ANTH 23 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: American Imperialism, Tommie Smith, 1968 Olympics Black Power Salute
24 January Wednesday
ANTH 23
Representation in Sports!
Why do sports and its symbols matter?
•Artificial communities that cut across racial, ethnic, and economic bounds.!
•College and high school represent formative times in peoples lives and sports’ allegiances
are important parts of peoples’ identity so develop strong feelings in regard to sports.!
•But presence misappropriation of native symbols, erasure of actual Indians, and presence of
Black athletes performing for Whites symbolizes American imperialism.!
-Allegiance to sports teams can serve a purpose to multinational cultures, people of lots of
backgrounds come together to celebrate. It’s a way to tie people together. These mascots
are generally tied to high schools or colleges and so resonate with people more and so
these symbols are associated with those feelings, or a way of looking back at these
conquered people to feel empowered themselves. It also shows an idea of Native
Americans who are impoverished and disadvantaged but this reinforces an image of them
that people find more comfortable as it doesn’t remind them of their fall.
When considering whether a mascot can be considered offensive it is important to
consider:
•Presence or absence of stereotypes!
•Context (history, who is representing whom, etc.) !
•Power differentials!
Why so many Native American mascots?
1. Generally not just in states where there is a larger native population. Due to American
history, these are locations which were previous Indian territory, and a wars were won for
the land was taken from them by white settlers. !
2. It represents “winning” against them, this win is celebrated by them by their use of mascots
and such. !
3. Glorifies the great past nation that fell to the American settlers. !
4. Serves to rationalize the fact that they are marginalized, as if their legacy is in the past and
not in the present which is a reminder of their current situation.!
Redskins:
•Native American bounty for Native Americans were called “redskin”.!
•A Navajo school in Arizona used it as a mascot. !
•To many the whole issue of mascots and symbols are not as big of an issue as the economic
and life conditions of the Native Americans to them. !
Colonial “regimes of naming”
•power to name!
•to mimic!
• and to tell a story from one’s perspective (163)!
•Creating Indian mascots is a modern legacy of these colonial powers. !
-The names are given by white conquers, who demonize them as savages who want to kill
their people or as a noble heritage from the ancient world. The problem with these are
there is no agency from the Native Americans, do not take into consideration their stories.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Black athletes performing for whites symbolizes american imperialism. Allegiance to sports teams can serve a purpose to multinational cultures, people of lots of backgrounds come together to celebrate. These mascots are generally tied to high schools or colleges and so resonate with people more and so these symbols are associated with those feelings, or a way of looking back at these conquered people to feel empowered themselves. Americans who are impoverished and disadvantaged but this reinforces an image of them that people nd more comfortable as it doesn"t remind them of their fall. When considering whether a mascot can be considered o ensive it is important to consider: presence or absence of stereotypes, context (history, who is representing whom, etc. , power di erentials. Why so many native american mascots: generally not just in states where there is a larger native population.
