Psychologists Join War Against Racist Campus Mascots

Imagine, if you will, a tall, thin Black man, dressed in Hollywood-inspired African warrior attire, bearing a scowling countenance, and brandishing a spear. Now imagine this character being used as the mascot of a college sports team -- the Blackskins. At half time, a White cheerleader dressed in full costume and Blackface, might portray a Blackskin and run up and down the sidelines high-stepping in a mock African war dance. His antics are imitated by spectators in the stands who stab at the air with their crudely fashioned lances, growling and screaming like fierce animals. Then, imagine all of this is broadcast weekly to a nationwide television audience.

Are you feeling offended yet?

Sadly, for Native Americans across the country, there is nothing imaginary about this indignation. Today, scores of public and private colleges and universities still use Indian mascots and symbols for their sports teams. While a handful of universities, such as Stanford, Marquette, Eastern Michigan, Miami of Ohio, and Dartmouth, have dropped their Indian mascots in recent years, these institutions are the exception.

The decade-long struggle to remove Indian sports mascots from college campuses and professional sports received a boost recently from the psychology department at the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, which hosted a national conference on the topic in April. By a vote of 33-5, the conference joined a long list of individuals, associations, and academic departments nationwide who are calling for the removal of Native Americans as mascots.

What's significant about the UIUC department's position, says chairman Dr. Ed Shoben, is that it's in line with the majority of faculty at the university.

"The majority of the faculty believe that the use of [Chief Illiniwek] is both offensive and inappropriate," he says. Illiniwek, a fictional chief of the Illinois people, is the University's mascot.