Hi. Middle class white girl here and I'm gonna go off of what
@njallday talked about.
I don't think this team intentionally went out to offend anyone. Did they take aspects of it too far? Yup yup yup. But high caliber, super famous teams post things like this all the time. How many times have I seen pictures of smoed dressed as "thugs" or "cholas" or whatever? Too many to count - not enough interest to care. You can argue that "it isn't the same thing" but it is. But do they get a whole thread and news article devoted to it? No. I blame half to smoeds fame and following and people putting them on a pedistal and the other half to the fact that the team in the article was a school team and parents are more likely to get involved and alert the presses at the slightest little thing like the wind blowing the wrong way.
I understand that minorities struggle with stereotypes and the oppression it causes. I am educated on what happens and how it works. I also understand that I will never know what it feels like first hand to experience some of these struggles.
But believe it or not people, every single race, religion, class, etc has had it's struggles and it's share of discrimination. Do you happen to know what race was used as slaves on southern plantations before they brought over Africans? The irish. Irish slaves. White slaves. (Wowzers, white slaves, who knew?) For obvious reasons, they didn't last too long as plantation slaves yet they suffered the same treatment as the African slaves. Do people not know that happened? Or do we like to dismiss it as a real struggle because another group suffered the same fate but was a bigger part of American history? This is what happens when our school systems only educate "one side" of history.
We are so quick to spew terrible things about the Germans and the Nazi party because of the Holocaust and the atrocities committed yet we forget that we threw Japanese AMERICANS into concentration camps during WWII and spied on countless groups of Americans after terrorist attacks for "our own protection." We say we should take in anyone who flees to America for refuge but secretly only if they're from certain countries. (Off topic but I am not afraid to call the US terrorists as well.)
You could argue that many costumes or themes promote racism/sexism/elitism/whatever. Gangster, cowboys and indians, hobos, army, etc. I find it frustrating to watch people scream at something that discriminates against one group but turn their backs on another because it "doesn't affect me." I'm not gonna list my 6 "nationalities" (for lack of a better term) and go into detail of their struggles and the ways they've been discriminated against.
