Episode 144 — The Chicago Blackhawks

[admin 330]

The awesome Joselyn Hughes joins Andrew Ti today to talk about Chicago, hockey, and The Chicago Blackhawks’ Native American mascot. Call us at (323) 389-RACE to ask if anything is racist.

[wakefresh 689]

I hope the caller does realize that the U.S. military killed a whole bunch of Native Americans in the 1800s to the early 1900s. I wouldn't use them of proof that something isn't racist against Native Americans.

 

Also, the U.S. military was desegregated by Harry Thurman in the 1940s, but because of the persistent effects of racism, blacks were rarely promoted to be officers and were regulated to positions that were similar to a quartermaster, the guys who make sure basic supplies like soap, clothes, and food is available to frontline troops.

[action52 554]

Listening to this podcast I was like, has Jocelyn ever even set foot inside Chicago? "There's a Jewish town..." followed soon after by "I don't even know WHERE the Asians are." Uh, well, there is the South Asian neighborhood that BORDERS the Jewish town, for starters. And they didn't even talk about what was racist. OK, so the city is segregated... like every other American big city. It just annoyed me that she didn't seem to know what she was talking about.

 

She also has her perceptions skewed by living in the suburbs, which are super racist... not that the city isn't racist too. The cops are racist, and HOLY CRAP the politicians are racist. There's a lot of that old school "hey, the Dixiecrats weren't as bad as the hippies who took over" attitude. So there's plenty to talk about with Chicago racism... and none of it happened.

 

Oh yeah, Blackhawks mascot. From what I understand the Blackhawks fanbase is heavily centered on those northwest suburban white people, so I'm sure there's plenty of racism to be found. I totally support Andrew for just saying "yeah, it's racist" without splitting hairs over whether it's as bad as other sports teams. Okay, maybe it's not as bad as the Indians mascot, but who cares, both of them should go away. And Chicago doesn't even have the excuse of "we don't want to change the name, it's tradition" because they could so easily just change the mascot to, oh, I don't know, a fucking hawk that is black.