Indian Mascots (Sumblog 7)

A current issue that exists in today’s society is the issue of mascots. Sports teams are currently using racial factors as mascots in sports such as Indians. The question is, how does this affect members of our society and should it stop?

I was looking at an article online relating to this topic and according to a "Sports Illustrated" poll, the overall Native American population considers all of this a nonissue. When they were asked if school and college sports teams should stop using Indian mascots and nicknames, 81percent of those Native Americans responding said no. For professional sports teams, 83 percent of respondents stated taht teams should not stop using Indian characters, nicknames, mascots and symbols.

To some Native Americans this may not even affect them. They may even view it as empowering. But to others, it could be extremely offensive.

Some positive aspects of using Indian names and mascots for sports teams are a sense of rallying behind a symbol of athletic prowess and superiority. People may even say that using an Indian mascot that represents winning attributes is a positive thing. If a team wins, the mascot is elevated to become an asset to both fans and team members. Many regions, states, towns, cities and historical places are named after Native Americans in honor of the original inhabitants or Native Americans. There may be nothing wrong with continuing a tradition that most people do not consider to be offensive.

However, that does not mean there are not any negative aspects to it. The negative aspects of using an Indian mascot could include the possibility of offending the Native American minority who said they were offended by the mascots and viewed it as mocking their rituals and customs. It can also create a hostile environment for their people and promote racial stereotypes. People who support this view say that using Indian mascots only promotes disrespect and racist attitudes toward Native American’s

This argument could go many ways. However, I believe that if a sports team uses an Indian mascot, they should be using it to empower them and lift up that culture

Microaggressions (Sumblog 5)

During class we discussed microaggressions. Microaggressions are small acts of mostly non-physical discrimination. For the most part, many people may be unaware that they are even doing it. We received a handout in class that made me curious on the different types of microaggressions that exist in our everyday lives. Here is a list that I put together based on what the hand out said and what I have noticed:

• When a White person (man and women) passes a Black man on the sidewalk, the woman automatically clutches her purse more tightly, while the White man checks for his wallet in the back pocket. (Hidden Message: Blacks are prone to crime and up to no good.)
• A third generation Asian American is complimented by a person for speaking such good English. (Hidden Message: Asian Americans are perceived as perpetual aliens in their own country and not "real Americans.")
• Police stop a Latino male driver for no apparent reason but to subtly check his driver's license to determine immigration status. (Hidden message: Latinos are illegal aliens.)
• American Indian students at the University of Illinois see Native American symbols and mascots - exemplified by Chief Illiniwek dancing and whooping fiercely during football games. (Hidden Message: American Indians are savages, blood-thirsty and their culture and traditions are demeaned.)

Racial microaggressions are the brief and everyday slights, insults, and demeaning messages sent to people of color by well-intentioned White people who are usually unaware of the hidden messages being communicated. Like it is shown in these examples, these messages may be sent verbally ("You speak good English."), nonverbally (clutching one's purse more tightly) or environmentally (using American Indian mascots). These all tend to happen outside of a person’s conscious awareness. If an individual who made these microaggressions realized the effects, my belief is that that would apologize and change their actions.

Sumblog 4

In class we discussed the matrix of domination. To sum it up, the matrix of domination is a sociological theory that explains types of oppression that deal with race, class, and gender. Even though they are all recognized as different social groupings, they are all interconnected. Other forms of grouping, such as sexual orientation, religion, or age, can apply to this theory as well.

 

As the term implies, there are many different ways one might experience domination. Some of these could include facing many different challenges in which one obstacle, such as race, may overlap with other features. Things such as race, age, and sex, may affect an individual in extremely different ways. It can even include cases such as varying geography, socioeconomic status, or other factors that can simply vary throughout time. Many feminist authors have contributed a great deal of research toward the understanding and application of domination models in many realms of society. This could be due to the fact that the matrix of domination could relate a lot to feminist’s ideas.

An example of this could be that a male, classed as the dominant gender in a patriarch society, has the privilege of higher wages than a female. This is a very good example for the matrix of domination and privileges of males in patriarchy. Women are confined to a lower social status which is expressed by the prejudices against the female gender concerning the value of their work.

One quote I found on the matrix of denomination that I found to be particularly intriguing is, “the fact that gender and race intensify each other’s impact in wage discrimination but interfere with each other in community organizing does not make them weaker categories, but makes each more effective as a system of domination, becoming an important characteristic of each system.” I really liked how this was worded and how it described this separation.