We are not your offensive mascots: Knowledge surveys exploring US national coverage and comments about Native people

Abstract

We are not your o ensive mascots: Knowledge surveys exploring US national coverage and comments about Native people 2The harmful effects that Indigenous-themed mascots have created for Indigenous communities have prompted some US educational institutions and national sports teams to rethink and discard their mascots. In 2018, a year after then-US President Donald J. Trump took office, a national baseball team retired their racist mascot.That same year, we developed and administered a national survey, as well as a student survey, about media use, political engagement, censorship and Indigenous communities. Using priming, researchers shared factual reports to see if respondents' views changed on mascot imagery as well as politically-charged federal events and if respondents later understood their views as unethical. We discovered low levels of general knowledge about Indigenous communities. We found student respondents more likely than the general population to be able to identify racist names and imagery. We also found that respondents overall were far more likely to identify and call out racism in political situations than in sporting spheres.