Crimes Against Humanity

Ward Churchill is talking about the names that certain athletic teams have that target Native Americans. Churchill thinks that these names are victimizing and offensive to the Native American people and it should be chandged. I don't know if I agree with him or not because I would really like to know from the Native American point of view if they feel directly tagreted or not. One of my teachers last year is Native American and she wasn't offended by the names. We actually had a discussion about it and she said it was something that didn't bother her or her family. i think that the examples that Churchill used were more extreme then the situation at hand because he was being more extreme in the names he was using and the actions that he said. He used the example of making a team that targeted African Americans, "The players could appear on TV every week or so gnawning on chicken legs and spitting watermelon seeds at one another" (538). Its not like the players fromthe teams go on TV and dance around in circles doing raindances and chanting trying to make fun of the Native American people and culture. I also wonder what when the names of the teams were being established what the intention was. If the people that were making up the names of the teams were like hmm lets name our team the Indians because we don't like them and we want to insult them or if they were like Indians are neat and it would be an honor for them if we named our team after them. This is a point that Churchill makes but he says that the people who say, "As well as university and public school officials, to announce that they mean not to insult but to honor native people" (537) aren't really being sincere and don't realize the impact that these names are making on the people. I do understand how they can feel like they are looked at as a symbol and not as an actual group of people with this amazing cultural background. They may think that since we have named our teams after them we are not trying to honor them but we are actually now comparing them to a football team and a bunch of sweaty jocks. When someone asks how are the Redskins doing people will respond with football stats and not the actual people. Also this is a derogatory term and it could be taken as an insult to some people. He thinks that the names that we use contribute to the ridicule of the native Americans. "Each competing with the next to make Indians appear more grotesque, menacing, and inhuman" (540). "Plainly, the European American public was being conditioned to see Indians in such a way as to allow their eradication to continue" (540). The names of the teams definatly aren't helping them since they already feel targeted in our society. He brings up the point about assimilation. In other words they have to conform to the dominate cultutre in order to servive. I know this to be true but only with Native Americans but this happens wtih other groups that are targeted. The only difference is that Native Americans have the wide spread controversy over the names of these teams which is very widely known and not helping them but its actually putting them down. It is thus of obvious importance that the American public begin to think about the implications of such things the next time they witness a gaggle of face-painted and war-bonneted buffoons doing the Tomahawk Chop at a baseball or footbal game" (543). I think that when people do this they are over looking the meaning of it and they are just doing it in spirit of the game and they aren't consciously thinking I am putting down Native Americans right now by doing this. But subconsciously they might feel that natives are inferior because what we are doing to them by saying this chat or using their names for our teams and they have no control over it.