Flawk Research Paper

The majority culture defends use of the Native Americans symbols in sports and many are confused by the objections raised by Native Americans. “Team Names represent something positive to the fans, People don’t name teams after things they hate.” (40 What’s in a Team Name, Banks). For example, the University of Georgia selected the “The Georgia Bulldogs as their Mascot.”(What’s in a Team Name). Their attributes are “toughness...and integrity”(What’s in a Team Name) to their mascot. Teams also look

In a majority of cases, this view is even endorsed by the tribes themselves (Morrison). They argue that the restriction and ultimate elimination of the Native American mascot would also abolish the nation’s historic view of this cultural entity as characters of strength, determination, boldness, resourcefulness and courage. They contend that these same positive attributes are not only required by athletes, but are held expectations of the sporting community. The pursuant argument entails that there is an inherent oddity in the suggestion that naming a team after an Indian tribe is a calculated insult.

Teams that have the name like Redskins, Indians, and Red Raiders are racist terms used as mascots. Interchange the name with the Negroes, the Jews or the Asians and that sounds even worse but, it all means the same thing. They are all racist terms that no one should use to represent something like a team name. According to racismagainstindians.org, Native Americans were banned from practicing their own religion and would be often thrown in jail if they were caught all the way up to 1978. But when nonnative people at sporting events would dance and sing their songs it would be completely okay. This makes no sense,

There has been many controversy with teams using Native American name for mascots and has become a major issue in today’s society. Many have viewed the Washington Redskins as honor for Native Americans, others see it racist, insensitive, and demeaning. Woods (2016) claims that “the complaint is that the use of stereotypical team names, mascots, and logos perpetuates an ideology that dehumanizes and demeans the cultures of Native Americans” (p. 298). Since the issue arise, many scholars, journalists and leaders have joined the battle to ensure that each team will eliminate the nicknames since it is considered abusive or hostile. It may take time but the trend is growing. More than 1,400 professional, collegiate,

Roppolo insists, “The real problem with the kind of dysconscous, symbolic, abstract racism that is perpetuated today by sports mascots… is that it enables very real, very concrete, and very conscious acts of violent racism that American Indian people still face in this country and this hemisphere on a daily basis”(228). This demonstrates how the mascot does have a detrimental impact towards Native Americans. People who are subjected to seeing Native Americans through these mascots already have fallacious perceptions of what Native Americans behave like. Due to this, people will start to react accordingly to how they feel the Native Americans are supposed to act due to the distorted stereotypes that are presented to the public. People do not even realize that they are acting this way towards Native Americans, because Roppolo claims that Americans have gotten used to being racist towards Native Americans for so long that it is now invisible, aka dysconscious racism(226). People do not realize that it is ingrained in them, so when they come into contact with a Native American they may perceive the situation different than what actually happened. Roppolo justified this by going on to add, “One young man had his brother nearly beaten to death - his skull cracked open, not just cracked - when several bouncers at a local nightclub had to control his ‘rowdy’

The year is 1991.  The Atlanta Braves had just completed their first trip to the Fall Classic in four decades, and the Washington Redskins were undefeated, well on their way to their third Super Bowl title.  All across the eastern seaboard, sports fans were tasting success - while American Indians were in an uproar.  This year witnessed the peak of the protests over the use of mascots with American Indian themes.  With two of the major professional sports teams in question making front-page news across the country, many of us heard American Indians' complaints for the first time.  Suddenly, thanks to the cries of thousands of demonstrators, the names of many Americans' favorite teams had become synonymous with "nigger."

Historically, Native Americans are the weakest minority economically and politically in the United States. Unlike African-Americans or Hispanic-Americans, the indigenous-American population has received very little political power and even less economic status than they had in the 1950’s. The use of the image of Native Americans, tribal names and images, though romanticized as great chiefs and warriors in the sports arena, are none-the-less being exploited to the great monetary gain of the franchisee but not to the financial or psychological reward of the people whom

The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team that is based out of Washington area and currently play at FedEx Field in Maryland. In 1932, the name Boston Braves emerged when the football program began to arise. The following year, the name the Boston Redskins replaced the original name of the Boston Braves. In 1937, the team changed locations to Washington, thus making their current team name the Washington Redskins. Unfortunately, a problem arose around the 1990’s when the Native American people began to feel “disrespected”. The reason the Native American people have such hatred for the team is due to the fact that it portrays and offends the Natives skin color with the name, “Redskin.” The Washington Redskins debate plays a significant role in professional sports team history due to the demoralization amongst Native American Society. Factors that contribute to this debate include, but are not limited to; religion, economics, and politics.

The debate about whether or not the Washington Redskins should change their name has been a topic for a long time. Some Native Americans have often considered the name a racial slur and think that the league should get rid of the name as it doesn’t represent Native Americans in the best way possible. In 1937 the Redskins moved to Washington and decided to retain the name even though it had faced backlash then. Since then the team has over time shown more caution on using slogans that may disrespect Native Americans. Some slogans they did use include “On the Warpath, with a cartoon drawing of an angry Indian, and another called “Teepee Talk, featuring a clip-art Indian sticking his head out of a tepee” (Shapira, 2016, Para.5). There will always be a debate if the team should get rid of its name but for right now Washington’s football teams name is the Redskins.

“To remember who you are, you will need to forget what society has tried to teach you to be...culture matters. Be proud.” These words from an unknown Native American about one major subject: Native American culture. The beliefs of Native culture have been with Native people for as long as they have lived. They believe in sacred acts that have supported and healed Natives and better their heritage. Then Whites began to make American Indian mascots to “honor” Natives. They have had a purpose to honor Natives, but have recently shown a bias towards Natives. Over the past 30 years, there has been a national argument between non-natives and Natives as to whether school and professional sports teams should use Native American imagery as their mascots,

The history of discrimination against the Native American community has been very controversial. For over 129 years, 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 causes an uproar in the educated community. In “Multicultural Training Intervention To Address American Indian Stereotypes,” Matthew and Jesse Steinfeldt, conducted psychological and qualitative research to illustrate the damage profiling causes in the Native American community by using other race examples to put manners in perspective. “Redskin is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as an “offensive slang [word that is used as] a disparaging term for a Native American” (Redskin, n.d.)”

Nowadays we do not see the Indians or Redskins as a negative way of describing a race or culture. We see them as professional teams that play hard and get our spirits up. Out of all teams, I would say that the Redskins is probably the most racist of all names because of the term it was used years ago. I would change the name to something more honorable towards Native Americans. Braves is actually more honorable than Redskins because they are identifying Native Americans as Brave rather than a negative stereotype of a name. The team name, Redskins, has actually received backlash for many years because it was seen as insulting and offensive to people of Native American culture. After many polls of whether to keep the name or not, 83 percent of people chose to keep the name as it was not used as racial slur. At this point, the team names are not meant as a racial slur so there shouldn't be any

Throughout ancient times, many names have identified as racial slurs. Most recently, controversy has surrounded multiple sports teams such as the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, and the Washington Redskins; however, some may believe the Braves and Indians name is more to honor them, instead of discriminate against them. The conflict of the Washington Redskins seems highest compared to other teams. This kind of denigration has both visible and unseen consequences for Native Americans (Keim 2). Throughout this paper opinions on the argument has been voiced, polls which have taken placed, and protests have developed for both sides of the argument will be taken discussed to find a resolution for the potential name change of the Washington Redskins.

In the recent years the media has sparked a controversy weather names such as the “Redskins” should be changed and this debate still rages on because there is no clear cut answer. I am on the side that Native American mascots should not be changed. First, Native American people see this as a chance for dialogue and conflict resolution. Next, This gives people to have an insight on Native American culture. Finally, many Native Americans feel that the names are not offensive.

Imagine thousands of people mocking your culture everyday. Well that is what happens to the Native American population. Sports teams falsely portray what Native Americans act and look like, fans mock and shame the culture and unknowingly scream racial slurs toward them. This is why Indian mascots should not be banned. ‘‘Redskin’ Is Officially a Dictionary-Defined Racial Slur—in all cases.”