wfn.org | People of color urged to join fight against offensive mascots

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sept. 25, 2002 News media contact: M. Garlinda
Burton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.  10-21-31-34-71BP{429}

NOTE: For related coverage of the United Methodist Commission on Religion
and Race, see UMNS story #430. A photograph is available.

By M. Garlinda Burton*

WAVELAND, Miss. (UMNS) - Native Americans on the racial justice agency of
the United Methodist Church have invited members of other racial advocacy
groups - including the church's ethnic minority caucuses - to join their
fight against the use of offensive stereotypes, images and names for U.S.
sports teams.

A panel of Native Americans, addressing the annual Commission on Religion
and Race meeting Sept. 21, vowed to engage secular and church racial
advocacy groups in efforts to stop the use of team names, mascots and other
images by such teams as the Washington Redskins and the Atlanta Braves.

In turn, commission members representing the four other United Methodist
ethnic minority caucuses - black American, Hispanic, Asian and Pacific
Islanders - agreed to lobby their memberships to address the mascot issue,
and began planning an inter-ethnic caucus to address mutual social and moral
concerns.

The anti-mascot effort has gained momentum in recent years, says the Rev.
Ken Deere, a Muskogee pastor and executive with the Commission on Religion
and Race. Deere was one of five Native Americans who discussed the personal
and societal affects of the "racist, demeaning portrayal of our people." 

Native Americans, he said, are the "landlords of this nation," yet are
"invisible" to most of U.S. society except for stereotype logos during
weekend sportscasts. 

Gary Metoxen Sr., an Oneida layman from DePere, Wis., said flatly: "I have
endured racism and stereotypes all my life, and it is time to end it. If we
have teams called the 'pale-faces' or the 'black-skins,' we wouldn't stand
for it."

"When we challenge the mascots, we are told that we are interfering with
'tradition,' but I would ask you to consider whose tradition is being
affected," Suanne Ware-Diaz, Los Angeles laywoman and a Kiowa, told the
racial justice commission.

She and other panel members said that the use of such images and names by
sports teams - national and local - have historically wrecked havoc on the
self-respect of Native Americans. Further, they said, it fosters racism
against Native Americans today, and the young people especially are
negatively affected. Ware-Diaz cited statistics that suicide and drug use
among Native American youth are as much as 17 times the U.S. national
average. Deere also reflected on the use of alcohol and drugs - "or if they
can't afford it, sniffing gasoline fumes" - as a way for "Indian kids to
escape a society that demeans them."

The Rev. Marion Moore-Colgan, a Mohawk from Poultney, Vt., said Native
American children in her community often had been invited to wear native
clothing and dance for special events. However, when the youth began raising
concerns about their education and culture, and wanted to discuss their
academic development, "the invitations stopped coming."

Geneva Foote, a retired teacher and Kiowa from Sapulpa, Okla., told about
taking tribal clothing to school for a lesson on local Native American
history. "The only response I got from the students and teachers was a war
whoop someone yelled behind my back as I finished my presentation," she
said. "I decided then not to bring my clothing and things back to the school
until there was an effort to teach respect for Native American people."

In response, several non-Native American members of the commission agreed
that the issue of derogatory portrayals should be of concern - and cause for
action by the entire church. The Rev. Jacob Williams, an African-American
pastor from Lafayette, Ind., urged the commission to call on all United
Methodist ethnic caucus to put the Native American mascot issue on their
agendas. James Salley, an African-American layman from Nashville, Tenn.,
agreed to contact the NAACP.

"This is not just your issue," Williams said, while expressing appreciation
to the panel. "This is a justice issue for the whole church."

During the 2000 General Conference, the international United Methodist
legislative assembly, Native American church members staged public
demonstrations denouncing the name, logo and mascot (Chief Wahoo) of the
Cleveland Indians baseball team. Meeting in Cleveland at the time, General
Conference delegates passed a resolution opposing the use of "offensive
racist logos" and calling for advocacy and dialogue with sports groups. 

Since then, Native American United Methodists - who account for almost
20,000 of the denomination's 10 million members worldwide - have urged
church groups to avoid holding churchwide meetings in cities where major
league teams use Native American names, stereotypes or mascots. Last year,
the Commission on Religion and Race gave a $10,000 grant to an Illinois
group seeking to eliminate Chief Illiniwek as a symbol of the sports program
at the University of Illinois at Champaign.

In other action, the Commission on Religion and Race agreed to ask President
George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress for an official policy and full redress
for people affected by nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands and in
Micronesia. This comes in response to a 2000 General Conference resolution
of support for this effort. In addition, the denomination's Western
Jurisdiction and Asia and Pacific Islander caucuses urged the racial justice
commission to write the president and Congress.

The commission also:
7	Approved a request to denominational funding sources for a 200
percent increase in its budget for 2005-2008, most of which would be used
for grants to local and regional racism and racial empowerment ministries.
The $18 million request must be approved by the denomination's financial
agency and the 2004 General Conference. Although seemingly large, it
represents "the first increase, in terms of real dollars, in the agency's
Minority Grant Self-Determination Fund in nearly 20 years," reported agency
treasurer James Taylor.
7	Approved in principle a proposed resolution, "In Defense of
Refugees," to strengthen the denomination's official call for justice,
Christian welcome and support for "the refugee, immigrant and undocumented"
people, and calling the church to counter anti-immigrant racism and
persecution. 
7	Noted a 4.32 percent decrease in the number of racial and ethnic
minority employees at churchwide agencies.

The Commission on Religion and Race is one of 14 churchwide program and
administrative agencies of the 10 million-member United Methodist Church.
Its duties include monitoring church agencies for racial justice and
inclusiveness, and keeping before the church the issues of racial-cultural
injustice facing the larger society.

# # #

*Burton is director of United Methodist News Service.

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United Methodist News Service
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