It’s not just about Washington—racist team mascots persist all over the country
(Photo via John McDonnell/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
“'The social science research and literature on this is pretty overwhelming that the use of these caricatures is bad for everyone. Particularly, it’s bad for children,' said Bryan Brayboy in an interview produced by the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University.
Brayboy, a professor of Indigenous education and justice, said Native-themed mascots normalize racism. 'For non-native kids, it largely inures them toward racism toward Native people. It ends up giving them the sense that Native folks and peoples are a thing of the past or are to be caricatured, so they are less likely to have empathy with Native peoples, and they come to see us as these relics of the past and stereotypes rather than vibrant, viable, productive human beings.'"
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