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Unpacking the Mascot Debate: Native American Identification Predicts Opposition to Native Mascots

Unpacking the Mascot Debate: Native American Identification Predicts Opposition to Native Mascots While major organizations representing Native Americans (e.g., National Congress of American Indians) contend that Native mascots are stereotypical and dehumanizing, sports teams with Native mascots cite polls claiming their mascots are not offensive to Native people. We conducted a large-scale, empirical study to provide a valid and generalizable understanding of Native Americans’ (N = 1,021) attitudes toward Native mascots. Building on the identity centrality literature, we examined how multiple aspects of Native identification uniquely shaped attitudes toward mascots. While Native Americans in our sample generally opposed Native mascots, especially the Redskins, attitudes varied according to demographic characteristics (e.g., age, political orientation, education) and the strength of participants’ racial–ethnic identification. Specifically, stronger Native identification (behavioral engagement and identity centrality) predicted greater opposition. Results highlight the importance of considering the unique and multifaceted aspects of identity, particularly when seeking to understand Native people’s attitudes and experiences. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Social Psychological and Personality Science SAGE

Unpacking the Mascot Debate: Native American Identification Predicts Opposition to Native Mascots

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References (53)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020
ISSN
1948-5506
eISSN
1948-5514
DOI
10.1177/1948550619898556
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

While major organizations representing Native Americans (e.g., National Congress of American Indians) contend that Native mascots are stereotypical and dehumanizing, sports teams with Native mascots cite polls claiming their mascots are not offensive to Native people. We conducted a large-scale, empirical study to provide a valid and generalizable understanding of Native Americans’ (N = 1,021) attitudes toward Native mascots. Building on the identity centrality literature, we examined how multiple aspects of Native identification uniquely shaped attitudes toward mascots. While Native Americans in our sample generally opposed Native mascots, especially the Redskins, attitudes varied according to demographic characteristics (e.g., age, political orientation, education) and the strength of participants’ racial–ethnic identification. Specifically, stronger Native identification (behavioral engagement and identity centrality) predicted greater opposition. Results highlight the importance of considering the unique and multifaceted aspects of identity, particularly when seeking to understand Native people’s attitudes and experiences.

Journal

Social Psychological and Personality ScienceSAGE

Published: Jan 1, 2021

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