American Indians as Mascots

American Indians

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Indians as Mascots

I believe that an Indian image should not be used as a mascot. The greatness of the Native tribes being one of the foundations on which our country is built, I believe the negative stereotypes on the American Indians especially the ones that are perpetrated by sports mascots  affect the Native peoples’ reputation as well as self image  and it continues fostering discrimination against the tribal citizens of our country. I am of the opinion that it is totally wrong to trivialize the indigenous culture in the name of being common and harmless infrastructure. As a matter of facts, by using the Indian mascots, a misleading image of the American Indian people is presented and it also reinforces some of the historic myths that have been in use while whitewashing an oppressive history. In regards to the commercial “Crying Indian” traditional images of Indians are harmful in that their usage helps in propagating stereotypes and myths against the Indians. That’s because some people may use the identity of the Indians or their cultural practices, and sometimes even goes far for instance commodifying it.  

Government Eugenics Program

The Australian Prime Minister and the parliament apologized in a bid to what he described as a “ deal finish the unfinished business of the country, to remove a great stain from the soul of the nation and in a true spirit of reconciliation open a new chapter in the history of the great land, Australia.”  It was as a result of years of misdeeds by several past governments to the so-called the stolen generation, whereby thousands of indigenous children were forcibly taken from their homes in an assimilation policy. The apology was received with mixed reactions some people thinking that it was fantastic. The apology was not only important, but it recounted the victim’s stories and thus bringing the reality of the bad things meted upon the aborigines and publicly confronting those who deny the misdeeds. Some thought that the apology could not go far enough as there was no government fund to be set for compensating the victims of the policies that resulted to the stolen generations. I am of the opinion that the US should also apologize to the American Indians. An apology would be necessary since it would be a potentially transformative step toward making right the egregious misdeeds perpetrated to them.

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