Racism, Cultural Sensitivity, and Roller Derby

Back in September a skater from Florida posted to her personal Tumblr to call out a different Florida league, the Rebel Belles of Palm Harbor, Florida, accusing them of racism based on their team logo and colors.

In the post, Militant Bulstrode claims that the Belle’s gray, red, and blue uniforms—not to mention their kepi hat logo with crossed rifles—was representative of the Confederate flag and army uniforms from the American Civil War. This, Bulstrode argued, was evidence of racism within the league, and “the fact that they’ve completed a season (albeit an extremely short one) without being called out on their logo/jerseys/team name needs to be rectified immediately.”

The Rebel Belles responded to the ensuing deluge of criticism by writing and sharing a lengthy defense of the logo and uniforms, as well as stating that the accusations of racism were “false and slanderous.” They have also since changed the logo, and a post dated Nov. 12 says the league is “seriously considering rebranding.”

There’s no way to know the motivations of the individuals responsible for the initial branding of the league, barring psychic and time traveling abilities. Speculation about whether or not the individual members, or indeed the entire league, are harboring racist ideas or beliefs is futile unless those people come out and claim outright racist ideology. The Rebel Belles have not, to my knowledge, done so. They have, in fact, gone out of their way to claim to be an inclusive, non-discriminatory league.

There are two possibilities in this case, as far as I see it: Either the Rebel Belles were formed by Confederate sympathizers / white supremacists, or they simply demonstrated a deep lack of understanding of historical symbology and ignorance of their own white privilege.

I tend to go with Hanlon’s razor when it comes to this kind of thing: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

I say this not to impugn the overall intelligence of anyone with the Rebel Belles, but rather to point out that we’re all prone to doing stupid things from time to time. Some of those stupid things can stem from prejudices we didn’t even know we had, too—the difference lies in how we choose to recognize, address, and attempt to correct those things in the long run. And the relationship the U.S. has with its history—specifically the Confederacy and the Civil War—is fraught with whitewashing, misunderstanding, and worse (even feminist folksinger Ani DiFranco isn’t free from the pitfalls of historical and racial ignorance).

But that’s a whole other article. Let’s take a look at the facts in this particular case:

• The Rebel Belles named themselves after the rebel yell, the term coined for a battle cry specific to the Confederate army during the Civil War (and Florida, for those of you less familiar with U.S. history, was a member of the Confederate States of America, which seceded from the Union in 1861 and was then forcibly beaten back into the U.S. after losing the war in 1865).
• The Rebel Belles designed a logo using the gray kepi hat that was standard issue for Confederate soldiers during that war, with two crossed, red muskets underneath (also standard issue weapons during the war). The RB’s claim the logo was meant to emulate the Florida state flag, which does indeed feature a red St. Andrew’s Cross on a white field.
• The RB’s have gray home team uniforms, accented with red and blue. To claim that the use of the gray uniforms, and then the gray kepi, is simply homage to their “historic theme” demonstrates a rather baffling lack of sensitivity to the admittedly complex but deeply hurtful history in question. There may be no actual rebel battle flag in their logo, but the Confederacy is still all over their branding.

In the end, it seems as though the anger spurred by the team’s name/image has forced them to seriously reconsider and rebrand, which is ultimately a good thing for everyone involved. No matter how well meaning they might have been in attempting to give a nod to Florida’s past, the fact remains that said past is inescapably tied to slavery and subjugation, and the continued prejudice toward and oppression of minority populations in the U.S. that are that evil institution’s legacy.

There’s no place for that in roller derby (or anywhere, of course), a sport founded on the principle of inclusivity and bucking the status quo. It’s good to call out these things when we see them. This kind of cultural and racial insensitivity is sadly not limited to this one case, either. Painfully enough, the skater who penned the original Tumblr post calling out the RB’s is herself the member of a team called the Cannibals, whose men’s derby analog are called the Head Hunters. There are deeply problematic and culturally insensitive elements in those names, too (glass houses, etc).

Clearly, this is a much larger conversation we should be having—within roller derby, within sports (ahem, the Washington football team, anyone?), within our lives in general.

The point isn’t to get caught up in name calling or knee-jerk defensiveness, though, but rather to speak up when something is harmful and/or hurtful, speak from the heart, push for constructive change--and always, always be willing to listen and make your own changes when it’s you who’s guilty of stumbling.

The ending that still haunts

One-hundred and forty-four years ago on this day (April 9, 1865), General Robert E. Lee offered the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia--and, essentially, the Confederacy--to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. They met at the McLean House in Appomattox, Virginia, an area that had seen some of the earliest fighting of the American Civil War as well.

It was a joyous occasion for some, and a time of deep sadness and regret for many. Upon hearing that Lee had officially surrendered, the Union soldiers assembled near the house began to cheer and fire their guns in celebration, but Grant ordered them to stop out of respect. Some years later, as he reflected upon that momentous historical event, Grant wrote the following:

What General Lee's feelings were I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity, with an impassable face, it was impossible to say whether he felt inwardly glad that the end had finally come, or felt sad over the result, and was too manly to show it. Whatever his feelings, they were entirely concealed from my observation; but my own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter [proposing negotiations], were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.

Grant's terms of surrender were generous, and his order to mute any celebrations in the face of the defeated army were considerably kind. It is remarkable to note the downright quiet and almost familial atmosphere that marked the end of such a long and bloody conflict. But it was, I think, all-together appropriate. The war had been a terrible means to reach the end of having a more just and equitable country.

The situation in the US should never have allowed for the institution of slavery in the first place, and had that not been existent and therefor a major wedge issue leading up to the war, we might have avoided the conflict all together.

We might also have avoided, or at least significantly lessened, the deep racial divisions and tensions that still, unfortunately, exist to this day. It took 142 hard years from Emancipation to the election of our first black president. And even still, we have a long way to go.

There are citizens of this country who, all these years later, still find themselves embittered by the defeat of the Confederacy. Head south of the Mason-Dixon, and the topic becomes all the more charged. To some, they are the conquered people, mistreated and dismissed by the conquerors. It would be easy to write this off as misplaced anger over the embarrassment of being the side that upheld slavery--and in some cases, it is absolutely that. But for some, the feeling has nothing to do with the so-called "peculiar institution." It has everything to do, instead, with deeply seeded divisions of class and culture that have been pervasive since even antebellum times.

These divisions can be seen, even now, in the voting trends and demographics of different regions of the country. And they cannot be easily summed up or dismissed by saying they're simply the result of racism, or any other 'ism. Though that is sometimes at least part of the case, the situation is usually a bit more complex.

What's important for all sides of the debate to recognize is that we are all products of our culture, all prone to various prejudices and misunderstandings. And we must all work hard, everyday, to open our minds and get passed these stumbling blocks, so that future generations can continue to become less and less susceptible to those outmoded and detrimental attitudes.

Grant saw that when he, a man so cold and calculating in battle that he'd been nicknamed "The Butcher," allowed the defeated Southern soldiers to be fed, to retain their horses and sidearms, and to go home unharmed.

It's important to hold accountable those who are truly responsible for crimes and atrocities--and to call people out when they display bigotry and bias--but it's just as important to recognize when it's time to simply put your foot down and do what you can to end the cycle of violence. We should all take that lesson to heart.