Atlanta Braves: Why it’s Time to Get Rid of Tomahawk Chop

The Atlanta Braves tomahawk chop has been under scrutiny since it began in 1991. Should they stop the chop?

Atlanta Braves: I have always dismissed it when people have spoken up in protest against things I deemed to be petty and little. Things that I enjoy in my life, like the Tomahawk Chop.

The chop is performed at Braves games, Florida State games, Kansas City Chiefs games, and by fans of all kinds of teams who utilize American Indians as their mascots.

My stance would always be something like, “Wow, what’s next, you want to ban Count Chocula cereal in case it offends vampires?”

That’s pretty stupid of me, I know. I won’t pretend I’ve never done anything stupid. I once stood outside a convertible with the top down while everyone else waited for me to get in. They looked at me in confusion and asked what I was waiting for, I replied: “the door is locked.”

One of the chaps in a video I share later on was interviewed by a local news team about the controversy and his response revealed that he took offense to the protestors wanting to trample on the tradition of the Atlanta Braves.

When I started this article, my goal was as simple as reporting some of the recent enthusiasm about trying to force the Braves into a name change. That’s an article for another time, but over the course of skimming through some arguments, I saw compelling pleas from people who claimed that I had it backwards.

They weren’t trampling on my Atlanta Braves’ traditions, but their traditions were the ones being trampled on.

So, ultimately, I stayed up all night and parts of the following day researching their perspectives and attempting to put myself in their shoes.

I realized, the truth for me is that I dismissed their claims because it annoyed and disrupted life in my bubble. It messed with my Braves.

However, I didn’t know a thing about their culture and I was never willing to even listen to why they were protesting. The EASY thing to do is dismiss them all as whiny people who protest for the sake of protesting.

This is not a recent call. Cardinals rookie Ryan Helsley is standing at the back of a LONG, LONG line of offended Native Americans — I get it now.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or on social media after you read this article. These conversations are important but they are never productive if we don’t approach them with real talking points and use information instead of anger.

If you want to partake in debating this issue in the comments, keep it civil. Please read the whole article and tell me exactly which parts you disagree with. Make it a real conversation. Hopefully, you’ll take it a step further and do more research on your own.

That’s ideal because it gives us more information to share with one another, and in the end, it makes us all smarter…and I’d like to go ahead and apologize to any vampires for my previous comments about Count Chocula.

Some of the topics I’ll touch on in this article include:

• The case against the Tomahawk Chop.
• When Ted Turner nearly changed the team name to the Eagles.
• The claims that Native American mascots are really a way to honor their cultures.
• What some of the leading activists have to say on the matter.
• Defiling a race and religions.
• Suzan Shown Harjo and Native American-inspired mascots
• When the Braves were the elephant in New York’s room.
• Researching our opinions and understanding one another.