Sunday, September 18, 2011

Racism in Sports

As I sat in my room watching football today, I couldn't help but realize the blatant racism in team names. I was raised watching sports and knew of team names before I ever knew what some of them actually meant. With the NFL having team names such as the Redskins, it's hard to ignore racist roots in sports. This is evident at every level of sports, from high school through the pro's. It is visible to me that it was not enough, that in early settlers in America began forcing Native Americans off of the land they lived on. Now in the modern day, derogatory terms for Native Americans are used for sports teams. Sports are something that people of all ages enjoy, but maybe not quite as enjoyable for all races.
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1 comment:

  1. John M. BurdickSeptember 19, 2011 at 7:27 AM

    Dan,

    That is a great point and something that we will surely discuss when we discuss representations of Native Americans in popular culture.

    If this is something you are interested in exploring in more detail, it could make a great contribution to our final "zine" project. (Its never too early to start thinking about what we are going to do for the final project). You could even explore the racial dynamics of sport in the United States more broadly and there is a ton of material there that could be explored.

    For further reading on Native American imagery and sport, I would check out the following:

    Playing Indian - Phillip Deloria (http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300080674) This is a great book and I would really recommend it.
    Dancing at Halftime - Carol Spindel

    or the countlees articles including

    "Playing Indian at Halftime" and "From Enemy to Mascot" by Cornell D. Pewewardy
    Of Warrior Chiefs and Indian Princesses: The Psychological Consequences of American Indian Mascots by Stephanie A. Fryberg

    There is even a documentary that deals with this issue directly. I havent seen it yet but it seems pretty good. Its called Savage Country: American Indian Sports Mascots and you can find it on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVDyldTV9OA

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