Overview
Sports mascots have been a tradition for decades. Along with the usual lions and tigers, many schools are represented by Native American images. Once considered a benign practice, numerous studies have proved just the opposite: that the use of Native American mascots in educational institutions has perpetuated a shameful history of racial insensitivity. The Native American Mascot Controversy provides an overview of the issues that have been associated with this topic for the past 40 years.The book provides a comprehensive and critical account of the issues surrounding the controversy, explicating the importance of anti-Indian racism in education and how it might be challenged. A collection of important primary documents and an extensive list of resources for further study are also included. Expounding the dangers and damages associated with their continued use, The Native American Mascot Controversy is a useful guide for anyone with an interest in race relations.
Synopsis
Sports mascots have been a tradition for decades. Along with the usual lions and tigers, many schools are represented by Native American images. Once considered a benign practice, numerous studies have proved just the opposite: that the use of Native American mascots in educational institutions has perpetuated a shameful history of racial insensitivity. The Native American Mascot Controversy provides an overview of the issues that have been associated with this topic for the past 40 years.The book provides a comprehensive and critical account of the issues surrounding the controversy, explicating the importance of anti-Indian racism in education and how it might be challenged. A collection of important primary documents and an extensive list of resources for further study are also included. Expounding the dangers and damages associated with their continued use, The Native American Mascot Controversy is a useful guide for anyone with an interest in race relations.
Editorials
Library Journal
Blaxploitation films were an outgrowth of the racial and political upheavals of the 1960s and offered black actors exposure they had not previously enjoyed. The first successful film in the cycle is generally considered to have been Melvin Van Peebles's Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song(1971). Walker (ed., BadAzz MoFo magazine), Andrew J. Rausch (Making Movies with Orson Welles), and director Chris Watson collect variably enlightening interviews with 22 participants in the blaxploitation era, a few now deceased. Both trained actors (e.g., William Marshall, Glynn Turman) and charismatic sports figures like Jim Brown and Fred Williamson starred in these often-superviolent movies, while white directors like Ralph Bakshi and Larry Cohen were frequently at the helm. Only a single woman, Gloria Hendry, is included. (See Stephane Dunn's "Baad Bitches" and Sassy Supermamas for more on female characters in blaxploitation films.) Given the relative paucity of writings on these films, any additional source is worthwhile. Although there's not complete agreement on what should be considered part of this briefly popular subgenre, the lengthy filmography here should prove useful. Recommended for cinema collections.
—Roy Liebman