Dear Ish: I cannot remember the last time I read something that was so personally painful that I just began to cry. So when that was done I got angry and wrote the following. I figure the newspaper (my note:WashingtonTimes} probably won't print half of what I have said but thought you might like it.
I am going to say something here and when you get to a particular place in the letter you will know what I am talking about. I was just horrified and sickened by the torture and murder of the black man (in Jasper, Texas) by three white skin heads/neo nazis. I'll bet that the last word that black man heard before he died was the word nigger. If you hear of anything we can do to send cards of peace and support to that man's family will you let us know please?
Catherine
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Dear Editor:
I am responding to the column "Redskins and Soreheads." First let us begin with a history lesson and then progress to modern times. The United States government put a bounty on murdered Indians. Hunters, miners, soldiers, and US residents could collect money for killing Indians and the price varied according to whom was murdered: men, women, or children. The murdered bodies would be brought to trading posts where the murderers would collect their bounties - it was less than 30 pieces of silver. Carrying hundreds of dead bodies to trading posts became too cumbersome for the murderers and for trading post owners and anyhow...how do you get rid of so many dead Indians (?), and so the hunters began to bring in the severed heads of Indian men, women, and children. A lot of Anglo-European people began to complain about the heads being nailed to outside and inside walls of trading posts and homes. The hunters then began to bring in the scalps along with their buffalo skins, or deer skins or beaver skins, but the Anglo European women were deeply offended by the term "scalp", and so the hunters and traders began to call the scalps "redskins." That is our history and it did not happen that long ago.The term is offensive beyond belief.
The Dutch (and others from Europe) practiced wholesale genocide against American Indians and this often times involved the slaughter of entire villages. Historical documents detailing the violence against American Indians is heartbreaking and nearly unbearable to read and to comprehend. A group of Dutch one time burned an entire village and as the people ran from thier burning homes they were shot, stabbed, and violated in unspeakable ways. The Dutch killed all the people of the tribe and then the Dutch severed the heads of 70 of the Indians and brought the heads back to New Amsterdam (now New York) and used the heads for ball games and even the governor's mother came out and participated. The Dutch played football with the severed heads of murdered Indians. This is our history and it did not happen that long ago.
Today there are more than 2,250 schools in the United States that use American Indian names and images for their mascots, school newspapers, school yearbooks, school stores, and other assorted merchandizing items. There are thousands of businesses that use American Indian names and images for their corporate icons. All of the people who have appropriated (actually stolen would be the better term) these names and images like to say that they are "honoring us." As Charlene Teters, cofounder of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media said about this so-called honor, "don't insult my intelligence." Glenn Morris of AIM Colorado stated, "people should remember that an honor isn't born when it parts the honorer's lips. It is born when it is accepted in the honoree's ear." Tim Giago, publisher and editor of the Lakota Times conducted a survey regarding the mascot issue and 99% of the people who responded were "not honored" and would like to see these mascots eliminated.
The word redskin is comparable to nigger, spic, dago, wop, kike, chink, wetback, and the list of racial slurs is endless. Leonard Pitts Jr. who writes for the Miami Herald recently wrote a column about the word nigger. "The last word some beaten black man heard before gravity yanked him down and the rope bit into his neck now serves some oafish rapper who can't find anything else to rhyme with trigger." Pitts was saying that the definition of the word nigger has not changed over the course of time even though it has become a loathsome fashion in some quarters.
Here is the short list of international, national and state organizations who are supporting the elimination of stereotoypical and racist mascots in professional sports and at local level: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), American Jewish Committee (which was established in 1906), Wisconsin Indian Education Association, National Indian Education Association, American Indian Movement, Lakota Student Alliance, Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, Los Angeles Board of Education, American Indian Mental Hehalth Association of Minnesosta, American Indian Language and Culture Education Board, University of Illinois Alumni Against Racist Mascots, Progresive Resource Action Cooperative, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, United Church of Christ, National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media, La Casa Cultural Latina, American Indian Council of Indians, Michigan Civil Rights Commission, United Nations Inter-Working Group on Indigenous People, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch of European Parliament, United Nations Committtee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Schools like Eastern Michigan University, Stanford University, and St. Johns University have rid themselves of these vestiges of stereotyping and racism. American people of all colors, sizes, and religions are speaking out against this tradition of stereotyping of American Indian people. chief wahoo, chief illiniewk, the redskins, the blackhawks, the indians and all the rest can be compared to the frito bandito, and little black sambo. You would not tolerate a black-faced mammy as a mascot and you would not tolerate a sports team called the washington kikes. I refuse to capitalize these words because to do so gives them a respect they do not deserve.
If you want to truly open your minds and hearts and learn about the devestating impact of these mascots and the appropriation of American Indian traditions, culture, and spirituality upon the American Indian people and the United States population in general then you should read Ward Churchill's "Indians Are Us: Culture and Genocide in Native North America." Read Vine Deloria Jr., "Red Earth, White Lies." Read Roberto Rodriguez's current article in the magazine, Black Issues in Higher Education." Watch "In Whose Honor" which documents the travesty of injustice of these images at the University of Illinois. Dr. Robert Ward (American Indian Law) spent 18 months investigating the harm that these mascots and icons do to American Indian children. He says "we found psychological harm has been done. We also proved the use of the mascots contribute to genocide and we proved that the seed of racism planted in early years leads to the economic harms of lower wages for Native people.." Dr. Ward goes on to state that the evidence accumulated proved that racism (via the mascots and icons) is being taught to all children, "it teaches them it is permissible to dehumanize and make fun of a race of people."
Respected writers like Phillip W. D. Martin of the Boston Globe have written eloquent articles discussing the harm of these traditions of stereotyping and racism. Vernon Bellecourt, one of the founders of the American Indian Movement addressed the mascot issue by stating, "this is an honor we would rather do without. Play football and stop playing Indians. Stop this dehumanizing, degrading, and despicable exploitation of our culture and spiritual life." To Vernon, my friend, I say, "Amen brother."
