After an incident at last month’s Giants’ Native American Heritage Night involving fans wearing a fake headdress, the franchise is considering a new policy that would ban culturally insensitive attire and language. If it happens, it would be a first for major-league sports, according to USA TODAY.
At a game on June 23, promoted by the Giants as a celebration of Native American culture, two attendees were detained by San Francisco police following an alleged altercation with fans wearing and sharing a headdress. It started when April Negrette asked “a group of mostly white guys that were passing around a headdress” to stop. Attendee Kimball Bighorse was also detained. The incident sparked outrage in the local Native American community, which staged a protest on July 1 outside AT&T Park.
Giants senior vice president Staci Slaughter told USA TODAY that the headdress altercation prompted the franchise to consider implementing a new policy: “We met with some folks as a result of the incident. What we’re looking at is not just specific to Native Americans. We have a desire to educate folks. The reason we do these heritage nights is to raise the awareness of the diversity of our region.”
The proposed policy is still in the planning stages, but could enable Giants security to ask attendees to remove culturally insensitive attire or signs and potentially kick them out the stadium.
“We are considering expanding the policy to be more explicit about culturally insensitive signs and articles of clothing," Slaughter said. “I don’t want to overstate where we are. We haven’t finalized the language. We are still in the process of revising it.”
American Indian activist Suzan Shown Harjo — who is considered an expert in the issue of sports team mascots with Indian identities — said that if the Giants follow through with the policy, it would be the first for a major-league sports franchise.
