An exploration of Native American-based mascots, especially the Washington R*dskins, and their impact on real-life attit | dG1fTTJ5dDE1YmNuWGM
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00:00It's been said that an image is worth a thousand words, a concept implying that a
00:12single visual element can replace a multitude of descriptive factors, that one image can
00:19carry meaning and definition far more adequately than any verbal or written description.
00:32In the case of our own definitions, that is, as Native American people, why have we been
00:38reduced to a single word, a single silhouette?
00:44Red skin, one word, two syllables, labeled in many dictionaries as a noun, dated or
00:51offensive and simply defined an American Indian.
00:57Every so often, the press discovers Native peoples.
01:02The protest in North Dakota against a major oil pipeline continues to grow.
01:07How is it that they're able to proceed in the way they have?
01:11They believe their own racist stereotypes about Native people.
01:17It was never intended to be racist.
01:19Twenty years ago, you didn't hear about any of this.
01:22If we're still considered these kind of like head-dressed caricatures living on the plains
01:27and never went past 1900, that doesn't really allow us into this modern dialogue where we
01:32have all these issues that are happening.
01:34So Indians are wrapped into the fiber of America from the very, very beginning.
01:38There's a lot of complex history with D.C., this football team, with race, it's fan base.
01:47I'm an indigenous person, I'm an indigenous woman, and I have a voice, and that's the
01:53strongest thing that I have.
02:04They don't look like Indians to me.
02:06This is what happens in settler societies.
02:08They take old European rituals and practices and beliefs, they graft them onto new sort
02:14of symbol systems around Indians.
02:16In Jewish history, we have been called so many names, and the names connote inferiority.
02:22You can't force honor on people.