"No right-wing GOP chubby-belly apologist would dare attempt to persuade civil rights activist Al Sharpton into believing that black-faced caricatures of young African Americans, clad in ripped overalls and Afros, are not disrespectful.

“Wait a minute, Al. You’ve got it all wrong! We’re honoring you.”

No. If this sort of affront took place, the party would be instantly lambasted on CNN and MSNBC, and anti-discrimination organizations like the NAACP and the ACLU would slap the party so hard with racist accusations and lawsuits that even the Romneys and Bushes of the world would flee the GOP like a sinking cruise vessel in the Mediterranean.

Yet it was recently that a high school principal in Colorado attempted to persuade an American Indian mother that a stereotypical cartoon of a shirtless Indian boy sporting a loincloth and gripping a spear is not offensive—that he and his school are honoring Indian peoples with their caustic caricature. His curt comments were in response to the concerns of a Denver parent who questions the use of the school’s mascot, which she argues is distasteful and offensive."

Get the Story:
Simon Moya-Smith: First Nations Continue to Be Savaged and Ravaged by Mascots (Indian Country Today 6/3)