Use of Indian mascots in sports Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Use of Indian mascots in sports - Essay Example As such, it is bout time the truth was let out to the people as a means of ending negative stereotyping and racism drawn from deep within our history. Such efforts can attain significant efficacy if the issue is tackled from the sports context which evidently bears much of the concealed negative stereotyping of Native American Indians. The National Congress of American Indians has in the past explained that most depictions of Native American stereotypes in educational and/or commercial settings vilify and defame tribal nations, native cultures, and native peoples. This happens in that they usually spread legacies of prejudiced attitudes and racism that are rooted deep within ancient American cultures that looked down upon the natives particularly in the pre-civil rights era. This does not however mean that the teams that use names such as the Washington Redskins, Atlanta Braves, and Cleveland Indians deliberately use them to annoy or humiliate the Native American Indians; in most cases, they have no idea what is concealed in the names and mascots. This means that even Indian images such as the Chief Zee, ChiefNoc-A-Homa and Chief Wahoo portray the Native Americans as ethnic groups frozen in history. In this, political inequity and racial segregation emerge. The matter of Native Indians being oppressed dates back to American history when they were being accused of being â€Å"unreasonable savages who had corrupted new national ideals of political stability and economic continuity† (Deloria 39). The contributing factor as to why Indian mascots and other related phenomena are used to mock Indians is the fact that they were rich in symbolism and had multiple objects, beliefs, and imageries that were associated with them. For instance, the Red Indian face with a feather sticking out of his hair and the tomahawk are identities associated with the Native American Indians. Today, such names and imageries are used in sports teams and in popular merchandise such as