Tradition or Racism?: A Reflection on the Issue of Images in American Society

Tradition or Racism?:

A Reflection on the Issue of Images in American Society

Today in discussion, the issue of school mascots was brought to our attention as we were addressing the various ways in which American society has taken (mis)perceived and often stereotypical images of the natives and so-called “non-white” immigrants and used those negative images to support our political and economic structure.  The issue that we seemed to discuss frequently in class is the idea of the underlying racism and objectivism that can be found in using a culture as a mascot.  In particular, the portrayed image of the Native American in the realm of sports has recently become one of controversy as the person dawned in “Native apparel” very often acts in a way that is not true to the actual Native American culture.  I find this “tradition” as a serious problem, as it—whether or not the one doing it is aware—condones the misrepresentation of a specific culture and unfairly and wrongly portrays only the image that we, as a society, have formulated about this group of people.

Another problem that this modern-day form of “playing Indian” does is ostracize the group that is being imitated and, in a way, separating the people and the culture from everyday society.  This is to say that the act of dressing in “Indian clothes” and dancing around without taking into consideration the historical and cultural implications, sends a falsified message about the Natives while treating their culture as one of entertainment and one that can be laughed at.  Needless to say, this is not at all funny and one’s culture should not be taken so lightly, especially one that is so very much an integral part of our history as Americans.

            As a final comment, I would just like to stress the importance that lies in imagery.  So much can be said with a picture or how one portrays a specific idea, as we all know from the images in Deloria’s book that we talked about in today’s discussion.  Regardless of intentions, the idea of inaccurately pretending to be a Native American is one that is morally and unjustifiably wrong as it perpetuates particular racial stereotypes that are often times not true.