Sam - Final Project

From the millions of people that watch the Super Bowl to the millions of dollars of
revenue made by professional sports teams in each game, sports are clearly an important part of
popular culture in the United States. This importance is perhaps why the use of Native American
team names and images has been a widely discussed topic. It is my belief that Native American
names and images should not be used by sport’s teams because they perpetuate stereotypes and
may be offensive to some Native American individuals. The media’s influence on how race,
culture, and ethnicity are viewed by the public is an important part of why using the names and
images are problematic. For instance, normalization allows the names to seem like they are
benign and just the natural order of things because they have been around for a long time
(Drazner-Hoyt, 2015a). The idea of memes also applies because the names and images of Native
Americans are not only replicated through media but also in the minds of people. The names and
images provide an idea for what Native American individuals and cultures are like, and this
spreads through the minds of people (Drazner-Hoyt, 2015b). For example, fans of a team may
mimic the idea of Native Americans as portrayed by the team’s mascot when they dress up as a
Native American at a game. This spreading idea is the basis of a stereotype being perpetuated.
For my project, I created several t-shirt designs advocating against the use of Native
American names and images in sports teams. I chose t-shirts as the medium for expression
because sport’s teams often have merchandise that supports the team. I wanted to twist that idea
of the support for the names and images through their portrayal on the merchandise, and turn it
into a product that subverts the use of the names and images. I wanted argue against using both
names and the images so I created one t-shirt for mascots and another for names. I also created a
culture jam of the Redskin’s logo.

References
Drazner-Hoyt, K. (2015 a). Cultural Analysis: Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, and Religion in
Media [Presentation slides]. comminpopculturefall2015.blogspot.com. Retrieved from:
http://comminpopculturefall2015.blogspot.com/2015_10_01_archive.html
Drazner-Hoyt, K. (2015 b). Memes: Spreadable Culture [Presentation slides].
comminpopculturefall2015.blogspot.com. Retrieved from:
http://comminpopculturefall2015.blogspot.com/2015/10/memes-spreadable-culture.html