Native American Mascot Research Paper
Native American Mascots: Keep Them for the Win or Throw Them in the Bin?
When imaging a mascot, the first image to appear in my head is my high school mascot which is a tiger. In addition, I think of the attributes it represents, such as pride, honor, power, and determination; however, alongside these thoughts come the memories of the ridiculous mascot in the tiger costume messing around at pep rallies and of the stripes painted on the bodies of tailgaters who would go out and “roar” at the football games. Now instead of a tiger, I want you to imagine those scenarios, except with people. Of course you would feel proud of being a “chief,” but alongside the pride would come the person in the stereotypical Indian costume humiliating themselves …show more content…
The Michigan civil rights department found that “the use of American Indian imagery [...] negatively impacts the potential for achievement [for] students with American Indian ancestry” (qtd. in Toporek 23). The use of Native American mascots in schools harm students by limiting their abilities and denying their potential to succeed. It is also found that when shown images of a stereotypical Native American, the self-esteem, belief in achievement, and mood all go down in a Native American adolescent, while on the other hand, when a person of a non-Native American background sees a stereotypical image, “their associations with their thoughts about the Native American community [become] worse” (Martin 2). Native American mascots portray stereotypical and harmful images in schools which negatively affect adolescents and belittle natives. Furthermore, it is said that Native American mascots influence African Americans in a negative way, for the “‘romanticized Indian’ image [...] offers ‘a damning contrast to the African captive, who according to white authors, loved bondage’” (Williams 1). As well as being harmful to Native Americans, Native American mascots negatively impress upon the lives of other races, too. These mascots create long-lasting imprints which harm the lives of many and thus should not be
When imaging a mascot, the first image to appear in my head is my high school mascot which is a tiger. In addition, I think of the attributes it represents, such as pride, honor, power, and determination; however, alongside these thoughts come the memories of the ridiculous mascot in the tiger costume messing around at pep rallies and of the stripes painted on the bodies of tailgaters who would go out and “roar” at the football games. Now instead of a tiger, I want you to imagine those scenarios, except with people. Of course you would feel proud of being a “chief,” but alongside the pride would come the person in the stereotypical Indian costume humiliating themselves …show more content…
The Michigan civil rights department found that “the use of American Indian imagery [...] negatively impacts the potential for achievement [for] students with American Indian ancestry” (qtd. in Toporek 23). The use of Native American mascots in schools harm students by limiting their abilities and denying their potential to succeed. It is also found that when shown images of a stereotypical Native American, the self-esteem, belief in achievement, and mood all go down in a Native American adolescent, while on the other hand, when a person of a non-Native American background sees a stereotypical image, “their associations with their thoughts about the Native American community [become] worse” (Martin 2). Native American mascots portray stereotypical and harmful images in schools which negatively affect adolescents and belittle natives. Furthermore, it is said that Native American mascots influence African Americans in a negative way, for the “‘romanticized Indian’ image [...] offers ‘a damning contrast to the African captive, who according to white authors, loved bondage’” (Williams 1). As well as being harmful to Native Americans, Native American mascots negatively impress upon the lives of other races, too. These mascots create long-lasting imprints which harm the lives of many and thus should not be