A mural at the Tulare Union High School in California. The state has banned the use of "Redskins" at its public schools, the first in the United States to do so. Photo from Waymarking
Judith LeBlack, a member of the Caddo Nation who serves as director of the Native Organizers Alliance, wants to enjoy football season without all of the racial slurs:
Natives have been calling on sports teams to do away with the slur for 50 years, along with other mocking mascots and racist caricatures of Natives employed by teams of all kinds. Professional outfits should know better, but so should schools and communities. So I celebrated recently, along with much of Indian Country, when California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the California Racial Mascots Act into law. It banned the state’s public schools from using the R-word to name sports teams. Schools in four California counties will soon have to rebrand their buildings, logos, uniforms, and mascots. “We cannot change history or erase the past,” said Dahkota Kicking Bear Brown, president of Native Education Raising Dedicated Students. “But today, as Native students, we shall celebrate this step in the right direction of improving our educational experiences.” I agree. Now if we can just convince our nation’s leaders to do the same. My hope faded, though, when I heard Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush use the R-word not once, not twice, but three times during an interview in October. Then there’s GOP candidate Donald Trump, who proclaimed that Indians are “extremely proud” of the term. Wrong.Get the Story:
Judith LeBlanc: Racial slurs have no place in football (The Easton Star Democrat 11/13)
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