Children
begin to develop racial awareness at an extremely early and tender
age, perhaps as early as three or four years. It has been well
established by clinical psychologists that the effect on children of
negative stereotypes and derogatory images is to engender and
perpetuate undemocratic and unhealthy attitudes that will plague our
society for years to come. It should come as no surprise that
non-Indian children programmed on these stereotypes at early ages grow
into adults who may unwittingly or knowingly discriminate against
Indians. These children have been prevented from developing authentic,
healthy attitudes about Indians. It should also be no surprise that
Indian children who constantly see themselves being stereotyped and
their cultures belittled grow into adults feeling and acting like they
were not as good as other people. This is a sure cause for low
self-esteem in Indian children. Because racial stereotypes play an
important role in shaping a young person’s consciousness, these
inauthentic behaviors makes a mockery of Indian culture and cause many
Native American youngsters to feel shame about their cultural
identity. Subjective feelings, such as inferiority, are an integral
part of consciousness and work together with the objective reality of
poverty and deprivation to shape a young person’s worldview. Schools
should be places where students come to unlearn negative
stereotypes that such mascots represent.
Perhaps
some people at these sporting events don’t hear the foul language
shouted out in the stands associated with the usage of Indian mascots.
The most obvious offense is the usage of the terms,
"redskins" and "squaws." For example, the word
"redskin" originated in early colonial times as European
colonist paid bounties for Indians’ red skins--thereby the name
"redskin" was coined. The word "squaw" is a French
corruption of the Iroquois word otsiskwa meaning "female
sexual parts." Both words are almost always used in negative
connotation and derogatory fashion in sporting events. While these
terms may be facing increasing social disdain, they certainly are far
from dead. Large numbers of Americans continue to utilize these unkind
words and negative terms in athletic environments today. These words
of power are used to accentuate the differences in appearance,
station, culture, gender, nationality, or sexual orientation in
people, and to underplay the similarities between people—if not to
deny them altogether.
As you can
see from the mentioned explanations, words can hurt. Understanding and
sharing the definition of these words can heal. We must have more
sharing, more understanding, and more healing. It is our professional
responsibility as educators—as teachers. It is our ethical duty and
professional responsibility to eliminate racism in the classroom.
Given this
background, why would anyone, especially teachers, allow his or her
students to uncritically adopt a cartoon version of a people's culture
as an Indian mascot or logo? Teachers and their students need to be
educated about the negative effects of racist Indian mascots and logos
portrayed by sports teams, because many students have told me that
they don't see the Indian mascot issue as important in the Native
American community as those of alcoholism, substance abuse, and
poverty. Some even say it's "too much fuss over team names,"
"we’re just having fun," or "what's the point?"
They don't see the connection, simply because they're not close to the
issues of Indian education on a daily basis. What a lot of people do
not see or hear is the mimicking and protesting that goes on in
sporting arenas like the "tomahawk chop" and so-called
Indian spirit chants or Hollywood-inspired wardrum beats. They are not
going to see or hear these problem acts if they don't think there is a
problem. Its hard to take seriously, to empathize with, a group of
people portrayed as speaking in broken, old stoic Indian cliché (like
"many moons ago") as dressing up in Halloween or
Thanksgiving costumes, as acting like a "bunch of wild
Indians." These make-believe Indians are not allowed to change in
time or in any other way be like real people. They are denied the
dignity of their tribal histories, the validity of their major
contributions to modern American society, the distinctiveness of their
multi-tribal identities.
In 1998, Children
Now initiated a study into children’s perceptions of race and
class in the media, focusing on the images of Native Americans
presented in national news and entertainment. Similar the to
perceptions survey conducted by the League of Women Voters in
1975, children’s impressions concludes similar results—that most
children in America view Native Americans far removed from their own
way of life. Not only do these studies have to be conducted and
disseminated, but the misconceptions and stereotypes about Native
people which bombard the child from outside of the classroom need to
be counteracted.
Even after
decades of cultural diversity teacher training and integrating
multicultural lesson plans into the school curriculum, there are still
too many stories today about children playing "Cowboys and
Indians" at school. Undoubtedly, most teachers have seen children
running around in turkey feathers and cardboard headbands, carrying
homemade bows and arrows, hopping up and down on the playground,
patting a hand against their mouth and yelling
"woo-woo-woo," or raising one’s hand over their shoulder
and saying "how" or "ugh." The perpetuation of
these white-created "Indian" behaviors reflects the
influence of peer socialization, schooling, and movies. They mock
Native American cultural practices and demean people as subhumans,
incapable of verbal communication. This manufactured image of
something wild and inferior, and their use implies a value judgment of
white superiority, namely Hollywood scriptwriters.
Another
popular character born out of racism in the image of Native American
people is the image of the clown--not the traditional clown societies
of many tribes whose task is it to make their people laugh during
celebrations and ceremonies, but the clown born of American popular
culture much like the jester or the fool, as the
inferior one who was responsible for making his superior laugh. In
popular culture using a person for your clown has always been one of
the major ways to assert your dominance over a person or group of
people. Mockery becomes one of the more sophisticated forms of
humiliation in sporting events. Therefore, clowning and buffoonery
during ballgames became one of the primary ways in which Indian
mascots are used as clowns while sports fans manipulate and keep in
place negative images during school-related events.
For example
many of these ethnic "Sambo" clowns were born out of the
closed nature of North American slavery, in contrast to Latin American
slavery. They were portrayed as docile but irresponsible, loyal but
lazy, humble but chronically given to lying and stealing; infantile
silliness and inflated child talk and attachment. The fantasies of
Native American backwardness as incapable of technological advancement
and characterized by superstitious and humanly regressive acts of
savagery were all constructed in Hollywood films, Little Black Sambo
images and thousands of other derogatory ideas and illustrations to
destroy the African American and Native American person’s self-image
and to further the idea of Native incompetence and deficiency.
Moreover,
an overwhelming number of popular media presentations involve ethnic
images of clowns throughout the years in this country. The clear
under-representation of serious aspects of Native American life in the
popular media, suggests that even the former slaves prefer to laugh
about themselves rather than improve themselves. For example the
marshal arts actor Jackie Chan in Shang Hai Noon in 2000 and
Disney’s Pocahontas and Columbia’s The Indian in the
Cupboard in the 1990s are updates of the 1940’s and 1950’s
Stephin Fetchit and Mantan Moreland. Advertising characters such as
"Little Black Sambo" and the "Frito Bandito" are
no longer acceptable in society because African American (especially
the NAACP and the Urban League) and Mexican American and Latino/a
populations (LULAC, MALDEF, National Council of LaRaza) have let it be
known that such expressions carry racist overtones. But for some
reason, many schools continue the usage of Indian mascots in American
sporting events. "Joe Camel" was just removed from cigarette
companies from using cartoons or human figures in advertisements. But
for some reason, many schools continue the usage of Indian mascots in
American sporting events. The wide-mouth grin of the Cleveland Indians
and Oklahoma’s Eskimo Joes is the equivalent to the blackface
representation of the 1920s that overly displayed racist stereotypes
of African Americans. The word Inuit has largely replaced
"Eskimo" by many First Nations Peoples in Canada. "Chief
Wahoo," is still the Cleveland Indians' logo. Despite
Indians' protests against using their images as sports mascots, dozens
of teams continue to use unflattering, stereotyping symbols.
These
ethnic clowns were updates on the slavery buffoon who mastered being
funny to survive. The films mentioned were financially rewarding and
spawned many commercial products. All these films suffer from the
cultural chokehold of Hollywood aesthetic constraints. As one can see,
the authentic heritage of Native people is a scholarly frontier worthy
of exploration and exploitation. Film and television have inscribed
our nation’s memory with so many misconceptions. The system of
racism and oppression is designed to foster this type of passive
resignation.
Who should
decide what is demeaning and racist? Clearly, the affected party
determines what is offensive. It is not for unaffected members of
society to dictate how the affected party should feel. Moreover, these
name changes shouldn’t have to go through ugly alumni and student
backlashes that smear grassroots complainants as troublemakers,
gadflies, activist, militant, or being "politically correct"—the
desire to appease every constituency that finds insult and injustice
caused by centuries of racism. Therefore, trying to understand the
continuation of such dehumanizing events in schools is challenging to
many educators who advocate and affirm cultural diversity. In a
struggle to interpret America’s historical frontier, the Native
American dimension has been the least defended and therefore, the most
vulnerable for distorting ethnic images in films. The result is a very
confused and distorted image of Native people. Only a concerted effort
to debunk Hollywood’s mythology can alter the situation for the
better.
Teachers
should examine the biases and stereotypes held by their students.
Stereotypes caused by ignorance, hard times, and folk wisdom
socialization can be countered by accurate and culturally responsive
information about the groups being stereotyped. Two guiding principles
should be used when selecting curriculum materials: Does the material
present females and underrepresented groups in a realistic,
non-stereotypic manner? And, does the material accurately reflect a
holistic view of the past in terms of the contributions made by
females and underrepresented groups in American history? Removing
negative images of society can clearly protect the young children from
the influences of stereotypical images. We can protect them from this
influence on their thinking, which makes them view themselves in a
distorted and unnatural way.
We have
hope for promising practices in two large inner-city schools systems.
Dallas Public Schools and Los Angeles Public Schools have already
eliminated Indian mascots from their school systems as the result of
active parent and education advocacy groups working closely together
with school officials. The states of Wisconsin and Minnesota have
recommended that publicly funded schools eliminate the use of Indian
mascots, names, and logos deemed offensive to Native Americans.
Professional
organizations dedicated to the unique problems of Native Americans
also must take forthright positions on this issue as well. As a
teacher educator, I show future teachers why Indian mascots are one
cause for low self-esteem in Indian children. Throughout my
practitioner experience working in K-8 schools, I have learned that
the generator of academic performance is self-esteem. This is the main
point for educators to know that this issue becomes detrimental to the
academic achievement of all students.
To
illuminate my point, I refer to the mental health organizations who
have rushed to support the elimination of negative Indian mascots used
in schools by drafting statements (i.e., American Indian Mental Health
Association of Minnesota in 1992 and Society of Indian Psychologists
of the Americas in 1999). These statements condemned the presence of
ethnic images as psychologically destructive to the minds of Native
American children. Professional organizations that have passed
resolutions in support of eliminating negative Indian mascots used in
schools include the National Indian Education Association, Kansas
Association for Native American Education, United Indian Nations of
Oklahoma, Governor’s Interstate Indian Council, Great Lakes
Inter-Tribal Council, National Congress of American Indians, NAACP,
and NCAA. Basically, this represents the critical mass of Indian
educational associations and tribal governments have either passed
resolution or gone on record wanting to eliminate Indian mascots and
logos from school-related activities and events.
Although
many resolutions exists today, many states (like Oklahoma) who have
hundreds of Indian mascots and logos being used in school-related
events, are unconcerned with this national issue; uneducated about the
issues; or have no educational leadership to initiate transformation
change toward truly "honoring" Native American people.
Consequently, there is a critical need for experts to monitor more
carefully the destructive influences in our physical, mental, social,
and spiritual environments. We must begin to build coalitions, which
preserve the reality of our own experiences. We must begin to develop
educational materials, artistic productions, economic structures,
fashions and concepts that deny the implications of our inferiority.
The
recognition of racism in the English language is an important first
step. Consciousness of the influence of language on our perceptions
can help to negate much of that influence. But it is not enough to
simply become aware of the effects of racism in conditioning
attitudes. While we may not be able to change the language, we can
definitely change our usage of the language. We can avoid using words
that degrade and dehumanize people. We can make a conscious effort to
use terminology that reflects a progressive perspective, as opposed to
a distorting perspective. It is important for educators to provide
students with opportunities to explore racism in language and to
increase their cultural awareness of it, as well as teach terminology
that is culturally responsive and does not perpetuate negative human
values and experiences.
If indeed,
you know something needs to be done to correct these negative
stereotypes, consult your local school Title IX Indian Education
Coordinator, curriculum specialist, cultural resource librarian,
university professor, or the National Indian Education Association to
assist you in the elimination of negative ethnic images and materials
from the academic curriculum and school-related activities. One of the
finest award-winning reference books on this topic is American
Indian Stereotypes in the World of Children by Hirschfelder,
Fairbanks, and Wakim published in 1999 by Scarecrow Press. For those
that have internet connectivity, go to the following website dedicated
to educating individuals about Indian mascots: