Native Appropriations shared a link. 4 hours ago I posted a version of this on my personal FB this morning, but Im feeling brave enough to post it here as well: Im really sick of the sentiment at the beginning of this article. I dont understand why we have to create the divide between real Indians who dont care about mascots and those of us who do. The reason why many of us off-reservations (which is over 60% of Indian Country) care deeply about representations is because we are forced to deal with them everyday. Because we arent in our communities we cant turn and see hundreds of counter-narratives and counter-representations in our aunties, cousins, our community events, or our ceremonies. What we see instead are the majority of Americans who think were fantasy creatures or extinct. They dont know that our communities are full of joy and strength, because they dont think were real. Additionally, mascot issues, halloween costumes, and themed frat parties are things that happen on college campuses, so its often our Native students who are forced to confront them--and telling them that theyre somehow less Indian or less connected for caring about how their peoples are represented is the last thing they need as they already struggle far from home. We already deal with feeling less than in our communities for going to college and grad school--we dont need our own people telling us that our fight to be treated with respect is not worthwhile. Not caring about mascots doesnt somehow make you more Indian, it doesnt somehow make you stronger. Ill point again to this article about Stephanie Frybergs work: ndsmcobserver/2014/03/professor-affirms-effects-indian-mascots/ These things matter. Even if you think they dont. Fryberg found that those who say they support mascots actually have *lower* levels of community worth. I also dont know anyone who has ever argued that mascots are the most important thing to care about in Indian Country. So, Gyasis article set me off, but this is a bigger thing than him (though he often dismisses representation activism on twitter and in his column). I would write a longer post about it, but Im supposed to be doing dissertation edits...theyre due April 1st. Happy Thursday! -Adrienne From the article: Heres the thing: I, like a lot of other Natives, dont give a damn about the Washington Redskins or mascots or any of that. There are absolutely MORE IMPORTANT things to worry about that MOST of the Natives who constantly complain about the Redskins and mascots (yet dont live amongst other Native people or work in our communities) dont see. Thats because MOST of those adamantly anti-mascot Natives dont live within our communities (of course there are SOME who do live in our communities, but in our home territories, there are plenty of Native-themed mascots that a lot of us Natives love very, very much. We are proud of them and those folks who want to get rid of all Native mascots definitely dont speak for us).
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 01:25:32 +0000
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