Sports and Their Problematic History of Logos

    The history, meaning, and use of Native Americans in sports have been long and controversial. Native American symbolism in sports teams goes back to the 20th century, and as time advanced, more professional sports teams were using Native Americans as mascots, such as the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins. Though some people think it is raising awareness for Native American culture, it is instead perpetuating harmful stereotypes. These mascots dehumanize Native American people and trivialize their culture, reducing them to a character or symbol rather than recognizing them as complex individuals. Native American people have faced a long history of colonization, forced relocation, and systemic oppression, and using them as mascots perpetuate violence and disrespect. For many years, these sports teams kept these offensive names, which ultimately became the erasure of their voices because they wouldn't try to understand how disrespectful it was. It wasn't until just recently that these teams started changing their names!

    Sports and politics have always gone hand in hand, using each other to influence their platforms. One of the biggest examples is the Olympics. Having the Olympics hosted in a certain place is a status symbol, a political statement. The Olympics is also frequently used to make statements through protests and boycotting, one of the most popular being when people tried to boycott the Olympics in 1936 because of Germany's human rights violations. Sports sponsorship and endorsement deals are also influenced by politics as well. Companies often choose to work with athletes who align with people who not only support but promote their political values and beliefs because they know they are less likely to have disagreements. Some ways sports media can even the playing field is to promote diversity, more specifically, minorities in sports, and using their platform to highlight social issues to promote change.