “Symbolic Racism, History, and Reality: The Real Problem With Indian Mascots”: “I realize that many people see no problem with the use of American Indians as sports mascots … we are in a day and age where racial tolerance and tolerance for all kinds of diversity have increased. But this is not the case with racism against American Indians, largely so ingrained in the American consciousness that it is invisible.”
What began as belittling Native Americans to cover up national guilt has become mindless racism we associate with entertainment — that I, a 23-year-old Caucasian, associated with trips to Jacobs Field with my father. We must demand sports teams stop brainwashing children to associate blind hate with family and tradition. Revert to an old name: the Cleveland Blues, Cleveland Spiders, Cleveland Naps. Transition to a “C” logo on the hats and uniforms. I am ashamed of my state for being so ignorant, and I hope my generation is the one to get rid of it.
The Irish Catholics were not discriminated against and murdered in the streets when they immigrated from Ireland? I guess the history books are again filled with wrong lessons. I would not want my team named the Cleveland “Naps”…that’s truely insulting.
“Mindless Racism”..what does that mean?
Make note; it WILL be your generation that will be responsible for the progressive change that is occuring in this country. When you hold your grand children on your knee and tell them that you are responsible for the situation in which they exist. But perhaps by that time our culture will have dispensed with the Constitution, individual liberty and your precious one world government. You are unwittingly turning back the clock and forcing change you may not want.