99
Volume:
2021
,
February

To Remove These Mascots

Submitted By:
Stephanie Lipkowitz, Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque, NM

Ending the Era of Harmful "Indian" Mascots by National Congress of American Indians
January 1, 2021

For anti-racist educators seeking resources for teaching about the negative stereotypes perpetuated by school mascots that refer to Native Peoples in derogatory ways, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) website provides a wealth of information and outlines powerfully the rationale for change. Along with a clear history of the struggle to remove these mascots, the resource page provides brief videos made by Native Americans to use with students from elementary school through college. Additionally, it provides links to research that underscores and reveals the social, psychological, and cultural harm to indigenous people caused by these mascots. The NCAI partners with the group “Change the Mascot,” which can offer students ways to turn their awareness into action to rid American institutions of racist iconography. Further, some secondary schools may be confronting racist imagery about indigenous people at the center of their own athletic and mascot traditions, and this website offers lists of schools that have made this long overdue and necessary change.

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