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#Post#: 80237--------------------------------------------------
Stephen Jones talking sense ?
DIR By: SiB
Date: December 19, 2021, 2:52 am
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Those devotees of Exeter Chiefs who made a round trip of not far
short of 1,000 miles to support their team against Glasgow
Warriors yesterday, travelled with stentorian demands ringing in
their ears. They were told by the host club what not to wear and
what not to sing.
Al Kellock, of Glasgow Warriors, had asked Exeter fans “not to
attend the game on Saturday [wearing] faux Native American
headdresses” or to chant the Tomahawk Chop during the match. At
Chiefs games, you see a good few fans wearing colourful homemade
headdresses — just as wearing something colourful to identify
with your team is two-thirds of the fun of going along in the
first place.
A simple “please” in his baleful release was apparently beyond
Kellock, nor did he say anything remotely welcoming to those
engaged on the round trip to support rugby, to add to the
occasion, and to add to Glasgow’s coffers.
“We are making this request out of respect for the Native
American community, whose views on their imagery and cultural
heritage we support, and the Glasgow Warriors supporters who
have called for us to act on this matter.” He is alleging
cultural appropriation.
“During this period,” Kellock continued, “several supporters
asked that we ban headdresses and the Tomahawk Chop, and in
October the Scottish Rugby Blog wrote an open letter reiterating
these calls.” Not exactly a raging torrent of public reaction
there, but all hail the “several”.
Exeter added the label “Chiefs” at the start of their existence
as a Premiership club in waiting. The Chiefs label goes way back
into Devon rugby history. Gradually, the number of headdresses
has grown — some of them homemade, others wonderfully ornate —
and the sound of the Tomahawk Chop often rings around the
terraces, without the chopping actions familiar to decades of
American sports crowds. It is just a simple chant.
Exeter are a wonderful club; passionate, considerate,
charitable. It is crystal clear that nothing in their set-up is
intended to make fun, to dishonour.
Cultural appropriation? Exactly when does cultural celebration,
the sense of sharing and the sheer delight in different
cultures, end and appropriation start? Where would we be in this
world without the keenest interest in other cultures? Nowhere.
And where does it end? If wearing a toy headdress is
appropriation then I can think of 100 other offences in sport
alone. South African rugby players are famously interested in
the Scottish rugby culture of earning money. They have come over
in droves and qualified for Scotland under rugby’s shaky
residential laws, and stood there in a line in their Scottish
kit roaring Flower of Scotland before international matches.
Then retired and gone home. Surely, through the Glasgow prism,
that is one of the greatest instances of cultural appropriation
that sport has seen?
In his outstanding documentary on the BBC last week, David
Baddiel investigated what he described as the “toxic world of
anger, hatred and outrage” which these days descends on anyone
not espousing any cause, or rejecting any action, with the right
level of anger, hatred and outrage and those who see malevolence
at every turn.
Baddiel’s Jewishness alone has been enough for him to cop a
horrific barrage of the worst kind of abuse. He also showed us
more gruesome examples, such as that of the Smith family, who
maintained a homely social media profile of fun and games, and
in return their house was almost burned down. Does rugby really
need to go down the route to banish, cancel and to drain itself
of colour?
I have my own sense of anger, hatred and outrage. Some decades
ago — and I can even remember where I was at the time — I read
Dee Brown’s staggering Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee. It is the
story of the savaging of the Native American tribes, over the
period of decades in the 19th century when they were driven out
of their traditional hunting grounds and away from their
traditional ways of life, by the palefaces, the American
government and army. It is the greatest book I have ever read.
The brutality, the slaying of women and children, the merciless
nature of it all, was almost impossible to absorb, and still is.
So too the gullible reliance of the Indian chiefs on treaties
they had signed, which proved utterly worthless within minutes
of them signing.
These days, the deprivation of life in the reservations is still
ghastly, the number of people of native Indian extraction who
ascend into major posts is tiny. The number of dispossessed
youngsters who are unemployed or on drugs or struggling in other
ways is colossal.
Last week, it was impossible to find a Native American spokesman
in any of their various bodies who would condemn fripperies when
their people are depressed and dying. All these issues are just
so vast. Surely to goodness we need all our energies for the
real dark hearts of racism, violence, abuse, deprivation.
The last time England’s rugby team toured South Africa under
apartheid, in 1984, everything felt uneasy because of the
implied support it gave to the apartheid regime. I had written a
few words against the tour, bought township rock music from
Soweto, paid for a black family to take the Table Mountain cable
car because they didn’t have enough. Ceaseless campaigning? No,
horrible naivety.
When you saw apartheid at first hand, the shocking inequalities,
visited the Hector Pietersen Memorial in Soweto, when you saw
the old right-wing guard flourishing the old flags and the old
anthems under the noses of the new ANC, all those bleeding heart
gestures, sideline interventions, token banning of fripperies,
seemed so pathetic.
Mr Kellock, it is all so infinitely deeper than your fruitless,
humorless, bleeding-heart banning.
Perhaps Exeter should borrow a whole set of proper headdresses
and put them on show at Sandy Park, together with an exhibition
set up by Native American experts, revealing some of the history
and some of the appalling tragedy. What they categorically do
not need to do is change their happy culture in any way.
Glasgow Warriors are examining appalling history through a
narrow slit, and therefore missing the whole point.
HTML https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/does-rugby-really-need-to-go-down-the-route-to-banish-cancel-and-to-drain-itself-of-colour-frw2n5drn
#Post#: 80239--------------------------------------------------
Re: Stephen Jones talking sense ?
DIR By: Fearless Fred
Date: December 19, 2021, 3:28 am
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No. We've covered this on threads before. Native Americans
themselves have asked Chiefs to change their imagery/branding
and to discourage the "Chop" chant. There's no problem with the
name "Chiefs", just the commercial decision approx 20 years ago
to use Native American imagery as a "brand". Just as wearing
blackface is insulting, wearing of headresses, calling their
bars names like "PowWow" and the chant are similarly offensive.
#Post#: 80240--------------------------------------------------
Re: Stephen Jones talking sense ?
DIR By: Bloggs
Date: December 19, 2021, 3:35 am
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Spot on FF.
SiB, not sure why you keep bringing this up, but it’s not
related to Quins and tbh of Quins asked the same if Exeter that
Glasgow did, I wouldn’t be surprised and would be 100%
supportive. We’ve shown to be an inclusive club over recent
years, and to wear this kind of memorabilia by Exeter fans
seems, with everything we know as of now, unnecessarily
exclusionary and offensive.
#Post#: 80242--------------------------------------------------
Re: Stephen Jones talking sense ?
DIR By: SiB
Date: December 19, 2021, 3:48 am
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Because it’s topical
Exeter supporters got verbal abuse at yesterday’s game
But admin please delete this post as obviously it’s not wanted
#Post#: 80244--------------------------------------------------
Re: Stephen Jones talking sense ?
DIR By: Mayor West
Date: December 19, 2021, 4:02 am
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Would Mr Jones be happier if Exeter rebranded as South African
Tribal Chiefs instead? That’s what he’s inferring would be
acceptable but it isn’t is it.
#Post#: 80251--------------------------------------------------
Re: Stephen Jones talking sense ?
DIR By: Man From LA
Date: December 19, 2021, 6:03 am
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Looks like Jones talking bo**ocks as usual
#Post#: 80253--------------------------------------------------
Re: Stephen Jones talking sense ?
DIR By: Admin
Date: December 19, 2021, 6:12 am
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--- Quote from: SiB link ---
>
> Because it’s topical
> Exeter supporters got verbal abuse at yesterday’s game
>
> But admin please delete this post as obviously it’s not wanted
>
--- End Quote ---
I see this as a continuation of the argument rather than
rehashing the same argument. I have no issues with people
continuing to discuss what is a hot topic in premiership rugby.
I appreciate some people may be bored or felt the argument has
gone on long enough but other people may feel this article has a
point to make.
What I would say is be kind in arguing this.
#Post#: 80255--------------------------------------------------
Re: Stephen Jones talking sense ?
DIR By: MadMax
Date: December 19, 2021, 6:16 am
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Personally I think Mr Jones should re-brand as a native American
and go and live permanently in the United States.
#Post#: 80258--------------------------------------------------
Re: Stephen Jones talking sense ?
DIR By: A222Quin
Date: December 19, 2021, 6:30 am
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There’s a vague point in there. I think he’s actually bringing
up a bit of the Celtic rugby hypocrisy and sanctimony and trying
to equate that with the ongoing Exeter saga. He has a point that
please, and a bit of friendliness wouldn’t go amiss but apart
from that it’s a bit of a ramble. I do sort of agree that
residency and grandparent rule players in Scotland are at an
insane level but that’s by the by.
#Post#: 80268--------------------------------------------------
Re: Stephen Jones talking sense ?
DIR By: Bolly-Quin
Date: December 19, 2021, 8:31 am
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Sounds to me that Mr Jones is appropriating some sensitivity…
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