The Assignment

Our assignment was to write an essay based on our opinion of the topic: Are Native American mascots racist or a source of pride?

My Essay

Nathan Farrington

Ms. Bedford

English 9, Period 2

07 November 2019

Native American Mascots

Native American mascots are being used in a way that is racist and it is damaging the Native American society. The mascots that are used end up interpreting the Natives in ways they do not like and are hurtful to their culture. They also can include negative and derogatory slurs that damage the society in many ways. Finally, the Natives would be thrilled to be honored, but they do not approve of the ways that they are being honored now, and wish for a change. The use of Native American mascots is racist and detrimental to Native American culture because they portray the Native Americans in a negative way, the names sometimes used are racial slurs that are offensive to them, and honoring Native American culture would be honoring their sacred places and sites, not their tribal or other names.

Native American mascots portray them in negative and detrimental ways. The mascots can make the Natives seem like ‘savages’ and make fun of how they look and dress, including skin color. According to the article The Great Failure of the Indians Mascot Debate? Thinking of it Only as Racism, there is a baseball team called the Cleveland Indians, and they have a mascot that can be counted as racist to the Native Americans as the ‘Indian’ in the mascot is grinning wildly with feathers on his head. “And I think about a hat I wore all the time, sprung from that common mid-90s mold with a huge grinning Wahoo stretched across the front.” (HolyWhiteMountain). This mascot that the author describes has the Native American smiling, as in support of the name and picture, and of course, the team, but they may in fact be not. The mascot also shows the Native with a feather on his head with not much clothing on. Today, most Native Americans do not wear feathers on their head and they dress like other people. The mascot picture is falsely implying that Natives are still ‘savages’ and wear little clothes. Some people may argue that the mascot represent Natives’ past and earlier culture, but they are wrong because the picture still misrepresents Native Americans and portrays them negatively. The article Native Americans Mascots: Pride or Prejudice tells the story of a young indigenous woman who targets sports teams with Native American related names because she finds them racist. “The Cleveland Indians, for instance, feature a smiling Indian dubbed Chief Wahoo, criticized by Native Americans as a caricature.” (Basu). This quote shows how Natives find the mascots racist to their race and their culture. She uses the word ‘caricature’ in her sentence to show just how much she despises those mascots along with others. She is only one of many who find the names of these teams racist. Therefore, the mascots of some of these organizations are portraying the Natives badly by misrepresenting their race and culture.

In some Native American mascots, the names used can be very offensive racial slurs that put down the Natives and their culture. These racial slurs can include words that should not be said aloud to someone or at all, let alone said to reference a sports team, school, or other organization name. According to the article Tribute or racial slur: Is it time for schools to give up Native American mascots, racial slurs for Natives are used by many people everyday who represent organizations that are not at all trying to be racist in any way. “To those in favor of dropping the mascots, particularly at schools using Redskins, the argument is simple. It’s offensive. ‘Redskins’ is a racial slur. People aren’t mascots.” (Sparling). The term ‘Redskins’ is offensive to all indigenous people. The Natives have said that they call themselves many things. They said that they are okay with most names. They also said the one things they do not approve of and do not call themselves is ‘Redskins’. While some people think that the Natives are being too sensitive towards this topic, they are wrong because calling them ‘Redskins’ is the same thing as calling a black person ‘n*****’. Most people realize how offensive that term is to black people, so why do they not realize that ‘Redskins’ is offensive to Native Americans. Different terms are offensive to people with different racial backgrounds and people have to keep that in mind when creating names and terms for their organizations. According to the article Native American Activists Continue Their Fight Against Redskins Team Name, this slur causes understood damage to the Native society. “We should never poll human rights issues at all,” Blackhorse said, echoing Jackson. “What we have here is a social issue where we have victims. We have actual real native people who have been damaged by native mascots, by stereotypes, by violence, towards native people.” (Blackistone). This quote tells about the misery the Natives go through when hearing this word. It puts them down and makes them feel insignificant. Native American mascot names that are racial slurs should not be allowed and need to be changed to not offend anyone or their religion.

There are other ways to honor Native Americans than calling them offensive names and putting up misleading mascots. From the article School Board Votes to Abolish Logos for Napa High Indians and Redwood Warriors, Kim DeOcampo, a Native American who lives in Napa Valley states, “There is no honor in being stereotyped. If you want to honor us, honor our treaties, protect our sacred places, and respect our religion.” (Brinkerhoff). This quote is from a Native who does not believe in keeping the stereotypes for the schools and other organization names. She believes that indigenous people would rather have their treaties, sacred places, and religion honored rather than their names, as she states in the quote. The names can only hurt and offend more people while these other things would actually honor them. While some people believe that honoring things like treaties will not matter to them, they are wrong because they do matter. A few years ago, there was an incident in the Dakotas with a pipeline issue, where oil pipes were being put down through a Native American Reservation, and that was against their treaty. The article The great failure of the Indians mascot debate? Thinking of it only as racism states, “The most significant American Indian protest of the last 40 years is taking place just north of the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. At Sacred Stone Camp, hundreds and sometimes thousands of people have been camped for months, protesting an oil pipeline whose route crosses land taken from the Lakota people by Congress, a violation of the 1868 treaty between the Sioux and the United States. More than a hundred peaceful protesters have been arrested in the last week alone, and, as construction has brought the pipeline nearer to the Missouri River, neither side has shown any sign of backing down.” (HolyWhiteMountain). This quote shows how the treaty has been broken and how the Natives are upset. They also do have a very good reason to be upset as their home has been taken over by oil pipes, even though it was specifically stated that they would not be. Native American treaties and sacred places are not being treated with as much respect as they should be, and if America wants to honor the Native Americans, they need to ask them how they would like to be honored.

Native Americans mascots have many reasons for being racially detrimental, such as they can be offensive names, they imply things about the Natives that they should not, and there are other ways to honor them. Something that people can do to try and help get rid of these names is to protest and side with the Natives. Tell others to think of it from the Native’s point of view, a racist name that is damaging to their culture. America wants to try and show respect and honor the Natives after the terrible things they did in the past to them, but this is not the way to do it. Take action and spread the word: Get rid of Native American mascots. Team and school names can be changed, and people can and will have to get used to that. Native American mascots are racist and damaging to the Native religion, and there needs to be a change to rid our country of organization names that are slurs and that put others down.

Works Cited

Blackistone, Kevin. “Perspective | Native American Activists Continue Their Fight against Redskins Team Name.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 21 Sept. 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/native-american-activists-continue-their-fight-against-redskins-team-name/2018/09/17/4438443c-ba86-11e8-bdc0-90f81cc58c5d_story.html.

Brinkerhoff, Noel. “School Board Votes to Abolish Logos for Napa High Indians and Redwood Warriors.” Napa Valley Register, 23 Mar. 2018, https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local- /school-boa-rd-votes-to-abolish-logos-for-napa-high-indians/article_7e2afb42-1736-50a4-b0e5-b98d0f853ec8.html.

“Native American Mascots: Pride or Prejudice?” CNN, Cable News Network, 4 Apr. 2013, http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/04/native-american-mascots-pride-or-prejudice/.

Sparling, Hannah, and Carol Motsinger. “Tribute or Racial Slur: Is It Time for Schools to Give up Native American Mascots?” Cincinnati.com, Cincinnati Enquirer, 11 June 2018, https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/06/11/native-american-mascots-time-schools-change/676650002/.

Sterling HolyWhiteMountain, Special to. “The Great Failure of the Indians Mascot Debate? Thinking of It Only as Racism.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 26 Oct. 2016, https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17891581/great-failure-indians-mascot-debate-thinking-only-racism.

Reflection

During this writing assignment, I think I did really well including cultural competence from the 6 C's. We had to take into account everyone's personal, cultural, and widespread views. Using this, I was able to create an essay based upon a few articles that I had read about the topic. They showed how racist and detrimental Native American mascots can be and how they can culturally affect them. Also, before starting my article, I had to choose a side, and I had to consider the arguments for both sides and 'listen' to the different perspectives. Analyzing the arguments and creating my side into an essay really made me consider the different sides, and I think it went really well and turned out great in the end.