Here’s A Racist Sports Logo That Hits Closer To Home

There has been much debate about the Washington NFL team, Edmonton’s CFL team, and MLB’s Atlanta and Cleveland franchises.

And happily, some change has come from it, including Washington announcing they would change their NFL team’s logo and name.

But just down the 401 in Stratford, Ontario, sits a legacy of horrific racism in the form of Stratford’s Junior B team.

While the Stratford Cullitons are now the Stratford Warriors, and the team’s new logo features a knight in shining armour, that doesn’t mean the town has done away with the past, in fact, if you walk into Allman Arena, a historic complex built in 1924, you’ll likely still find caricatures of Indigenous people, including a copy of these horrific programs used in the 1970s and 1980s.

Nothing like a racist caricature to reduce Indigenous people to stereotypes.

The programs show horrific racist version of an Indigenous person carrying scalps emblazoned with the names of other Junior B cities on them, proudly wearing a Stratford shirt and skates.

In Canada, many people feel sheltered from the racism that is occurring in the United States of America, but Canada should not, and cannot forget our own history of racism, including the genocide of Indigenous people that occurred through the 60s scoop, residential schools, and the ongoing tragedy of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Not to mention Japanese and Ukrainian Internment Camps, head taxes, and continued Colonial practices that govern Canada.

Canada, Ontario, and Southwestern Ontario are not immune to racism, and racist mascots.

If you need one of the most horrific examples available, Stratford presents itself as a “what not to do” for sports logos.

In 2016, Stratford officially changed their logo and name from Cullitons to Warriors. It was a severing of ties with Stratford company Culliton, who the team had been named for since 1975 when Culliton became the team’s primary sponsor.

Below is the Cullitons primary logo: