As a descendant of my African American ancestors, I have always been careful not to discriminate against people of other cultures, races and backgrounds. I know how hard it was for African Americans to deal with segregation and mistreatment. Many of them risk their lives fighting for what we consider justice, in hopes to gain equality and better treatment as Caucasians did. Never once have I thought about how segregation and mistreatment existed way before African Americans with Native Americans, that still continues today. In Let’s Spread the “Fun” Around, Ward Churchill discusses interesting points as to how ignorantly degrading American society has been towards Native Americans since the British Empire settled and formed colonies here in America.
Churchill talks about the American professional sport teams carrying Indian based names as their official name, logo, mascots or chant in an offensive way. Some of these names for the teams include the Washington “Redskins” or Kansas City “Chiefs” and for the mascots, their attire consists of feathers, beads and spears. Many people’s response to this was being naive to the fact that Native Indians took this as an offense. Instead, they considered it as apart of the “fun and games”. As an African- American, I dislike when people refer to my race as “Black” or “Negro”. Churchill’s argument is very consistent in saying that it is just as degrading calling an African American a Negro as it is to refer to a team as the “Redskins” with a picture of an Indian. This reminded me of something my own grandmother used to say ” If everyone pricked them selves with the same needle, we would all bleed red. If everyone wept over one thing, our tears would all be clear. We all equally share the same features yet we are treated as unequals.” As my grandmother pointed out, everyone is the same. Whether it is an Indian, an Asian or an African-American, just because a race is not among the majority, doesn’t make it okay to make fun out of their tradition.
If I was a Native Indian, I would feel as if my culture is being made fun of. Indian traditions are rather very different than what is generally practiced in the American society. Using these names is like degrading their traditions and jokingly misrepresenting what it means. Feathers, beads and spears are a sacred part of their culture and it should be reserved for them and not used as a way to chant for a team.
This picture I am adding is not in relations to the Indian based names of teams, but it does show how people have used Indian traditions to create humor out of it.
http://www.bluecorncomics.com/pics/outkast.gif
