Views » January 21, 2004

Racist Slurs Taint U.S. Sports

By Salim Muwakkil

The sports media spoke in a unified voice of praise in January when Joe Gibbs was named new coach of the National Football League’s Washington Redskins. Gibbs is a Hall of Fame coach who led the Washington franchise to three Super Bowl titles in the ’80s and ’90s. Many headlines enthused his return would mark a “New Era For the Redskins.”

The paradox of that idea is striking: In the 21st Century an NFL team is still known by an ethnic slur crafted during the nation’s frontier days. The term “Redskins” derives from an old, genocidal practice in this country of scalping Native Americans to earn a bounty. A bounty hunter could prove he had killed a native by turning in a scalp, which often were bloody and called “redskins.” This bit of etymology was part of a July 2000 editorial in Maine’s Portland Press Herald explaining why it banned the team name from its sports pages.

But in the Washington Post there were few questions raised about coupling the team’s new era with a racist slur from an old era. This newspaper that serves the “capital of the free world” still prints that insult in bold headlines. It may be true that stereotyping nonwhites is as American as apple pie and such deeply ingrained cultural habits die hard, but the lack of public outrage at these continuing racial slurs is a bit surprising. After all, there’s little debate that the use of people as mascots is, at best, humiliating. As the American Jewish Committee noted in a 1998 report, “The use of mascots is a reflection of the limits of dehumanization our culture will allow.”

The name of the D.C. NFL franchise is particularly egregious, but it is far from the lone offender among professional sports teams. The Cleveland Indians and their “Chief Wahoo,” is another, as are the Kansas City Chiefs and the Atlanta Braves. Universities, like North Dakota, Illinois and Florida State among others still sport Native American mascots.

But there is increasing opposition, as well. Other newspapers have banished Native symbols and logos from their pages. Nebraska’s Lincoln Journal Star has banned the Redskins name and has stopped printing logos for professional and college sports teams that use or caricature Native American symbols. The Oregonian, the Minnesota St. Cloud Times, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Kansas City Star also limit publication of Native mascots and images in varying ways.

Many colleges and universities across the country have dropped their Native American mascots, and some schools, like the University of Minnesota, won’t compete with out-of-conference schools that use Native American mascots, names or logos. Several public school systems, including those of Dallas and Los Angeles, also prohibit the use of such symbols. Virtually every Native American organization has condemned the use of demeaning images or mascots. In 2003, the Native American Journalists Association urged news organizations to stop using sports mascots and nicknames that depict Native Americans by 2004.

Yet, many Americans seem to believe that their right to use these symbols in frivolous, casual ways is a matter of personal opinion. Had some reporter interrupted the Gibbs veneration fest with a question about the Redskin name, it would have been dismissed as so much political correctness.

But the fight against Native American mascots and logos is a serious struggle to overturn the stereotypes and cultural assumptions that were forged in our racist past but still help determine the trajectories of our lives today. And while more Americans are becoming aware of this struggle to rearrange our cultural iconography, resistance remains strong.

The offense of anti-black images like “Black Sambo,” or anti-Latino ones like the “Frito Bandito” only recently have been made obvious to many Americans, and we still find it difficult to understand why Native Americans find sports symbols demeaning. Like those Redskins fans who insist their team’s name is an honorable tribute, partisans of mascots everywhere claim their devotion is bias-free. Americans’ denial of indigenous peoples’ grievances is a product of our sordid role in their history. Americans stole their lands, destroyed their civilizations and damned near killed off all their people. That’s a lot of baggage to carry; why not deny?

What I find mystifying, however, is the civil rights community’s lack of attention to this issue. One would shudder to think what the NAACP would do with a sports team named the Chicago Jigaboos. We saw how angry many black groups became when the rapper Nelly announced he was marketing something called “Pimp Juice.”

African Americans know the difficulty of holding America accountable for the errors of its past, so we should be leading the way in correcting the ongoing error of demeaning mascots. That’s why I was happy to see Bill Fletcher Jr. of TransAfrica Forum make the call for other black groups to get involved in the fight to change the name of the Washington Redskins. I join Fletcher in his call and expand it to retire all Native American mascots to the dustbin of discarded stereotypes.

• subscribe to print magazine

• stay in touch with our email newsletter

  Subscribe to our regular weekly e-mail newsletter. It's packed with updates on recent and upcoming stories, events, campaigns and things every progressive should be informed about.

   

• email this article to a friend

  Your Name Your Email Recipient Email

  Personal message Thought you might be interested in this article from In These Times.

   

  Please help us prevent spam by verifying the word you see in the image above

  Send to multiple recipients. Just separate each email address with a comma.

• Reader Comments

  Get a life.  If you want to bitch about something then find an issue that actually matters. 

  Posted by Sam on Jan 21, 2004 at 5:49 PM

  Anybody besides me offended by the Boston Celtics and their mascot?  What about the Notre Dame Fighting Irish?  These teams’ insensitivity has caused my people insufferable pain, humiliation, and anguish AND IT MUST STOP NOW!  Please drop whatever you’re doing and throw your weight behind the campaign to put a stop to these unspeakable abuses. 

  Posted by Sam on Jan 21, 2004 at 6:08 PM

  Too bad there are those who care little about the racial insensitivity of others. Fact is, Indian people were nearly wiped out. Not a proud moment for most Americans. Indian mascots are shameful and hurtful. Change would start the healing process. Peace

  Posted by Louis Gray on Jan 21, 2004 at 7:55 PM

  As someone who is of Native American Herritage and also adopted at an early age by a minority Lebanese family; I can only say that considering my family’s name and herritage a sports team could be called the Assassins or worse. Although I am not always politically correct would persons of white Protestant backgrounds want sports teams called WASPS or Cake Eaters. 

  Posted by James Habib on Jan 21, 2004 at 8:59 PM

  I can see the issue behind “Redskins.” That is referring to a horrific practice and is also a broad, sweeping stereotype. As such, it is wrong.

  But to lump EVERY organization with a “Native American” mascot in the same category is just plain stupid. Case in point: The University of Illinois

  This symbol refers to a tribe of NAs common to the geography in which the school is located. The “Chief”, as he is affectionately known, receives instruction and training from NA groups in tribal dances and ceremony. The Chief performs not only during football games, but also in the community - including elementary schools - and provides a vital link to understanding a culture and people who unfortunately were bumped out of their ancestral home and way of life. 

  Posted by Gary on Jan 21, 2004 at 9:17 PM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 57 posts.

Also featured Healthcare Workers Win Raises
Tech Workers Combat Offshoring
Migrant Pickers Expose Slavery Rings

Full contents
Previous issues
Subscribe and save!