Students React Fiercely to...Something
File this one under the Controversies Nobody Was Complaining About department. A group of six undergrads and a graduate student calling themselves Savage Media have produced a 74-second video taking on that hobgoblin of the oppressed, the Dartmouth Indian t-shirt.
Short as it is, here are several things to be said about the video. First off, it trades on the idea that nicknames derived from American Indians are inherently offensive. This is a bit of a stretch, as just about every poll done on the matter has indicated that a significant majority of American Indians are completely fine with such nicknames or consider them an honor. A glance at the nicknames used at reservation high schools in my home state of South Dakota finds several tribal nicknames and even one school calling its teams the Redmen. While there is no need to doubt the legitimacy of the offense some take, it must be acknowledged that they are an aggrieved minority, and one can find an aggrieved minority for just about anything. There are even those out there who would be upset by my use of the term "American Indian," even though a plurality of Indians prefer it to other possible names.
Leaving aside the video's actual grievance, its presentation is also a touch baffling. Apparently, those who strut around in Indian t-shirts should simply be met with bafflement and sartorial vandalism, which certainly doesn't sound like the best way to promote dialogue (and we all know how certain groups on campus love dialogue). Besides, who's to say the man in the video isn't an American Indian himself? The Review's former Supreme Leader is a member of the Chickasaw Nation and looks straight out of an English period piece.
--Blake Neff
Dartmouth, Indian, controversy, mascot
Reader Comments (17)
Are you sure that you are native @MemberoftheNation? Because the fact that you use the phrase "a noble Indian" points to the idea that only some Indians are good or honest. And these can only be found on t-shirts worn by ignorant people. Shame on you. I hope your elders raised you to have more respect for yourself and your people.
How ignorant you are! I mean ignorant in the sense that your words carry no meaning without proper education backing your statement. Have you heard of Assimilation? Relocation? Termination? Did u know that most massacres of our people, your troops only killed women and children? Oh, and they received the MEDAL of HONOR for such atrosities? Today, we are still fighting for our rights as free nations, sovereign entities and nations within the US. Yet, you wear my face on your shirt or uniform, to HONOR ME!
You want to honor me! Tell the truth in your history books! Tell the truth about the genocide of 50-80 million tribal members and by the time the US government was done, there were only 800 thousand of us left. Did you know that Hitler himself copied the US interactions with Native tribes. Yes, that's what he did with the Jews! Horrible! That's why Hitler in a speech actually said he was confused as to why the US was upset, when he was only doing what they did to the indigenous people of America.
How about the term Redskin! This term came from the fact that our SKIN was sold on the fur market! Like an animal!!!! Like an Animal! So yes, the term redskin bothers me'
How come you don't have the Irish Savages? Scottish Bluebloods? God forbid you make a black person a mascot, the NAACP would be all over that.
The problem is, you just don't know us, our history, or anything. Until you do, go to that great big library and learn the truth.
By the way. There is a difference between the soldiers that killed native Americans and those Germans that killed the Jews in world war II. The Germans were war criminals! The soldiers were American heroes!
So do me a favor! Don't honor me, until you know me! Until you know the entire truth! Our people are survivors of the holocaust of north america.
So do us all a favor and comment only on those things you MIGHT know something about.
God Bless. God Bless America. By the way. Natives have more people per capita serving in the armed forces than any race in america. Because this is our homelands and the blood and bones of our people are here!
xoxo
<333
These are all pretty obviously distraction techniques and are all done in a mocking, condescending tone. Neff, don't bother writing about something if you have literally nothing constructive to say.
The level of dialogue has been raised, everyone!
Taken from
http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com/2012/02/fighting-sioux-part-2-science.html
in discussion of the paper "Of Warrior Chiefs and Indian Princesses: The Psychological
Consequences of American Indian Mascots" which can be read in full here:
http://psych.stanford.edu/~mcslab/PublicationPDFs/Of%20warrior%20chiefs%20and%20Indian%20princesses.pdf
The author of the blog above has also written about "Savage That" and has responded to the Review's commentary. I recommend reading it here:
http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com/2012/04/midweek-motivation-savage-that-awesome.html
The Stanford researchers mentioned above specifically included an achievement-related social representation (from the American Indian College Fund) in Study 4. In study 4, students were primed with an image and then asked to generate four possible selves (“…4 ways of describing yourself that will probably be true of you next year”). The primes included Chief Wahoo, Chief Illiniwek, the Haskell Indian, and an advertisement from the American Indian College Fund (AICF).
“Chief Wahoo is a cartoon caricature representing the Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball team, Chief Illiniwek is a European American dressed in American Indian regalia representing the University of Illinois, and the Haskell Indian is an historical American Indian image representing Haskell Indian Nations University. The [AICF] advertisement depicts an attractive young American Indian woman with long dark hair standing in front of microscopes representing the [AICF]. The caption on the advertisement reads, ‘Have you ever seen a real Indian?’”
Results:
All three of the mascots depressed the proportion of achievement-related possible selves generated. All three mascots also depressed the proportion of achievement-related possible selves generated relative to the AICF prime. The control condition and the AICF condition were not distinguishable. The three mascots were also not distinguishable.
We can conclude that Indian mascots of any sort have harmful psychological consequences for American Indians. I predict that black students primed with an image of Dr. Tyson would have similar results as American Indian students primed with the AICF ad – no difference from the control group.