Native Americans Have Become A Political Pawn Analysis

In August 2011, when Jack Shakely’s article “Indian mascots — you're out” first appeared on the op-ed page of the LA Times in August 2011, I was attending college in China as a member of a minority nationality. On campus, the majority students, which are the Han nationality, often laughed at the customs of ethnic minorities. It is so similar to the status of the Native American that I support Shakely’s assertions that we should leave the logos of minority out of school. In his article, Shakely elaborated that the first lesson he learned from his mother about the Indians portrayed as sports team mascots left an indelible impression on him; likewise, he mentioned about the controversy between the tribe and some universities about the use of Native

For the past years, different groups and organizations have wanted to change the mascot. To these groups and organizations, they felt that the mascot was offensive and disrespectful to them. Some Native Americans states that use of their imagery under the name “Indians” is offensive viewing Indians as warriors like in the back in the wild west. Here are some reasons why we need to keep the mascot 1) it is a symbol of our school that we take pride in.

When we look at the main surface like topic we se books being burned. But as we take a deeper look into what the books truly represent we see more than pages with ink, we see peoples opinions and beliefs. What truly makes somebody unique? How they think and what they believe. But as we see these books being taken away we see that in deeper meaning the censorship is attempting to take away people's opinions and identities so they will just follow what the government wants them to believe.

The issue of the Native American mascots used by sports teams such as baseball, football and hockey in the United States were first brought up by Native American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. The movement had protested the use of Native American related references in two teams in particular, the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins. The Cleveland Indians had used Chief Wahoo as their sports logo, whereas the Washington’s use of “Redskins” as their team name is still, to this day, controversial due to the nature of the name as a derogatory slang (King, 2010.) It is unclear how or why such names were picked out as sports teams’ names and mascot or logo, but it is seen that European Americans in the 19th century has started the ‘trend’ of doing so.

As previously stated, Ray Bradbury deals with some issues of censorship in his book Fahrenheit 451. In this novel the entire population is controlled and censored and things are terrible because of it. As said in the book. “We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live off flowers, instead of growing on food rain and black loam.”. It means we need to read books and learn to truly grow instead of just living off each other.

First off, the definition of a mascot is “An animal, person, or thing adopted by a group as its representative symbol and supposed to bring good luck” (Dictionary). A mascot is something people are proud of and rally behind, it’s an honor to be a mascot. Karl Swanson, vice-president of the Washington Redskins professional football team, declared in the magazine Sports Illustrated that his team's name "symbolizes courage, dignity, and leadership," and that the "Redskins symbolize the greatness and strength of a grand people.” (Wikipedia). In 2002 Sport Illustrated conducted a survey and found that 81% of Native Americans not living on a reservation and 53% of Native Americans living on a reservation didn’t find this discriminatory (Wikipedia).

Mascots are entertaining animals or historical figures to represent a sports team or a school. However, what is considered fun to others may be harmful to many more. Most Native American tribes do not like schools and teams to use their name as a mascot. There have been many discussions lately whether to ban the use of the names relating to American Indians. Native Amerian mascots should be banned.

The absolute least we as a nation and sports league can do is take away a name that the Native Americans find offense to their culture. We have not given them a voice until recently, although it is still flawed in how we value their opinion. Cynthia Connolly, one of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, says mascots representing them most often reflect who they were in the 1800s, as warriors.

The Indian mascot was originally designed to render tribute to Native Americans, not as a racial symbol. In the past forty years, changing the name backfired, and citizens began taking offense to the name because they felt like the name represented the color of Native American’s skin. Nevertheless, many fans, including Native Americans, do not consider the name or the mascot to be degrading or racial. Fans of the Washington Redskins participated in a poll that reveals, “77 percent reject changing the name” while in another poll “71 percent of NFL fans did not find the Redskins name offensive” (Lingebach 2). Clearly, from the results of the two polls, many fans would be unhappy if the Redskins’ name were to be changed.

There are many sports mascots today that are being accused of being offensive. Smithville is a school that is being questioned as being offensive. Smithville schools have had the mascot of a warrior for about half a century. However, now people are thinking that the use of a warrior as a school mascot is offensive to Native Americans. This is a recent problem that is just now being discussed.

The main things that Native American and people today accept that it is a good thing to have could be the balance in the nature . According to the World on the turtle’s back story ,the twin brothers created balance to this world like Yin and Yang which you might often see in many Asian cultures . Yin and Yang represent the Balance in thing ,in black there’s still white and in white there’s still black . Left- handed twin who ‘s considered that he has a crooked mind ended up telling the truth . On the other hand ,the right-handed twin who’s considered that he has a straight mind and always tell the truth ended up lying to his brother .

The NYT article refers to the controversy about renaming the memorial and building a shrine commemorating the death of Native Americans in the Battle of Little Bighorn. “Senator Malcom Wallop, Republican of Wyoming, became an outspoken opponent of the name change, calling the proposal ‘a prime example of political correctness’ and an act of ‘revisionism’” (NYT 37) It seems that ideas such as westward expansion and imperialism have taken a negative toll after the 1960’s, but yet defenders of colonialist/imperialist history find some type of way to defend it. Political correctness is the orthodox patriotism of the post

In her article, “Censorship 101,” West crafts her text through numerous court case experience and skill in rhetorical devices as her background expertise is used to her advantage. Sonja West begins her argument with the use of exemplification in a previous court case. The scene is set in 1962, and West garments the introduction with excessive details and biased language as readers quickly root for the victory of the Tinker case and share the celebratory state of their

1984 Censorship and the Media In the modern age, the need for one's freedom of self-expression comes about as a central role in the media and society. However, in George Orwell’s novel 1984, censorship and media manipulation clearly play a more prevalent role.

Freedom of Speech Dying Slowly Free speech is fluctuating between life and death with every passing day. The ability for an individual to say what comes to his or her mind is dwindling as political correctness overcompensates to ensure no precious snowflake dare be challenged or offended. Political correctness has created such a feeling of dread to speak one’s mind that it has maimed free speech for years to come and that free-bleeding wound seems to have been left open to stain the Constitution of the United States of America in particular. One example of good intentions going too far is in an article about the controversy of the name of a sports team, the Washington Redskins; in said article by Jack Shakely, there are two quotes that completely