BOSTON (AP) — The “tomahawk chop” cheer is cherished in certain parts of the sporting world for firing up fans, but in Massachusetts it has fired up supporters of Elizabeth Warren.
This week, a Democrat-leaning group released a video showing staffers on Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s campaign performing the chop with war whoops and chants. The display was related to Warren’s unverified claims of American Indian ancestry, on which Brown has hammered her.
But Brown was on the defensive after Warren said she was appalled by the chop and the chief of Cherokee Nation called it “offensive and downright racist.” Others didn’t see the big deal.
Florida State University takes credit for inventing the chop in the mid-1980s, when the Seminole football boosters asked a student spirit group to create a cheer.
