Kansas City Chiefs Research Paper

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In the past few years, the controversy over Native American and other racial sport names or mascots have become an uproar. The main sport teams that are being targeted due to controversial mascots are programs having names dealing with Native Americans. Many teams are well known programs such as the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, and the Washington Redskins. The Redskins are receiving the most heat from racial groups. According to Erik Brady of USA Today “The volatility surrounding such names has amped up in the year since Daniel Snyder, owner of Washington's NFL club, told USA TODAY Sports that he'd never change his team's name: ‘NEVER — you can use caps.’” (3). However, professional teams are not the only teams receiving negative remarks, …show more content…

Joel Thorman of Arrowhead Pride states, “There’s really no argument that the name Chiefs is offensive. The same goes for Braves and even Indians (Thorman).” The main difference between the name ‘Chiefs’ and ‘Redskins’ is that ‘Chiefs’ is not considered to be slang directed towards Native Americans, while ‘Redskins’ is considered a racial term. Plus, the Chiefs have been silent on the issue and probably will stay silent till the the whole debate dies down. Even if the Chiefs do make a stand against groups wanting franchises to change their names, the team will have support from almost the entire organization’s fans. Therefore, athletic teams with controversial mascots and symbols should not have to change their names. The University of Mississippi’s mascot was the Colonel Reb, named and dressed after old plantation owners of the south during the Civil War. The university used several symbols that were meant to represent heritage, but are now considered racial towards African Americans. The use of these racial symbols caused and is still causing a huge controversy between the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the African American athletes and fans of the university. According to an article written in The New York Times Robbie Brown

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