Say No to Harmful Mascots
When we are young, we are taught to treat everyone equally. Naturally, as children you learn, apply, and hope that another person does the same. Rights, they are basic and obtainable for humans of any race or culture. The fight for equal treatment by early activist created a topic for younger, future activist to involve themselves with the past history. Equal treatment among different cultures is necessary for social success of a society. As members of a society, we expect that the mixing of different cultures be civil and positive. But what happens when a native from the North American country is targeted through sports? The typical sports mascot varies between an animal, historical figures, to a fictional character. To the public, mascots have a positive outlook since they are just things representing a game. But to others, there are mascots that have a demeaning aspect. In the case of the use of Native Americans to represent a team, it is offensive and controversial due to the accumulated years of racism and violence against them. This dissection of the negative history, the controversy of the issue, the opposing defense, and how this affects the Native American community are important to further analyze the problem. The first settlers in the United States were Native Americans. Seeking equality from the
settlers took years of war and blood shed, to be only disgraced because of their ignorance to being “American.” Having this background, the Native American history in itself should be respected, but there seems to be a burden in doing so. “In the 1830’s, after removal policy failed to prevail, not only did individual Indians remain, but native communities also struggled over the next century and a half to carve out a place for themselves in the South"(Perdue 3). Native American’s were challenged to find a place in society, and their culture was viewed as unfit for the United States. Further on, they dealt with poverty, discrimination, and violence against their community from those who were different. The history of discrimination against the Native American community has been very controversial. Discrimination has been widely noticed specifically in the sport community, from the racial slur of “redskins” or the identification of the Native American like in the Cleveland Indians baseball team, “Chief Wahoo;” the wide range of the identifications towards Native American has caused an uproar among many. In “Multicultural Training Intervention To Address American Indian Stereotypes,” Matthew and Jesse Steinfeldt, conducted research to illustrate the damages profiling causes the Native American community. “Redskin is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as an “offensive slang (word that is used as) a disparaging term for a Native American” (Steinfeldt 27). In understanding this, why do so many continue to use it, specifically within the sports community? According to Steinfeldt, the history can be dated back to early colonial times, “where the dehumanizing practice of scalping of Indian women, children, and men (i.e., red skins) were exchanged for bounty and were bought and sold at trading posts along with beaver pelts and other animal hides” (Steinfeldt 27). The scalps of humans were sold with animals, truly degrading these people; yet many do not understand the degrading aspect of this issue. History has had great impact on progression, but slurs only allow people to regress and forget the pains of others. Sports have great impacts upon people. The emotions felt throughout a sporting event can be seen through a fan’s eyes and gestures. Those who love sports, do not see much importance to the mascot representing the team since players are the ones they seek. But with sports, money is always involved and revenue comes from all areas of game such as: tickets sales and
merchandising. In the article, “Looking Back To A Future End: Reflections On The Symposium On Racist Stereotypes In American Sport At The National Museum Of The American Indian,” Richard King took his observations and analyzed how exactly people are unaware about the affects these mascots have toward the Native American community. According to King, “The professional football franchise in our nation’s capital does not want to hear any of this, of course. The ownership and some number of its fans remain resistant not only to change but also to dialogue. No representative of the team attended the symposium” (King 140). Examples like these, are why the sports community remain oblivious to changes in society. King associates this as “a classic case of interest convergence,” where all the media friendly companies, networks, and “the NFL” work together and no matter how negative the mascot is business will always win, and encourage the feasible mind (King 139). Money and fans run everything, but it is our job to stop this negative use.
Fans have reasons why they like Native Americans representing a team. They see no harm done, and plenty do not see the damage done and think it gives a team a positive outlook. Todd Callais author of “Controversial Mascots: Authority And Racial Hegemony In The Maintenance Of Deviant Symbols,” provides research as to why there is still ongoing debate to the Native American, specifically Chief Wahoo, Cleveland's baseball team’s mascot. According to Callais, “Over the past 125 years a number of college and professional athletic teams have taken on official or colloquial names for Native American groups to represent their sports teams” (Callais 62). Chief Wahoo, mascot of the Cleveland Indians, has received a lot of negative attention. To many, the name “in a way designed to be honorable, it is highly unlikely that this suggestion for this reason would win the hearts of many Americans in 1915” (Callais 63). Dana Williams, author of “Where's The Honor? Attitudes Toward The "Fighting Sioux,” similarly approaches this issue with the University of North Dakota’s mascot, the “Fighting Sioux.” Williams applied others research and came to terms to why students depended on their race support their mascot.
“White population supporting a Native American nickname—be explained? One of the most common story lines about the nickname offered by White supporters is: “It’s intended as an honor because Native people were brave fighters” (Williams 441).
Being brave is not negative, but the history behind why they fought is not acknowledge enough for people to see the negative connotation. Negative characteristics affect the Native American mind and spirit.
Targeting a specific group of people is discrimination and there is psychological damage. To the Native American population, there appears to be a dramatic impact to the issue. Williams makes an important point about these damages.
“The American Psychological Association (APA, 2005) has determined that “the
continued use of American Indian mascots, symbols, images, and personalities by school
systems appear to have a negative impact on the self-esteem of American Indian children,
an impact that may negatively affect life chances(p. 1). Social–psychological research has demonstrated that Native logos harm Native youth in a variety of ways. When presented with such imagery, Native youth exhibited decreased self-esteem, lowered self-efficacy, and diminished perception of their potential achievement. Ironically, the use of same imagery increased the self-esteem of White youth” (Williams 439).
What more will it take for the rest of society to see the harm this does to our youth and the Native American community? This mindset is seeking ways to change, but many sports fans see nothing but fun. Our society will never a change if this research is not widely presented. It is not fair for Native American child to see their people struggling for equality in the country that was once theirs. The struggle for change now moves into present and future generations. It should be one’s goal to fight for change. Research has allowed these issues to come about and show others the need for change. Economical, societal rank, and history should not define a person. Callais, King, Perdue, Steinfeldt, and Williams opened minds with their research and one can only agree with their findings. Native Americans represented as mascots with negative slurs or by tribe names should be eliminated, and their positive history should be known. Native Americans and observers are slowly changing their oppressors views, and hopefully soon it will reach the owners, directors, and boards of sports teams to allow the removal of these names to happen.
Works Cited
Callais, Todd M. "Controversial Mascots: Authority And Racial Hegemony In The Maintenance Of Deviant Symbols." Sociological Focus 43.1 (2010): 61-81. Web. King, C. Richard. "Looking Back To A Future End: Reflections On The Symposium On Racist Stereotypes In American Sport At The National Museum Of The American Indian." American Indian Quarterly 38.2 (2014): 135-142.
Steinfeldt, Jesse A., and Matthew Clint Steinfeldt. "Multicultural Training Intervention To Address American Indian Stereotypes." Counselor Education & Supervision 51.1 (2012). Web.
Williams, Dana M. "Where's The Honor? Attitudes Toward The "Fighting Sioux" Nickname And Logo." Sociology Of Sport Journal 24.4 (2007): 437-456. Web.