Originally posted by catland
excelent article CinD.

I did not know for example, about Indians being forbidden to practice their religion.

I think one of the issues here is how people who support the mascots are branded as "racist" when they are really just uninformed. This can then make them defensive because they know that they aren't racists.

There are traditions of using strong warrior names for school teams such as "Vikings", "Trojans" (stop giggling 2k and Gini), and "Spartans". I think that many people, myself included, thought of the word "Braves" in this same fashion, as a compliment, and not a put-down. Which is why we cringe when someone calls us racists.

Education is the best way to tackle this issue.
I agree entirely that education is needed--but sometimes a wake-up call is needed, too.

My belief is that a practice that is offensive to a large percentage of a particular racial group is a racist practice and should be discontinued. And I don't think schools will bother to change their mascots until they recognize that it's a racist practice.

Here's another interesting link on the issue:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/levesq...1_leve30.shtml

And to emphasize a quote from that editorial:

"It's entirely possible that not all ethnic and racial nicknames started life as pejoratives. But when cultural evolution does make them offensive to a segment of society, shouldn't all of society strive to remove the thorn rather than jam it in deeper? Instead of saying, "Deal with it," shouldn't we be bigger than we were yesterday, better than we were yesterday, and seek common ground?"