Something I think is worth mentioning is the film we were assigned to watch over our long weekend, “More Than a Word”. Before watching the film I had no idea that the Redskins logo, name and mascot was offensive to Indian culture. It never crossed my mind. As growing up with a football coach for a dad and many of my brothers playing football, I was familiar with the team name and their merchandise but never thought it was offensive to native Americans until I heard their opinions in the film. Then I also realized that there are no other teams in any professional sports that mock other races besides Indians. I realized how offended I would be if the NFL had made a team called the white skins and if their mascot was a white guy holding a Starbucks in his hand I would probably feel the same way.
The film in general connects to what we have been talking about in class about stereotypes. In the film, they were interviewing people outside of a redskins game and some of the people being interviewed were wearing facial paint and the giant head dress. As we talked about in class today, the head dress with all of the feathers on it is something to be earned with hard work and dedication to the tribe. Each feather is like a metal of honor, and only people who have earned this honor can wear a head dress like that, similar to the military in our country. It is not just made for everyday people to wear during football games.
avestoll June 27, 2018
Before this class and this movie I had heard a little bit about the issues of sports logos, but I never really thought anything of it. I definitely didn’t know how offensive they could be to Native people. I never really understood why people were offended by the Cleveland Indians logo and why everyone was taking sides on whether the changes to the brand were good or whether the brand should stay the same. After talking about these issues in class, talking with Niigaan, and watching More Than A Word I definitely have an opinion on how offensive these logos are and how desperately they need to be changed.
tkyle June 29, 2018
After watching this film, I asked myself the same thing but of a different race of course. Just using the word “redskins” is offensive. Some may even compare it to the context of the “n” word. So I stopped to think, what if there was a team called the “n” word. What if fans who weren’t of my race excused it by saying they were actually honoring us, I asked myself. Whatever the mascot would be would just make the situation even worse. Many people, including me, didn’t think much of things like this. But until you put yourself in their shoes, you’ll never even begin to see where they’re coming from.