Fans of the San Francisco 49ers may feel like their team name is less racist than the “Chiefs,” but given the bloody history of the Gold Rush, they shouldn’t be so smug.
On Wednesday night, a tall white man wearing a San Francisco 49ers sweater approached me at a bar outside of downtown Santa Fe, N.M. I had my laptop open, and I was pounding away, late on another deadline.
“I agree with you,” he said. The blond-haired, blue-eyed 30-something then pointed at my laptop. I knew he wasn’t referring to my “Decolonize your mind” or “You are on stolen land” stickers. No. He eyed the one with the pseudo–Kansas City Chiefs logo with the words “Nope” emblazoned in the middle. The Kansas City Indian Center had given it to me at the last Super Bowl.
“In this day and age,” he said, “I don’t understand why Native American mascots are still a thing.”
“I agree with you,” I responded. “But the name of the 49ers isn’t doing us any favors either.”
He sat with me for a bit, and listened to my case against San Francisco’s team name, which went something like this…
During Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, there will again be mawkish tomahawk chops, stereotypical “Oh, oh, oh!” Indian chants, the banging of a massive fake Indian drum with a fake Indian drumstick, and Chiefs fans painted in red-face. This is all obviously racist.
But 49ers die-hards will be sitting nearby in complete ignorance of the brutal history behind their team’s name.
It’s rarely taught in schools, but there was a genocide of Native Americans in California.
read more: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/super-bowl-49ers-kansas-city-chiefs/
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