Today we watched a documentary that features Charlene Teters. The title of this documentary was “In Whose Honor” and it was about the mascot issue that Charlene had endure when she was at the University of Illinois. This film was a heavy topic and it made me feel bad watching it because of how the people, who did not understand why the mascot issue is a problem,treated Native Americans. My heart goes out to those that have had to go through things like this so that I might not of had to… even tho we have not completely made it to a point where racism is not extinct I can say that the activist work that others have done before has helped out. This documentary hits me because I have experienced the whole mascot controversy in my lifetime. In college I had a public speaking class and I presented this issue and I had to defend my argument more than any other student. It was mind blowing how many students commented saying that the mascot issue made no sense because it is not offensive… but how can something that makes me feel like nothing and feel this horrible… not be offensive?
Alexandra
nativeyouth2college.org 