A mascot can be a person, animal, or object and it is there to bring good luck to the sports team and also used for merchandising. The mascot and team name controversy came about because of sports teams using Native American names and symbols for their mascots and team names (Wulf, 2014). During a football game, Indian dress, songs and chants, dance and sacred traditions were used. There are two conflicting viewpoints surrounding the controversy. One viewpoint believes that keeping Native American mascots and team names honors Native people, supports nostalgic feelings, and saves funding. The opposing viewpoint is that keeping this imagery is offensive and degrading because it is sacred to Native Americans and perpetuates negative stereotypes.
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Previous state law allowed the state to launch a hearing into each race-based nickname with a single complaint now with the current law it requires a petition to start the hearing. The new law gives more control to the governor and less to the state superintendent’s office (“Scott Walker”, n.d.).
There are many schools that have changed their names and have had controversy trying to do the change. In Berlin, Wisconsin officials voted to maintain the name of the Berlin High School Indians after 92 percent of the local community and 90 percent of the student population voted in favor of keeping the name in a local survey (“7 States”, 2015). The 2007 retirement of Chief Illiniwek at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has had some controversy. After the name was changed, the university still argued that the mascot name was an honor for Native Americans. The nickname "Fighting Illini" was all they ended up being able to use because it could refer to the state and not to a tribe. Southeastern Oklahoma State University changed their name and mascot from the name Savages, but it was very controversial. Many supporters of the university didn’t understand the decision to drop the Savages name. But after two years of market research and the input from more than 1,000 university stakeholders, the university became the Bison and with a new mascot, Bolt (“Most Colleges,” n.d.). The University of Mississippi changed to a new mascot the Rebel Black Bear from the former mascot, a white-goateed, cane-toting Southern plantation owner which was criticized as racist and archaic (Brown,
Previous state law allowed the state to launch a hearing into each race-based nickname with a single complaint now with the current law it requires a petition to start the hearing. The new law gives more control to the governor and less to the state superintendent’s office (“Scott Walker”, n.d.).
There are many schools that have changed their names and have had controversy trying to do the change. In Berlin, Wisconsin officials voted to maintain the name of the Berlin High School Indians after 92 percent of the local community and 90 percent of the student population voted in favor of keeping the name in a local survey (“7 States”, 2015). The 2007 retirement of Chief Illiniwek at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has had some controversy. After the name was changed, the university still argued that the mascot name was an honor for Native Americans. The nickname "Fighting Illini" was all they ended up being able to use because it could refer to the state and not to a tribe. Southeastern Oklahoma State University changed their name and mascot from the name Savages, but it was very controversial. Many supporters of the university didn’t understand the decision to drop the Savages name. But after two years of market research and the input from more than 1,000 university stakeholders, the university became the Bison and with a new mascot, Bolt (“Most Colleges,” n.d.). The University of Mississippi changed to a new mascot the Rebel Black Bear from the former mascot, a white-goateed, cane-toting Southern plantation owner which was criticized as racist and archaic (Brown,