Former US President Donald Trump on Saturday greeted the Atlanta baseball team by performing the “Tomahawk Chop”, a popular gesture among fans of several sports teams in the United States. But the practice is decried by the Amerindians who consider it insulting towards their culture.
Whistled during a match counting for the World Series two years ago in Washington, Donald Trump joined thousands of fans of the Atlanta Braves team in simulating with his arm the strike of a tomahawk (the ax Native American) at Truist Park in Atlanta, before their game against the Houston Astros in the Major League Baseball (MLB) Best of Seven Final. From their lodge, Melania Trump, his wife, also took up this controversial gesture.
A ritual that “dehumanizes and hurts us”
The former presidential couple were accompanied by former American football star Herschel Walker, vying for the post of senator from Georgia, a candidacy supported by the former US president.
The racism debate has not spared the sports world in the United States, and MLB in particular. For example, the Cleveland Indians club decided this year to change their name to rename themselves the Guardians, out of respect for the Amerindians. The “Tomahawk chop” remains popular with fans and supported by the MLB, however, with commissioner Rob Manfred saying this week that the practice had the full support of the Native Americans of Atlanta. “For me, this is the end of the story,” he said.
But the president of the National Native American Council, Fawn Sharp, recalled for his part that his institution had repeatedly explained to the Atlanta Braves that “Native Americans are not mascots and degrading rituals like Tomahawk chop, which dehumanize and hurt us, have no place in American society ”.
