National Anti-Racism Group Plans Rally For Vikings-Chiefs Game
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Kansas City Chiefs will visit TCF Bank Stadium to play the Vikings. And with the Chiefs in town, a rally is being planned.
Members of the National Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media held a press conference Friday morning, calling the team's name and logo racist and offensive.
The group and its supporters are planning to march from Northrop Auditorium to TCF Bank Stadium on Sunday morning before the game.
The coalition said that over 3,000 high schools, colleges and universities have done what's right and changed their name and logo. But the group said professional sports teams, including the Kansas City Chiefs, are behind the times.
"Sports is an incredible unifier if it is used correctly and wisely. But in this situation it's unacceptable that the state of Minnesota accommodates this football team that is coming on Sunday," LeMoine LaPointe, of the American Indian Movement Interpretive Center, said.
When the Washington Redskins played the Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium last November, organizers estimate that as many as 5,000 protesters turned out -- and they said the Chiefs shouldn't be ignored. They pointed to tomahawk chop chants and headdresses that fans wear.
"There is nothing wrong with the name 'chief.' They could be the police chiefs or the fire chiefs. For now, I call them the "mis-chiefs," Norma Renville of White Earth Nation said.
The coalition said they will blitz another stereotype this weekend in hopes that future generations don't have to experience what they have.
"We will prevail. There is no doubt in my mind that we will prevail. The sooner the better because we are not going to let up. We are going to declare war against that type of ignorance and racism in America and what it's done to our people," Clyde Bellecourt, of the National Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media, said.
WCCO reached out to both the Chiefs and Vikings about Sunday's planned rally. Neither organization responded by the time this story went to air.
