St. Paul’s SpiderBaby: Gay pro wrestler celebrates 10th anniversary

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Terrance Griep, pro wrestler and writer, celebrated the 10th anniversary of Tommy “The SpiderBaby” in November, which is what he calls himself when he steps into the ring. Besides a tenth anniversary, SpiderBaby won a tenth championship, according to his press release. Griep, who is openly gay, said, “this victory represents a political statement.”SpiderBaby is a classic bad guy (“heel” in professional parlance), who cheats when the referee’s back is turned and generally makes himself as unlikeable as possible, drawing hearty boos from the crowd.”OUT Magazine,” he told the Twin Cities Daily Planet, “recognizes me as the first professional wrestler to come out nationally, but others have since I did.”Terrance Griep sees his standing, especially his half of the Independent Wrestling International Tag Team Championship with Ian “The X-Man” Xavier, as more than being accepted as one of the guys. They won ten championship belts in as many years and he sees his presence, even as someone the fans love to hate, as a political statement. After all, he’s a champion over both homosexual and heterosexual peers.”Yeah, that’s the, thrust of it,” he says. Continue Reading

COMMUNITY VOICES | Hmong North Minneapolis Soccer Players Cheer Coach Blong Yang Victory

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 Farview Soccer Shout-Out:  “Yeah Blong Yang!!”North Minneapolis Hmong soccer players have some special reasons to cheer  the election of Blong Yang as Minneapolis’ first Hmong councilmember:  not only is he their new alderman, he is also the founding league coach for their  Farview Park soccer team.As the van picked up  Farview soccer players Saturday for indoor soccer, they were asked what they thought of Blong Yang’s election.“I think Blong Yang will be a good councilmember, because he was a good coach,” says Ab Vue.Je Yang gives his thumbs up to Blong as councilmember “Because he is a Yang like me.”“Blong will have some new ideas,”, says Yeng Vang, “and he speaks Hmong, so he can talk with my parents.”Tou Wang Lee is proud that “Blong is the first Hmong elected in Minneapolis.”Coach Blong Yang with 2006 Farview Park 14u soccer teamIn 2006, Blong Yang coached the Farview Park 14u soccer team. This team literally came out of nowhere:  18 months before, all but one of the players were living in a Thai refugee camp.  The players were small and scrawny, and the players from the other teams towered over them:  But with Blong’s drive and guidance,  they won their first game 6-1, and went on to an undefeated regular season and league championship in the Minneapolis Parks Soccer League.  Coach Blong talks strategy with his soccer playersBlong coached Farview teams for three more years, and each year his team won the league championship. As their coach, Blong heard about the many problems his refugee players had in  their schools:  getting hit, lack of bilingual teachers, overcrowded classes.  And he also heard about criminal attacks suffered by the refugee families:  doors busted down while the families were inside, a robber pointing a gun at children  in their house and threatening to blow their heads off, assaults on the street,  thefts and car break-ins. Two  Farview soccer players were hit with stray bullets – both survived. Blong also knew that these refugee families spoke very limited English and would face challenges getting their voices heard.  Blong Helps refugee families explain to Minneapolis Public Schools officials that a 45 student classroom is too bigHe came to meetings and supported families when they said their 40+ student classes were overcrowded and needed to be cut. Continue Reading

Protesters march to Metrodome, denounce Washington team nickname as racist

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Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the Metrodome on November 7. denouncing the nickname of Washington’s NFL franchise, the Redskins.Organized by the American Indian Movement, protesters carried signs, beat drums and danced their way from the Ancient Traders Market on East Franklin Avenue down Chicago Avenue, and arrived at the Metrodome around 5:30 p.m. to listen to speeches by the movement’s leaders and political supporters.The mascot issue has been a source of contention for years, with Minneapolis witnessing a similar protest back in 1992 when the Metrodome hosted the Washington team in Super Bowl XXVI.U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, Minneapolis Mayor-elect Betsy Hodges, City Council members from Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as professional Native American athletes including Vikings Pro Bowler Joey Browner and Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills, all voiced their condemnation of the mascot.”We’re finally getting there,” said AIM’s national leader, Clyde Bellecourt, who expects the mascot name will be out in the next year. Momentum is building, as more and more public figures have begun speaking out against Washington, not just in Minnesota but nationally as well. Many high school and collegiate teams having retired their Native American mascots over the last few years.Even President Obama stated publicly he would really “consider changing the name” if he was Snyder, the owner of Washington’s team.AIM is considering its legal options to prevent Washington’s name and logo from being displayed.AIM’s legal counsel, Larry Leventhal, announced in a press conference on November 6 that they filed a petition with the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget to evaluate whether the new Viking stadium will be consistent with human rights standards.Leventhal said the appropriation of public funds for a new stadium which hosts a racist mascot would violate state and federal human rights laws which prohibit discrimination in public accommodations. Continue Reading

OPINION | Again we speak against injustice

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“Ake” is a word we use in Lakota to express our frustration. It’s translated as “again.” Growing up on the Rosebud reservation, I would hear my parents say, “Ake!” when someone unnecessarily repeated themselves, made another promise that may have been suspect or when another frustration took hold in the family or in the community.Again, we find ourselves discussing the issue of Native American mascots in the American mainstream. Again, we find ourselves having to explain to non-Native people why this is not just a demoralizing but dehumanizing issue for our people. And again, we find ourselves listening to the same ignorance involved with the caricaturization of a minority group of people.The Washington D.C. team will play the Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 7 and the Native community in Minneapolis, led by the perennially-outspoken American Indian Movement, will protest the Washington team. Continue Reading

Change the Name protest — Video report

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AIM Twin Cities, Little Earth of United Tribes and Minneapolis American Indian community members gathered on Nov. 7 on East Franklin Avenue to protest the Washington team on during their game against the Minnesota Vikings. The event, led by AIM Twin Cities co-founder Clyde Bellecourt, featured Billy Mills (1964 Olympic Gold Medalist, Oglala Lakota), Gov. Jesse Ventura (former Minnesota governor), Nathaniel Khaliq (St. Paul City Council member, Ward 1), U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Joey Browner (Minnesota Vikings, 1983-1991) and Betsy Hodges (Mayor-Elect, City of Minneapolis).(Footage by Jamie Keith, Edited by Alfred Walking Bull)Related stories:OPINION | Again we speak against injustice (Alfred Walking Bull, 2013)University of Minnesota panel refocuses Washington football mascot controversy on protecting youth (Ben Markhart, 2013)NEWS DAY | Protesting the R word (Mary Turck, 2013)Protesters march to Metrodome, denounce Washington team nickname as racist (Ben Markhart, 2013) Continue Reading

University of Minnesota panel refocuses Washington football mascot controversy on protecting youth

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On November 5, the University of Minnesota hosted a symposium on race in sports and media for a more in-depth discussion of the issues surrounding the controversy over the Washington football team’s derogatory “Redskins” nickname. Speakers including AIM’s national leader, Clyde Bellecourt and U.S. Congressmember Betty McCollum, highlighted the impact that Indian caricatures have beyond a simple derogatory nature.“The issue is not whether the appropriation of Indian names and images is offensive.” said Bellecourt in an earlier statement. “The greater issue is the substantial damage indigenous sports names and mascots do to Indigenous children.”The larger issue AIM hopes to address is the effect caricatures like the Redskins logo have, not only on society’s perception of native people, but on native people’s perception of themselves. Bellecourt pointed to the reaction of young children upon hearing common game-time chants like, “massacre them” or “scalp them.””I knew we were native people but I never really knew what that meant,” said 21-year-old Chris Hammerly, the symposium’s youngest panelist. Continue Reading

Struggle against racist sports nicknames gives labor movement opportunity to discover its own history – and find a path forward

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In early September the AFL-CIO held a dramatic convention in Los Angeles. With the labor movement’s segment of the U.S. workforce down to a meager 11 percent, leaders urged the pursuit of new paths, what they called “a historic opening in the labor movement.” President Richard Trumka called on the more than one hundred year old federation to open its arms to embrace new kind of organizations – worker centers, worker associations, and associate member organizations. It’s time, he said, that the labor movement become a movement of “the 99 percent.” He and other leaders called particular attention to the International Domestic Workers’ Network, the National Taxi Workers’ Alliance, United Students Against Sweatshops, and Working America, as they encouraged unions to develop strategies which used links with such organizations to build community support for workers and to fight against racism and on behalf of immigrants’ rights. Continue Reading