Reasons Why Mascots Should Not Change

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Sports Teams Names Should Not Change Redskins, Seminoles, Tribe, Indians, what do they all have in common? They are all athletic team names under scrutiny by people who deem them as being racist. For years, people have argued over the fact that these names and/or mascots are being used in a negative way. Some have been changed while others are still being argued over. Teams with these mascots should not be forced to change their names because the majority of Native Americans are not even bothered by these sports names. One of the teams that have very few if any complaints about their name are the Florida State Seminoles. In 1947, the student of Florida State chose the name of Seminoles for no other reason other than to honor the courageous, …show more content…

For example, The Dartmouth Big Green were once called the Indians; Oklahoma removed Little Red; Marquette Warriors changed to the Golden Eagles; even the prestigious school of Stanford was once called the Indians. However, most schools or sports teams have accommodated by not removing or not showing their mascots, but for these teams to remove the names is taking away the history of the team, and in some ways probably bring positive spotlight to the Native American culture. These teams do not want to choose a name or mascot that a lot of people do not like or look down upon. They choose names that have a rich history, and they can carry on the tradition. This is why some sports teams have no problems with keeping their sports names without any …show more content…

The name redskin is an offensive term used to refer to Native Americans, and it comes from native people being killed with their scalps cut off. These notions offend people in many different ways depending on how you see it. However, the Redskins are not named after the offensive term that many think. The Redskins before they were called the Redskins were the Boston Braves. They then changed their name to the Redskins to honor their coach William “Lone Star” Dietz who was a Sioux Indian and other Native Americans that were on the team. They also wanted to avoid conflict with having the same name as the baseball team. Also, a survey of over 500 Native Americans from the Annenberg Public Policy Center said that 9 out of 10 Native Americans would not be offended if a non Native American team called themselves the Redskins and a surprising 8 out of 10 would not mind if they were called a Redskin. Also, even Mark Rypien said the Redskins name shouldn’t change by stating, “I can see the viewpoints of both sides … it takes away the history of the team.” Mark Rypien is a former Redskins quarterback who is a descendant from Native Americans. These are the type of people they need to start asking because they would have the most knowledge if the team name is disgracing their ancestors and obviously it is

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