HOW TO DEAL WITH SCANDAL 3

Academic publications are one of the most important weapons to attack companies.

To demand that the Washington Redskins organization change the name, various publications have been presented as investigations. That publications attempt to demonstrate the harm caused by the use of the Redskins logo and mascot. And in general the use of any image related to Native Americans.

These publications have no scientific merit. But as they accumulate, they support each other. And above all, there are no similar publications by the attacked companies.

In previous posts, we pointed to the testimony of Native Americans who, when asked if the Redskins logo offends them, clearly answered no. Even several hundred have organized to demand that the logo and team name not be removed.

They already lost. The team will change its name. Its opinion will not be taken into account.

Why an opinion defines the agenda of a company is a very important matter.

Here I review the text presented as evidence to attack the Washington Redskins organization.

It is titled “The Psychosocial Effects of Native American Pets: A Review of the Empirical Evidence.” It was published this year 2020 in May.

This text is a summary of others. Others who through questionnaires have tried to show that students who are in contact with pets with Native American motives become infected with racism against Native Americans. If you go to a high school or university that has a mascot with Native American images, you will feel that Native Americans are poor, wild, primitive. That is the thesis.

The text begins by stating that Native American students suffer micro-assaults, racism, stereotypes, cultural insensitivity, delegitimization, in addition to the fact that the History subjects they are taught offer content, the study declares, that encourages all these evils.

Then, the text makes a summary of other texts published by institutes or universities that have tried to support the same thesis.

2008: a survey of 71 Native American students. Movies with Native American characters, Pocahontas, Dances with wolves, and others that presented a more negative image of them were shown to them. They were asked to answer a self-esteem questionnaire. Responses indicated that after watching those movies, Native Americans had lower self-esteem. As this text is only a summary of others, no more details of the films or the questionnaire are given.

2011: In another experience, 33 Native Americans were shown slides with neutral and negative images about Native Americans. Subjects reported feeling angry and sad after viewing the images.

Then the text points to studies on subjects who are not Native Americans.

All experiences indicate that seeing images of Native American pets saddens Native Americans, and causes racist feelings in others.

This is in contrast to the testimony of Native Americans who claim not to be offended or humiliated by the same films and images.

But, the texts are there. Accumulating little by little.