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To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. See our ethics statement. With the World Series being played in Atlanta for the first time since , new eyes are on the Braves. The debate will reach a fevered pitch on Friday night with Atlanta set to host Game 3 of the World Series. Despite erroneous claims, there is no longstanding tradition of the chant being used in Atlanta for the Braves.
I started it. Aaron smiles in as he is honored with a street named after him outside the Braves' spring-training facility in Florida. Aaron prepares to receive a Covid vaccination on January 5, Aaron's jersey number, 44, is carved into the outfield grass at Truist Park as a tribute to the Hall of Famer, who died in January.
But in recent years the city's fan base has become more segregated. The Braves seem aware of this rift. When I contacted them this week about the Braves' relationship to the Black community, team officials sent me a 1,word, bullet-point response detailing all their efforts to promote racial diversity: being the first MLB team to create a diversity and inclusion department; creating foundations and career days to recruit players and front-office talent from historically Black colleges; and offering an array of community programs to promote baseball in Atlanta's Black neighborhoods, among others.
But bullet points can only go so far when the tension between the Braves and some of its city's Black residents goes beyond sports. Part of this is a byproduct of the city's tense racial and political climate.
Consider any explosive racial issue you can think of -- White flight, voter suppression, racial protests, the killings of Black people on video -- and it has somehow detonated in Georgia in the past few years.
A White police officer killed Rayshard Brooks , a Black man, in an Atlanta parking lot last year only weeks after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparking protests and the resignation of Atlanta's police chief.
Three White men are now on trial for the killing Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, in February while he was jogging in a coastal city in south Georgia. And in March, over furious protests by Black voters and Democrats, the Republican-led Georgia legislature passed one of the nation's most racially restrictive voting laws.
The Braves 'Tomahawk chop' is getting political. Sports and politics aren't supposed to mix. But Georgia's current Republican governor ignored that adage during the Braves' playoff run this season. After the Braves won the National League pennant, Gov. Chop On, and Go Braves. Kemp's "Chop On" reference only served to highlight the Braves' problematic "Tomahawk chop" symbol and gesture, which some Native American groups and activists say perpetuates "dehumanizing" racial stereotypes.
Images of a smiling Trump chopping away, flanked by exuberant White fans doing the same, won't help the Braves' relationship with the city's Black community or their White allies. Critics have long demanded that the Braves eliminate the chop and change their team name -- as the former Cleveland Indians did earlier this year -- from one seen by many as a racial slur. Some have suggested the Braves change their name to the "Hammers" to honor "Hammerin'" Hank Aaron's nickname.
Last summer the Braves said they were reviewing use of the chop , which is traditionally done by fans at the ballpark to rally the team. But the Braves have so far resisted a name change, saying in a letter to season ticket holders that "We will always be the Atlanta Braves" and citing the team's relationship with regional Native American groups. To some fans, especially after the racial reckoning over George Floyd, this stance seems racially insensitive.
A lesson from the Atlanta Hawks. Even Atlanta's sprawling geography contributes to this rift between the Braves and the city's Black community. As someone who has worked in downtown Atlanta for more than 20 years, I've seen a racial divide in the city's fan base.
The crowds for Falcons and Hawks games, in the city's downtown, are filled with Black and brown faces. But the throngs of Braves fans who passed through on their way to Turner Field were noticeably whiter.
And some White fans looked palpably nervous as I watched them navigate Black crowds on their way into the Hawks' arena and Falcons' stadium. Make it a real conversation.
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