Village Journals
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Mascots
Does anyone have an opinion on using Native Americans as sports Mascots ???
I just had a big debate the other day with a co-worker who could not understand why is is inappropriate to reduce a human being to a sub-human level. She said that I was making a bigger issue out of it than necessary.
She claimed that some of the tribes in Michigan were asked for a formal position of the subject and they said it was ok. I have not verified it, but it really doe not matter. (There are many other issue involved here.).
My argument was that if all our laws and policies are stricted based on popular opinion we would still have slavery too.
Granted there is much more to the issue, but until we take the higher road and stop treating Natives as sub-human they will never be able to break the cycle of poverty and addiction. No other ethnic group is used as a mascot, for some reason we only single out Native Americans. I have more opinions on this one too.
I know that everything is not as simple as they appear. Does anyone else have an opinion ???
I just had a big debate the other day with a co-worker who could not understand why is is inappropriate to reduce a human being to a sub-human level. She said that I was making a bigger issue out of it than necessary.
She claimed that some of the tribes in Michigan were asked for a formal position of the subject and they said it was ok. I have not verified it, but it really doe not matter. (There are many other issue involved here.).
My argument was that if all our laws and policies are stricted based on popular opinion we would still have slavery too.
Granted there is much more to the issue, but until we take the higher road and stop treating Natives as sub-human they will never be able to break the cycle of poverty and addiction. No other ethnic group is used as a mascot, for some reason we only single out Native Americans. I have more opinions on this one too.
I know that everything is not as simple as they appear. Does anyone else have an opinion ???
Comments on this journal
Later I plan on starting a few other discussions on similiar topics within the community.
My family is from Ohio and I can't help but notice that most of the teams the are named after Natives. About 10 years ago they started a new hockey team and named them the Blue Jackets. Blue Jacket was a white man who was adopted by the Shawnee and later became a Chief. Singling out one specific human being. How rude is that?
I'm not too crazy about using the name "Chiefs" either. Several other Natives in my area were telling me about a sporting event that they attended where on of the mascots was a Chief and the other was some sort of dog. (Maybe the Bull Dogs or something like that. ) Someone attached a Chiefs headress to the dog's collar, the dog dragged it around and eventually lifted it leg on it. The headress is typically made of Eagle feathers which are sacred and not permitted to touch the ground. The point is that you can not always have control over other peoples actions. It is better not to give someone that opportunity in the first place.
But a mascot like "Chiefs" could be different....
Homages is one thing --- maybe there isn't much offense in being the Kansas City Chiefs, for example --- but names like REDSKINS, with a madeup Indian face for a logo, is completely innappropriate
I do think intention should be taken into account. At the same time, I think regardless of intention, if the people of matter are offended or object to the practice then their wishes should be respected. If the intent is to honor but the people are instead harmed then the results override any good intention.