Essay On Native American Nicknames

You see Native American team names and mascots everywhere in sports: middle schools, high schools, colleges and professional teams. In fact, 900 teams in the United States use Native American terms (Potenza). Over the past couple years, Native American groups began to protest, sue, and ask teams with Native American nicknames to change their names, mascots, and logos. For instance, in 2014, many groups have protested against the NFL and the Washington Redskins, to change their name. Many people believe that Native American nicknames belong in sports. Those people believe that using a Native American name brings tradition and honor to the tribes they support. However, those nicknames are racist and humiliate Indians. Sports teams using Native

To the naked eye, Redskins, Braves, Indians, Blackhawks and the other 900 spots teams named after Native Americans, is all normal. It seems ordinary, sports franchises perceive it as innocent. However, American Indians are still, very much, alive and take offense to the nicknames of Indian descent in sports. Some Native Americans refer to the term “redskin” as the R-word and they even compare it to the N-word. Suzan Shown Harjo, president of Morning Star Institute, a national Native American rights organization, says “The most offensive example of a mascot is the one used by Washington’s football team…. The R-word - she can’t even bring herself to say it - is the same as the N-word.” Harjo has been fighting for years to get the Redskins to change their name (Basu). The Washington Redskins aren’t the only team to scrutinize for their Native American nickname. College teams like Arkansas State University and University of North Dakota had to change their mascots. Native Americans take offense to the use of their tribal slurs and wish that they’d be gone from sports. You don’t see any African American, Asian, White, Latino, etc. racial nicknames so why is it okay to use Native American

The professional baseball team, Atlanta Braves have their fans do a hand motion referred to as the “tomahawk chop.” They argue its tradition for fans to use this chant and hand motion, however, it mimics Native Americans, nothing traditional about that. The Washington Redskins owner, Dan Snyder, argues that their team name defines them as a franchise, he says, “Our team name captures the best of who we are and who we can be, by staying true to our history and honoring the deep and enduring values our name represents.” Snyder adds, “The name of our football team is the name of our football team. And I think that what I would encourage you to do and everyone else to do is just look at the history, understand where the name came from, understand that it means ... honor, it means respect, it means pride. And it 's that simple." How is that traditional or honorable toward your team if you disrespect the Native Americans you’re supposedly supporting? The Washington Redskins aren’t and Atlanta Braves aren’t on Indian reservations and they don’t have permission to us their names (like most teams), therefore, they shouldn’t be allowed to us those