Review Of Churchill's Essay 'Crimes Against Humanity'
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Crime Against Humanity
In today’s society, the word “Redskin” has become a prejudice word. We see it every day; controversy regarding the names of professional sports teams, college teams and right down to high school outfits. In this essay, “Crimes Against Humanity” , published in March of 1993, Professor Ward Churchill argues that the issue use of natives names, images and sports team mascots, a virulently racist practice. Churchill argues that the issue of Redskins, a substantial number of American Indians have protested the use of native names. Churchill jumps right into his dissection of the “as a counterpart to the Redskins, we need an NFL team called “Niggers” to honor Afro- Americans.” He explains how this argument shouldn’t…show more content… Churchill compares discrimination against Native Americans to extreme imaginary cases of discrimination against other races / nationalities. He says that naming a sports team after a certain race is discriminatory, even if it is not recognized by society. One of the many teams that provides a reference to Native Americans includes the RedSkins. Although Native Americans might recognize this name as discriminatory, others do not recognize that. My interpretation of the name is not discriminatory to me it conveys and strong and conquering image. But, as Churchill suggests, I would definitely interpret a name such as the "Fresno Fags" or the "Wisconsin Wetbacks" as discriminatory. There would be no doubt in my mind that those names were insulting to the people pertaining to that group. This article made me wonder why I would recognize names such as these as discriminatory, but not the Red Skins. Maybe it's because the subject of Native Americans and our kicking them out of their homelands has long since passed, and there are new issues of today such as sexual orientation. But on the other hand, race is still something that is very controversial today. So why is the race of Native Americans not considered when recognizing discriminatory terms? It should be. This article definitely made me conclude that our society should be more attentive to discriminatory terms, and not disregard them under any