“In Whose Honor”? : “American Indian Mascots in Sports” by Amber
Amber’s response to watching the documentary “In Whose Honor” by Jay Rosenstein.
In Whose Honor?
The movie called “In Whose Honor?” It talks ’bout a young Native American woman, Charlene Teters, who protests ’bout American Indian mascots in Sports. She was offended when she saw the “Chief”, the mascot of Illinois University, preformed a weird dance in the crowd that wasn’t even…. An actual Peoria Tribe dance! She was offended and started to protest ’bout Native Americans are Human beings, not a mascot!! But… People started pulling on her hair and she was spit at for… Protesting ’bout the “Chief” mascot of Illinois University. She kept going! She was a really, really strong and confident you Native American woman! She said that these weird dances the University preforms in these sports n’ games…. Are NOT actual Native American dances! They were offensive to her and her people. Her and her people continue to protest ’bout the mascots they use and everything else that’s fake and that.. was really offensive to them. That movie… was intense! And that to me… made me angry! And I, too, am offended ’bout the… things they put up with Native Hawaiians! And that… offended me, too… I am proud of being Native Hawaiian, but… I wish I could do something like that for my family and my culture. It still offends me, today. I really wanna do something like that n’ protest ’bout these thing that offends us. I really do. Hey! I’ll be hated n’ spit at! I don’t care! I’ll fight back! Those who put me down! I’ll fight back! And those who’re reading this… Will understand of how, WE, Native Americans and Hawaiians, feel… For the things that OFFEND us. And I think today… They’re still doing that to Native Hawaiians as well. That movie “In Whose Honor?” was just amazing! That just touched me and my Native American side. I wish I was there, too. I am thankful for Charlene for what she did for her people and her culture. Thank you ever so much. (^w^) That just awakened my Native American spirit. 😉
for more information about this documentary go to:
Mascots
today in class Mr.Scott showed us a video about people overly using native cultures, We’ve noticed that they think their respecting our culture but in reality they were being racist to us. I have no threat against these people but I know that it is dishonorable. In the clip a married native woman named Charlene Teters came to the University of Illinois as a graduate, she stayed for awhile and never been to a game, so she took her children to a Illinois basketball game their mascot came as a white man in a Indian costume and dancing gymnastics, she and her children were very offended by this event. she started to revolt against the University but she never succeeded so she traveled to other universities that overly use Native culture and revolted against them as well, while she was continuing on this revolt she gained a couple of natives too. This clip really inspired me, I really want to know more about my Navaho, Apachi, and my Hawaiian side (I don’t know if I spelled it right lol) :3
~Jessica Chang~
Mascots
I was aware of the stereotypes mascots portrayed before watching “In Whose Honor?” but it hit me way harder to actually see it going on. I’m glad to see a Native American women fight for our rights to not have our tradition and history mocked by ignorant bystanders; All in all, it was very empowering and inspirational to my heart. I hope one day I can come close to making the impact on society that Charlene Teters has.
I can’t wait to go to college to learn more about this stuff!!!
“In Whose Honor? : American Indian Mascots Sports”
“In Whose Honor? : American Indian Mascots Sports” by Jay Rosenstein Featuring Charlene Teters (spokane) was a very heart-touching and shocking thing for me to see. I disliked how they treated her and how they pulled her hair, threw thing at her, spit on her, and called her names. I can see and feel how Charlene feels its so hurtful and i don’t think you could get over something so traumatizing like this. Although all this happened i liked how charlene stood up for what she believed in and took a strong stand not backing down. She even even got calls and death threats from people and her children sometimes had to face this problem with her. I also hated the people and their stereotypes because they weren’t true they were just all wrong and they think they know a little bit of knowledge because they’ve seem a movie or read a history book.
1). At What point did you think about giving up and stop what you were doing?
2). What kind of questions did your children ask you when you were going through the bad emotions and feelings?How did they feel?
“In Whose Honor”? : “American Indian Mascots in sports” by Jay Rosenstein
This movie was a tough thing to watch cause I know to this day there are still people out there that are, from my point of view, is that the are basically disrespecting our culture and I say “our” because there not picking with one particular tribe they are mess-in with all tribes and I’m happy that there are people out there as well that are supporting Indian culture but when I see someone who is going through pain such as having their hair pulled out because she sees something that needs to be fixed and watching this film truly broke my heart and in somewhat sickened in a way of almost feeling discarded to a point of realizing that we are living with people who despise Native Indians and its said in the movie “Indians are human beings NOT mascots”…
…enough said.
“In Whose Honor”
Today in class we watched a documentary called “In Whose Honor.” While watching I would say that there were some strong feelings brought up by the issues portrayed in the film. What I noticed about the people in favor of “The Chief” is that they were mostly ignorant of the topic at hand. There was a lack of understanding, but more than just lacking information, it was a lacking of empathy towards the people who are hurt by this showing of a fictitious Native Chief.
If ever I had to sum it up in a few words I’d say that racism through ignorance is still racism.
Now I have to ask, what did any of you feel about this movie? Did it bring up any anger, or perhaps any sadness? What do you feel about these people supporting “The Chief” and their arguments for keeping him?
There are no wrong answers, just how you feel.
In Whose Honor
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
In Whose Honor? :American Indian Mascots In Sports
This movie really hit me. Just seeing Charlene Teters (Spokane) ,the person who the movie is documenting, work hard for our culture is really inspiring. Also today we had a work shop on making resumes and how to write an essay for applying to jobs and colleges.
nativeyouth2college.org 