Why educators cant ignore indian mascots

Second, the formation of public regard how a society perceives an individual will be addressed by discussing the historical roots and contemporary influences of societal portrayals of Indigenous peoples. Third, an example from Annabelle's fourth grade classroom will be utilized to explore the consequences of dissonance between private and public regards. Finally, implications will be presented for teachers, administrators, and other professionals who work with Indigenous children, families, and communities.

A child's self-understanding and identity is primarily developed in stages from infancy to adolescence. In the stage of infancy ages , a child develops a sense of personal agency, whereby she understands herself as distinct from others. In early childhood ages , a child views herself concretely and often describes herself using characteristics, roles in the family, or by personal possessions. As the child progresses through this stage of development, she will begin to incorporate psychological attributes, such as attitude or emotion.

From the influences of parent-child relationships and communal environmental factors, a child begins to develop a set of values, qualities, characteristics, and beliefs. This self-concept is "the manner in which one defines oneself. In middle childhood, also referred to as school-age ages , a child establishes self-esteem where she begins to utilize social comparisons to evaluate her self-concept, personal traits, and ultimately, her private regard.

Self-esteem "refers to the extent to which one's overall evaluation of oneself is positive or negative" 3 and is heavily influenced by public regard or a society's view of an individual or associated group. Therefore, we must understand that racism is the primary form of cultural domination in the United States over the past four hundred years. It is cultural construction by social scientists and other students of group life as well as the mass media.

Together with schools, legal systems, and higher education institutions, these forces participate in a major way in legitimizing and reifying the invalid construct. Consequently, the race construct is now internalized by the world's masses. All these voices together have helped to perpetuate this ignorance and distortion. The primary issue in American racism is hegemony. It is a mental illness because it requires functioning with the academic falsification of the human record, distortion of cultural identity, and delusions of grandeur about white supremacy.

At the ideological level, this is mental illness that requires continued systemic study, massive financial resources toward the deconstruction of the European colonial mind-set in the same way that such resources were devoted to the structuring of domination. Politics of Colonization. Through the politics of colonization, Indigenous Peoples were socialized into stereotypes that we were inferior, stupid, lazy, thereby fulfilling the need to be everybody's mascot.

This list of stereotypes of Indigenous Peoples are well known i. While the Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, Florida State University Seminoles, Southeastern and many more schooling institutions have resisted the pressure to change, scores of colleges, universities, and high school teams have adopted new names over the years. Stanford changed from Indians to the "Cardinals.

In the Big Ten Conference, the University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota athletic departments established policy which banned out-of-conference competition with universities that use Indian mascots, names and logos. While some colleges, universities, high schools and middle schools have dropped their racially insulting Indian mascot and logos, no professional sports team has felt enough heat or, perhaps, has enough conscience or respect to take a similar step.

One exception is the Washington Wizards, who succumbed to the political pressure to change their mascot from the Bullets to the Wizards, which suggest that more changes are possible. This should be possible without the uninsightful alumni and student backlashes that smear Indigenous complainants as activists or militant.

Understanding the contemporary images, perceptions, and myths of Indigenous Peoples is extremely important not only for Indigenous Peoples, but also for mainstream America.

Most images of Indigenous Peoples are burned into the global consciousness by the mass media. It was the Hollywood screen writers who helped to create the "frontier myth" image of Indigenous People today. In most every respect, it was challenging the worn-out theology of Indians as losers and victims, and was transforming tribes into powers to be reckoned with for a long time to come. It was, moreover, a revolution that had gone largely unrecorded by the national media and unnoticed by a public that still sees Indigenous Peoples mainly through deep xenophobic eyes and the mythic veil of mingled racism and romance.

Each new generation of popular culture has, therefore, reinvented their Indian mascot in the image of its own era. Those of us that advocate for the elimination of mascots of Indigenous Peoples appreciate the courage, support, and sometimes the sacrifice, of all those who stand with us by speaking out and drafting resolutions against the continued use of Indian mascots in schools. When you advocate for the removal of these mascots and logos, you are strengthening the spirit of tolerance and social justice in your community as well as modeling pluralism for all children.

Therefore, this serves as a powerful teaching moment that could help to deconstruct the fabricated images and misconceptions of Indigenous Peoples that most school-age children have burned into their psyche by the American media. If your team name were the Pittsburgh Negroes, Kansas City Jews, Redding Redskins, Houston Hispanics, Chicago Chicanos, San Francisco Asians, or Washington Whities, and someone from those communities found the invented name, stereotyped labels, and ethnic symbols associated with it offensive and asked that it be changed, would you not change the name?

If not, why not? The focus of this message has been to educators. As long as such negative mascots and logos remain within the arena of school activities, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous children are learning to tolerate racism in schools. Finally, I challenge educators to provide the intellectual leadership that will teach a critical perspective and illuminate the cultural violence associated with Indian mascots used in schools.

Inaction in the face of racism is racism. As culturally responsive educators, we must understand that " enslaved minds cannot teach liberation. This article subverts this tradition by instead using the term "Indigenous Peoples" and "First Nations People.

It is also capitalized to signify and recognize the cultural heterogeneity and political sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples in the western hemisphere. In this respect, the consciousness of the oppressor transforms Indigenous identity into a commodity of its domination and disposal.

Ceasing to call Indigenous Peoples or American Indians is more than an attempt at political correctness. It is an act of intellectual liberation and it is a correction to a distorting narrative of imperialist "discovery and progress" that has been maintained far too long by Europeans and Euro-Americans. Thus, American Indian and Indian are sometimes used interchangeably as a common vernacular in this article only when trying to make a point in an attempt to liberate and combat linguistic hegemony, which is both a direct and indirect power block to the identity of Indigenous Peoples.

Cornel Pewewardy Why should educators know about the issues of American Indian 1 mascots, logos, nicknames and the tomahawk chop? The Issues Many schools around the country exhibit Indian mascots and logos, using nicknames, and doing the tomahawk chop in sports stadiums with inauthentic representations of Indigenous cultures.

Manufactured Images The portrayal of Indigenous Peoples in sports takes many forms. Controlling Ethnic Images Authors have disagreed on whether sports speculating has positive or negative consequences for individuals and society. Detrimental to Children Today, as a teacher educator, I show future teachers why Indian mascots are one cause for low self-esteem in Indigenous children. Power and Control I believe that the hidden agenda behind Indian mascots and logos is about cultural, spiritual, and intellectual exploitation.

Politics of Colonization Through the politics of colonization, Indigenous Peoples were socialized into stereotypes that we were inferior, stupid, lazy, thereby fulfilling the need to be everybody's mascot. Conclusion Understanding the contemporary images, perceptions, and myths of Indigenous Peoples is extremely important not only for Indigenous Peoples, but also for mainstream America. Notes 1 Previous research focusing on aboriginal peoples in the United States have used American Indian, Indian, and Native American as the nomenclature for this population.

Short Videos. Bioneers: How Indian Mascots Dehumanize. As the nation's oldest, largest, and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native advocacy organization, NCAI has long held a clear position against derogatory and harmful stereotypes of Native people - including sports mascots - in media and popular culture.