- You make this any other racial group,
where you do a ridiculous caricature like that,
people get it right away, "Oh, that's racist."
But for some reason, when they see this one,
everyone's like, "Well, yeah, that's our team."
(upbeat music)
- I was a band geek in high school,
so, I'm not really familiar.
I know of it.
- I've watched a fair amount of ESPN SportsCenter in my day.
- I don't think it's very historically accurate.
- Don't understand why we need to be a mascot.
- Native American people don't look like this.
- I don't understand what the hair is.
- He looks nice, yeah, he looks really kind.
- That looks like a child did it.
- They don't do this with anyone else
but animals and Native Americans.
- It bothers me that, like, one of the symbols
that people recognize about our people
is a weapon.
- This is this weird, outdated view
of what it means to be native.
- We only brought those out in defense
of ourselves, our land, our people.
- Like, you see the Atlanta games,
and they're doing the (vocalizing)
(laughing)
- Perpetuates one very specific and very outdated image.
- Oh, the Redskins.
- This is a dictionary defined racial slur.
- Literally painted him red.
- And they have eagle feathers on here,
and those are very sacred to a lot of tribes.
- I can't imagine any other race
where that would be considered acceptable.
- It's having a team named after a racial slur.
- People say, "Yeah, but we have such a strong history
"with the Washington Redskins."
We kind of have a history, too, it kinda predates that.
- It makes me want to cry.
- I don't even know where to begin.
- He looks like Mr. Burns, kind of.
(laughter)
- And he's completely red, are you kidding me?
- That's the color of a fire truck.
- He looks like the Indian guy
who's about to sneak into camp and steal your horses.
- This is another one that really depersonalizes our people.
- The fact that a people group is your mascot,
like, that's just not okay.
- It's just weird, because then everybody shows up
acting like a stereotypical version of that race.
They're really not trying to be mean in any way,
it's still contributing to the fact
that people are supporting this team looking like this.
- When I look at those pictures,
it just, it breaks my heart.
- We don't need to have, like,
human beings represented as mascots.
- And they're like, "Nah, you don't know
what you're talking about."
- Well, a lot of them say they're just honoring us.
- I don't feel honored.
- I don't think it's honoring us in the least.
It's very hurtful.
- It's not always just about you and how you feel,
it's about the people who are involved,
it's about the people whose feelings
are being affected by this.