Cleveland Indians changed their name, now for the rest of the racism in corporate America
Racism against indigenous peoples by American corporations needs to end. Now.
Yes, the Cleveland Indians are now changing their name, with the Washington Redskins having already done so. And Land O’Lakes has dropped its “butter maiden” logo.
Economic pressures rather than good-faith morality are behind most of these changes in American society, of course.
And yet, so much work remains. The Atlanta Braves has not yet eliminated the idiotic “tomahawk chop” and chant, for example. And the team seems unwilling to change its name. Sadly, being racist all too often goes hand-in-hand with being ignorant of one’s own racism.
That includes the corporate appropriation of our sacred, historic names for marketing purposes and commercial gain.
We have long suffered from other persons naming us, of course. Columbus called the indigenous peoples he encountered “Indians” due to a cartographic mistake. That historical error dates to 1492.
The many brand names that stole our names
And then non-indigenous people, including at the United States government, popularized the term “Native American” in the 1960s and 1970s. After being misnamed by one Italian explorer 500 years earlier, we thus got burdened with a phrase whose origins date to yet another 15th century Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci.
At this juncture, I would offer the helpful hint: just call us by the names of our tribes. I am a Cherokee, for example.
And yes, I am a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, as opposed to products manufactured by various American companies that have literally stolen our name.
For example, there is the light aircraft, the Piper PA-28 Cherokee, which has been produced from 1961 to the present day. There was also the Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six, produced from 1965 to 2007.
In 1974, American Motors launched the Jeep Cherokee, which continues to the present. And Chrysler launched the Jeep Grand Cherokee in 1992.
I suppose someone at these companies might try to offer the same nonsense argument that sports teams like the Atlanta Braves have made, that the use of the Cherokee name is somehow a tribute to indigenous people. Or that automobiles named after us are about the great outdoors and travel.
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I hope not, as cross-country Cherokee travel made at the behest of whites is better known as Forced Removal and the Trail of Tears.
Of course, the appropriation of our name is hardly limited to planes and automobiles. Consider the Cherokee clothing brand, founded in 1973 and available at Target and Tesco until 2017. The brand still exists, and is sold in approximately 50 countries.
What actually is a brand name? Merriam-Webster tells us that a brand name is “an arbitrarily adopted name that is given by a manufacturer or merchant to an article or service….”
This definition is faulty in one respect — the use of the word “arbitrarily.” Much time and thought goes into the selection of many brand names, as well as logos. But then again, ignorance is rarely in short supply in company boardrooms.
With regard to indigenous peoples, the problem extends well beyond the Cherokee Nation. In automobiles, we have also endured the Winnebago, the Pontiac, and the Mazda Navajo.
With planes, there is the Piper PA-31 Navajo and the Piper PA-44 Seminole, as well as the Piper PA-24 Comanche, the PA-30 Twin Comanche, and the PA-39 Twin Comanche C/R. And then there are helicopters named for the Kiowa, the Lakota, and the Apache.
There is also the Apache Corporation and the Apache HTTP Server. The list goes on and on and on.
Put an end to retail racism
Saddest of all was Crazy Horse Malt Liquor, named for the great Lakota leader of the 19th century. Here was something worse than just having his name stolen to sell a product. In life, Crazy Horse denounced alcohol. In death, he suffered the indignity of becoming an unwitting supporter of it.
Fortunately, the Stroh Brewing Company dropped the use of the Crazy Horse name in 2001 and even offered an apology for its sins.
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But Stroh’s actions only came after Crazy Horse’s descendants sued them. Economic pressures drive progressive change, and will continue to do so in the future.
Racism is wrong and must be defeated, including when it takes the form of ridiculous brand names and cheap advertising.
My people are not jeeps or cheap clothing or major league sports. We have a great heritage, one that is not about rustproofing and clear coat paint, one that is not about being prepackaged and shrink-wrapped.
Stealing our names to make a cheap buck is wrong. Our retail politics will overcome retail racism.
Gary D. Rhodes is an associate professor of film and mass media at the University of Central Florida. He is the coauthor (with Robert Singer) of Consuming Images: Film Art and the American Television Commercial.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stop stealing indigenous peoples' names for branding
