The Scrutiny of an Often Overlooked Social Injustice Towards Native Americans

In 2013, President Barack Obama made the following statement: "If I were the owner of [a] team and I knew that the name of my team, even if they've had a storied history, was offending a sizeable group of people, I'd think about changing it." (Smith.) Jack Shakely, writer for the LA Times, argues this very point in his 2011 editorial "Indian mascots - you're out." Shakely argues that both the depictions of Native Americans as mascots for sports teams and also the use of Native American related names for those teams is unnecessary, immoral, and in plain bad taste.

He creates this argument by first giving a predictable nod to his Native American heritage in order to establish ethos and continues the piece by relying almost entirely on shamelessly saturating his writing with pathos, using emotion-surfacing phrases and references to family and sensitivities between ethnicities. He then pieces it all together with logos, giving the reader the strong evidence that is needed. While his virtually over-the-top descriptions aren't very tactful, they also aren't entirely unsuccessful, as by the end of the article, I found myself in agreement with the points he'd made and asking myself why this injustice for Native Americans hadn't been resolved already.

Shakely's obvious use of pathos throughout his article is constant, clear-cut, and immediate. He first describes his experience as a child who inadvertently betrays his own mother by insulting their shared heritage with a paltry Cleveland Indians baseball cap. He describes the Chief Wahoo logo depicted there as a "leering, big-nosed, buck-toothed redskin caricature" and then goes on to recount the look of betrayal in his mother's eyes he observed because of it, a look that was "seared in [his] memory forever."

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Subtler are his applications of logos and ethos. Logos makes its debut when Shakely describes how "legislators in North Dakota [struggled] over whether the University of North Dakota should be forced to change its team name and mascot from the Fighting Sioux.' Ethos is apparent at the start of his writing when he promptly proclaims his mixed blood Muscogee/Creek heritage and continues as he includes the example "when Stanford University changed from the Indians to the Cardinal in 1972." After citing big names like the LA Times, Sports Illustrated, and the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media, ethos makes one final reappearance towards the somewhat abrupt ending when he closes his argument with a simple, but meaningful, "It is the right thing to do."

It would be incorrect to say that Shakely's use of ethos is unfounded; however, he is the former chairman of the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission and President Emeritus of the California Community Foundation. Considering these accomplishments and the fact that he has written a historical novel centered around the Civil War in Indian Territory coupled with his fourth-generation heritage, it would be difficult to argue that he is at all unqualified to examine this issue. His credibility as a writer is highlighted even further when he includes the counterargument that changing a team name and/or mascot can be very difficult and expensive, not only in physical dollars but it is also taxing on school spirit and reputation, as Stanford experienced after transforming from the Indians to the Cardinals.

Shakely's style is characterized by his colorful use of vocabulary and similes. His simile usage when describing the idea of a team being forced to change its team name and mascot as being "an irritant, like a long-forgotten piece of shrapnel working its way to the surface" is successful, and even more so when he declares that issues regarding sports teams and their ethnic mascots are "treated like tempests in a teacup." Even more lucrative to his piece were the words he used in order to garnish his emotional appeals. He chose phrases like "leering... caricatures," and "seared in my memory forever," scattering them throughout the work in an effective way, and towards the end even throws in a jolting comparison to racist teams of the past, including the Atlanta Black Crackers, which ends the piece on a strong and triumphant note.

That final comparison, his other powerful uses of emotion and logic from his ethical standpoint, and a hearty liberal predisposition have led me to agree with Shakely's contention that there is no need for the use of Native American Indian themed mascots or team names, whether in professional teams or small high school teams. Even more than that, it is clear that any consequences that result of changing said mascot or name are well worth the trouble. The value of having a Native American mascot is dropping by about $1.6 million per year. (Lewis.) The consequences of making these changes to a team may seem big now, but the longer this injustice advances, the worse it will be for those on the teams, cheering for the teams, and for every Native American watching from the sidelines.

Works Cited

1. Lewis, Mike. "Native American Mascots in Sports." Sports Analytics Research from Mike Lewis.
2. 8 July 2015, https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/esma/hot-topics/native-american-mascots-in-sports/. Web. 22 Sept. 2016.
3. Shakely, Jack. "Indian Mascots - You're out." Los Angeles Times - California, National and World News - Latimes.com. N.p., 25 Aug. 2011,
4. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/25/opinion/la-oe-shakely-teams-20110825. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
5. Smith, David. "Obama backs effort to remove Native American mascots from sports teams." The
6. 5 Nov. 2015, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/. 25 Sept. 2016.

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