“American Indians have protested that use of native names, images, and symbols as sport team mascots.. is by definition, a virulently racist practice” (536, para 2)
At first I didn’t get this, mainly because I’m not a crazy sports fan and really had no clue what the images looked like, but after reading more into this article and seeing the images, I can understand why the Indians feel this way. I must say however that I do not agree that using their names is racist; I mean we use the name the Cowboys for example, but it is what image we use to depict the name. If there is a stereotypical picture of an Indian smoking from the peace pipe with flaming red skin, then yes that is racist; but if we showed an Indian representing courage and strength, then no it is not racist.
For sports teams, whoever it is that chose the names obviously chose them because it was to represent their skill and make them sound intimidating. When the team chose the racist stereotypical image, that is when it just gets stupid to me.
It was really interesting yet so sad hearing about the boarding schools that “’deculturized’” (541 para 2) Indian children. I had previously learned about this in my recent US history class, and find it fascinating that we could do that as a country and think it to be morally right.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment