On Saturday, one day prior to the Super Bowl, NBC News ran an op-ed in which the writer accused Kansas City Chiefs fans of racism, stating, “Native American mascots might be the last form of traditional American racism that people of every color and creed will rush to support and defend. On any given Sunday during the regular NFL season — right there in the stands — one can find a black guy in a headdress, a white guy in redface, and a Latino or Asian duo tomahawk chopping with one hand and gripping an overpriced alcoholic beverage in the other.”
Simon Moya-Smith, a self-described contributing writer for NBC News, which describes him as “an enrolled citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and a Chicano writer and journalist,” bemoaned the actions of Chiefs fans, opining that at the AFC Championship Chiefs’ fans engaged in a “most brutal and vicious display” as they “whooped while donning fake feathered headdresses, people war-painted their faces and, in that baleful Kansas City tradition, the game began with the beating of that hideous faux “Indian” drum.” Moya-Smith continued, “As its deep boom echoed throughout the stadium, fans performed the tomahawk chop en masses and joined in on that half-witted tomahawk chop ‘chant.’”
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