Trevor Bailey

English 2010
Professor Strickland
Position Argument

Go (racial slur) Team!

Millions of Americans tune in to watch their favorite teams in their favorite sports.
Personally, watching your team win gives you a false sense of pride and accomplishment.
Whether you watch professional football, baseball, or college sports you will notice that some of
the teams mascots are exciting, odd, or offensive. Some of us dont realize how many teams
mascots are just insulting to the person next to you.
In 1956, Dixie State adopted the mascot Rebels in tribute to the confederate soldiers.
Some of the Dixie State Alumni would find that very insulting to some races, others would argue
its a sense of pride for the south (Wood). Personally, I believe most of America would like to
block out that part of our history. I understand having pride for where you come from, but that
whole war was based off slavery. In 2013, lawmakers of Utah approved the change for the

universitys mascot. Yes, you can have your pride, but to base a mascot off of it can leave a bad
taste in some peoples mouths.
As times go on, Americans are demanding that we change the bigotry that is still around.
The government is taking notice. California became the first state to ban the use of redskin as a
schools mascot (Arnett). There are four high schools in that state that are working to change
their mascot. Those schools are leaving it up to the students to vote on potentially more modern
mascot names. They have until 2017 to have the names officially changed.
A German company, ADIDAS, is willing to help these schools with their change (Peterson).
ADIDAS has offered to help with any American high school that currently uses any Native
American name or slur for that matter. They are going to help design the new image or logo for
that school as well as help them cover the financial cost that comes along with this change.
Schools wouldnt really have much of an excuse not to change for the better.
Colleges began to take notice early on in the 2000s to help change the controversial issue. In
2005, NCAA banned the use of all Native American nicknames and imagery (Burelson). This put
the University of North Dakota at stake to change their name. They were known as the North
Dakota Fighting Sioux. Their logo contained the image of a Sioux Indian man. UND tried to
appeal these sanctions in 2007. NCAA required North Dakota to win the support of the Sioux
tribe of their state. The state voted in favor to drop the name and vote for a new mascot. In
November of 2015, the students voted for the Fighting Hawks as their new mascot.
Other colleges like Florida State Seminoles, worked with the Seminole tribe of Florida (Arnett).
Florida State worked hard to ensure the pride of the tribe was not tarnished or racist. The college
uses an arrow as their logo instead of a Native American. The Vice President of Communications

for Florida State Browning Brooks says they have worked with the tribe for over 70 years and if
the tribe ever decides that they are no longer okay with the use of the tribes name, than they
would stop immediately.
I think we should think outside of the box and see if the teams or schools we are
supporting are offensive or not. Jared Hautamaki brought his 5 year old son to school in Silver
Spring, Maryland and noticed the principle was wearing a Washington Redskins shirt (St.
George). The team plays professional football in Washington DC near their town. Mr. Hautamaki
is a Native American. He addressed the issue to the leader of the school district. Jared was
looking to ban clothes that had the Redskin trademark. Jared even started a petition. Even though
it is casual racism, I would imagine unless the district enforced school uniforms this would be
hard to pass.
This whole controversial issue isnt only offensive to the Native Americans. In the CFL,
the Edmonton Eskimos are getting some heat on changing their team name (Weber). An Inuit
group of Canada states that any team that wants to represent ethnic groups is wrong. They go on
stating that even if anybody wants to be called an Eskimo, they would be extremely offended.
The team only had one Inuk player to ever play for them back in 1955. He played running back
and he said he didnt have an issue with the name.
Some changes are more obvious than others. Whether its the teams nickname or the
teams image, if an ethnic group has an issue with it then the school or the team should take it
upon themselves to change their mascot. It comes down to money and marketing for that team. It
does cost millions of dollars to repair or change an image of a team. Its a necessary change for
teams like the Washington Redskins. They are poorly representing a culture all around, starting

with the logo they place on the teams helmets to the fan merchandise. Many Americans view the
term Redskin as a racial slur and its as harsh as the N-word or Cracker. You can also
argue that the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball are just as offensive. The name is
bad, but the logo is much, much worse. See Below.

In my conclusion, team owners, college leaders, and so on need to suck up their pride.
They should just change the mascot and write an apology letter. They shouldnt wait for the
government or league officials to step in and force them to make those changes. We need to put
all of the bigotry behind us. Even though some citizens feel that America is becoming more
offensive every day, I believe we are becoming more accepting of each others culture.

Works Cited

Arnett, Autumn A. "Image Control." Diverse Issues in Higher Education. 19 Nov. 2015: 14-15. SIRS
Issues Researcher. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
Burleson, Anna. "After Decades of Debate, UND Selects Fighting Hawks As Nickname..." Grand Forks
Herald. 19 Nov. 2015: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
Peterson, Anne M. "Adidas Offers to Help Eliminate Native American Mascots." Statesman Journal. 05
Nov. 2015: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher.Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
St. George, Donna. "Parent Seeks to Ban 'R-Word' on School Attire." Washington Post. 05 Nov. 2015:
B.4. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
Weber, Bob. "Stop, Eskimos, Stop: Inuit Group Wants Edmonton CFL Team to Change..." Canadian
Press. 27 Nov. 2015: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.

Wood, Benjamin. "Lawmakers Approve University Status, Name Change for Dixie State." Deseret
News. N.p., 13 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.