Alessandra Pottenza Mascot Or Honor Analysis

In her article “Insult or Honor,” Alessandra Potenza talks about the professional football team, the Washington Redskins, and their controversial Native American Mascot. While many other sports teams, from elementary schools on up to college and professional teams, have names with roots in Native American culture, the Redskins have recently come under fire. Native American groups have targeted the team, claiming the name is “offensive” and “racist,” and have peppered them with letters, lawsuits, commercials, and even social media campaigns to coerce them into changing their name and mascot.
In 2005, the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) told 19 universities their mascots were “hostile or abusive” to American Indians, and that either must change their name or ask for permission from those tribes to use the name. While most tribes commended the rule change, the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe in North Dakota launched a lawsuit …show more content…
In paragraph 5, Potenza claims that “…Such names-and the rituals that often go with them, like the [Atlanta] Brave’s “tomahawk chop”- perpetuate old stereotypes about American Indians. “Every time the Atlanta Braves do their tomahawk chop…we are no longer successful businessmen, doctors, soldiers, co-workers, or neighbors. To the fan, we only exist in the 1800s as a warrior culture,” says Cynthia Connolly of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odowa Indians in Michigan.” But what Potenza omits is that this has been done to other cultures before as well. Teams with mascots or names such as the Spartans and Trojans are ancient civilizations and cultures just as the Seminoles or the Sioux. The same goes for the use of Warriors and Braves, as they are no different than the Vikings and Musketeers, which are fighting peoples of other cultures. These such terms are not considered offensive or racist, but are simply mascots and names of