alright here’s the deal: obviously getting rid of Patrick Kane would be net good for the hockey community as a whole but that in no way would redeem the blackhawks even little bit. I get how if you’re white or non-native in general you could personally see how that would make you feel less bad but I got some news for you!!! They’re still a racist organization and it wouldn’t be totally chill to like them even if they dropped their rapist!!!
Did you know that there are NO federally recognized reservations in illinois despite the fact that one of the largest groups of indigenous people lived there pre european contact? Did you know that Illinois is an algonquin word? Did you know that most of the state’s highway system was built from native trade routes and trails? Did you know that the state’s agriculture system was built up from land already cultivated from native farmers?
Did you know that the illinois natives were forced off of their land? Did you know chicago probably would not exist as we know it if it hadn’t been for the hard work and progress the natives there made? The work that was stolen from them? The trail of tears passed through illinois. The blackhawk war to reclaim land that had been stolen took part in northern illinois. The entire state of illinois is soaked with native blood.
And how do we memorialize this?
The funny thing is that war bonnets belonged to the plains indians and Black Hawk was a woodland indian. The team can pretend that it’s “honoring” Black Hawk all the want, but it’s an empty lie as long as that racist caricature is worn on those jerseys. The team isn’t even named after Black Hawk himself, it’s named after a US infantry division that was named after Black Hawk.
lets also compare what the actual Black Hawk looked like versus the logo:
This wasn’t made to honor an individual, it’s a generic caricature. Don’t even get me started on how the US decides “good” indians from”bad” indians in history. Which individuals were ~noble worthy adversaries and which ones were villains that needed to be exterminated.
“But Dana! the Black Hawks aren’t as bad as say the Redskins or the Inidians!” like you’re theoretically correct that the blackhawks are doing the bare minimum of not using slurs as their team names but let me lay something on you:
This shit actively and continually hurts us. It hurts native children who already start off disadvantaged in this world. It hurts all of us when no one takes us fucking seriously because our cultures and our sacred traditions are reduced to spot rituals for profit. It doesn’t matter if the blackhawks are “less racist” than other teams. Racism is racism, especially on this scale especially when the franchise makes an astronomical amount of profit on the sale of their merchandise.
So yes, I’m sure if you aren’t native it’s easy to say “well if they fired this one player, it wouldn’t be so bad!” I’m sure most of hockey tumblr agrees with that statement! But you’re wrong and this is why. The blackhawks org is a product of a culture of murder and rape a theft and it’s a reminder to all of us native people of the abuse of our people.
This isn’t about being ~woke~ since I know so many of you are chomping at the bit to be hawks fans now that strome is over there. This is about native folks literally begging you to have some empathy for us and our centuries worth of trauma. Don’t just performatively hate the blackhawks because you’re supposed to, listen to us and really consider the implications. Consider that the org won’t even so much as change their logo, which is like the absolute bare minimum they could do. Think about WHY they won’t do that. Think about how this franchise profits off our our dehumination and stop minimizing that.
Steel Phoenix Studios 