Washington Post photo of a protest against Native American mascots (photo: John McDonnell/Washington Post)
“New Poll Finds 9 in 10 Native Americans Aren’t Offended by Redskins Name” was a front-page story in the Washington Post (5/19/16), based on a poll the paper conducted “over a five-month period ending in April.” Thing No. 1 the team’s hometown paper had to say:
The results—immediately celebrated by team owner Daniel Snyder and denounced by prominent Native American leaders—could make it that much harder for anti-name activists to pressure Redskins officials, who are already using the poll as further justification to retain the moniker.
It’s naturally worth listening to a range of Native American people, but that happens so rarely in media that an instance like this merits some scrutiny. For some, the word to describe these results would not be the one the Post chose—”unambiguous.”
Jaqueline Keeler noted in The Nation (5/25/16) that more than half of respondents were over 50, when Native Americans have a median age of 26—or some 10 years younger than the general US population. The Post says they weighted the results numerically, but those were still the comments reflected in the report. No respondents were under 18, and that might be justified methodologically—you need to follow certain protocols to interview minors—but it does leave a hole in the data’s meaning, given that it leaves out the Native American students attending the 2,000 high schools in the US that use Native Americans as mascots, and that the White House has reported face discrimination connected to it.
As the Center for American Progress wrote in a summary of what’s known about the impact of Native American school mascots:
Research shows that these team names and mascots can establish an unwelcome and hostile learning environment for AI/AN students. It also reveals that the presence of AI/AN mascots directly results in lower self-esteem and mental health for AI/AN adolescents and young adults. And just as importantly, studies show that these mascots undermine the educational experience of all students, particularly those with little or no contact with indigenous and AI/AN people.
The Post says “it’s entirely appropriate for a news organization to conduct a survey to test any assertions made about the breadth and depth of offense among Native Americans. This is customary for any other public policy issue.” That sounds reasonable. But the paper would have to have a record of actually listening to those communities to make it sound convincing.
Janine Jackson is FAIR’s program director and the producer and host of CounterSpin.
WASHINGTON POST
“entirely appropriate for a news
organization to conduct a survey”
But surely, what is appropriate for Empire USA, a rich man’s paradise where High Society owns 75% of the wealth and 100% of mainstream media, for an absolute it would in no way be appropriate in a true democracy.
TRUE DEMOCRACY
Democracy is a moral society, not a form of government. For a moral democracy protects people from the corrupting influence of wealth, as the greater your wealth, the greater must be your desire to kill to protect wealth. For the greater your wealth, the greater must be your desire to go to war against any weaker nation that is not acting in the best interest of your wealth.
For a true democracy is the reverse of Western democracy, for since the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, in each and every Western democracy, the educated upper half of society has owned all of the land and wealth.