Appropriating Native American Imagery Honors No One But The Prejudice

Student:
Professor:
Course title:
Date:
Evaluation Essay: Appropriating Native American imagery honors no one but the prejudice
In Canada and the United States, the propriety of using images and terms that refer to Native American people as the mascot or name for a sports team is an issue of public controversy (Shanley 677). This evaluation essay is focused on the appropriation of the imagery of Native American people and maintains that this appropriation does not really honor anybody. The only thing it honours is prejudice.
Claim: appropriating Native American imagery is offensive.
Reasons: cultural appropriation, incorrect racial portrayals, and racial stereotyping do not honour a breathing, living people. Cultural appropriation is totally disrespectful, particularly when members of the culture dissent that cultural appropriation. It is racial insensitivity. Appropriating Native American imagery amounts to a certain form of bullying which has a significant negative effect on young Native American persons. Alaskan Native and Native American young persons have the highest incidences of suicide-related deaths, and the lack of positive images of the Native American people does not help in improving self-worth (King 2). In essence, mascots that are racist do not belong in sports. American Indian mascots should be retired. The stereotypical images are damaging and detrimental not just for the self-worth, but also for the development of American Indian students. Furthermore, the portrayals have been shown to have an adverse effect on every student (Riley and Carpenter 860).
Appropriating Native American imagery is both degrading and unpleasant given that it is sacred to the Nation of Indians and serves to perpetuate unconstructive stereotypes. Researchers have reported that keeping this imagery leads to long-term unconstructive self-worth effects on both non-Native and Native peoples from dehumanizing, cartoonish, and misconceived imagery (King 3). The imagery has adverse effects particularly on children. In the United States, no other ethnic group is portrayed as a mascot, and there is no other ethnic group in America that can put up with such portrayal. For a lot of Indians, a sports team that has Native American logo or mascot worsens a tragic American legacy of government-sanctioned racism, genocide, and political and economic deprivation against Indian tribes (Riley and Carpenter 862).
Indian mascots are part of the bigger issues of cultural appropriation as well as the infringement of intellectual property of the Native Americans, which includes every instance in which non-native people utilize costumes, art, and music of the indigenous people in entertainment or in other performances. The harm to Indians occurs since the appropriation of the Indian culture by the mainstream society continues the systems of subordination and dominance which have been utilized in colonizing, assimilating, and oppressing Indian groups (Shanley 680). All in all, using stereotypical imagery could create a hostile environment which could be intimidating to Native American learners. Indigenous students have the lowest rates of high school graduation countrywide and their rates of college attendance and graduation are even lower...