July 10, 2023

America’s never-ending quest for inclusion has now turned its attention to supposedly offensive school nicknames and mascots. Native American names are a particular target of this ire—Braves, Warriors, Chiefs together with individual tribes such as the Seminoles or the Illini.

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The latest installment of this “anti-hate” push has occurred in  New York State where these purportedly offensive names, logos, and mascots were banned in public schools as of April of 2023, or schools will lose state funding. As of March 2022, 133 New York schools had such Indian names  and New York is hardly alone in exorcising allegedly hateful stereotypes. According to one Native American organization, some 1900 US schools use Native American-themed names, while nine states have officially banned them,

Colleges have similarly been a battleground over allegedly offensive Native American names and logos. Some twenty-five have formally dropped their Indian names,  In some instances schools heeded pressure and removed all references to Native American symbols. Elsewhere, Indian tribes permitted schools to retain the name, while in yet other instances schools initially avoided calls for dropping Indian names since there were no Indians to complain. This trend also includes professional sports teams such as the former Cleveland Indians who became the Cleveland Guardians.

Although the scrubbing of Native-American names has been widely opposed by parents and students at targeted schools, both educators and Indian organizations offer apparently compelling justifications. Richard Mills, a former New York State Education Commissioner asserted that the mascots “can become a barrier to building a safe and nurturing school community and
improving academic achievement for all students.” When the American Psychological Association officially opposed these names in 2005, it based its opposition on a review of 26 studies asserting that this stereotypical naming has a negative impact on the mental health of Native Americans.

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This debate has little to do with helping Indians and everything to do with the Left’s effort to feminize society or, conversely, suppress masculine virtues, Native Americans are just politically useful in this campaign where little boys attend shows featuring drag queens and visit the school library to read sexually explicit books featuring masculine girls and effeminate boys. 

It is also a war in which social science is enlisted to support a politically correct message. To understand the dishonesty, begin with the grim pathologies afflicting Native Americans. For one,  the average life expectancy of an American Indian is 44 years and they disproportionally suffer from  cirrhosis, diabetes, and chronic lower respiratory diseases. Alcoholism is rampant — nearly a quarter report monthly binge drinking, and under-age drinking is higher than any other ethnic/racial group. Not unexpectedly, Native Americans had the highest poverty rate of all ethnic/racial groups.  The homicide rate was nearly two and half times that of whites.  According to the Census, 25.4% were classified as below the poverty line compared to 20.8% of blacks and 8.1% of whites, As if that were insufficient, they suffer disproportionately from mental illness,

How do these nicknames contribute to these dreadful pathologies?  Did groups of Navajos watch the NFL on TV, see the Washington Redskins’ logo, and then get drunk and squander all their money?  Disentangling the source of these pathologies would be a Herculean scientific task and it is doubtful that contemporary nicknames and mascots would explain much.

But, if one were to scan the psychological studies that  justify eliminating offensive names, one would find zero effort to assess the impact of these names and symbols on the pathologies, Instead, one reads countless studies “demonstrating” that when a handful of subjects were shown various pictures of Indians, these subjects were more likely to embrace “hurtful” stereotypes of Indians (for example, see here), Hardly accidental given reality: Indians have a deserved reputation for war-like behavior This is bait and switch, and conveniently avoids the real research question, the precise role of current views of Indians and their pathologies, many of which long pre-date school nicknames.

This devious stratagem becomes even clearer if one examines the context of Native  American names, In every single instance they are used to signify the warrior spirit, the virtues of strength, fortitude, willingness to fight and die for a just cause, and courage, Nearly all Native Americans were famous for these traits, and peaceful tribes like Zuni, don’t make the menu of nicknames and mascots, These were often terrifying people,  and the US Cavalry respected their courage and audacity,

Soldiers always try to intimidate enemies, so it is no wonder that a football team such as the Washington Reskins previously pictured a stone-faced warrior on their helmets.