Title: A New Study Contradicts a Washington Post Poll About How Native Americans View the Redskins' Name | Washingtonian (DC)
Headings: A New Study Contradicts a Washington Post Poll About How Native Americans View the Redskins’ Name
A New Study Contradicts a Washington Post Poll About How Native Americans View the Redskins’ Name
We asked one of the authors why this new research got such different results.
How did this study come to be?
And what are those? Because maybe public opinion has changed in the four years since the Post poll was conducted, but the discrepancy between their results and yours still seems pretty drastic.
It seems like there would be shades of gray in there.
What do you hope to accomplish with this new data?
I wonder if people who are ardent supporters of the Redskins’ name see “being offended” as a serious issue. How do you change those minds?
What has the Post said to you about all this?
And you’re getting the same results regardless of how you slice it?
Jane Recker

Content: When you dehumanize a group, it allows all these terrible things. Everything that you’re seeing is about protecting white people and letting them play Indian and feel good, but it’s literally hurting our people. I wonder if people who are ardent supporters of the Redskins’ name see “being offended” as a serious issue. How do you change those minds? I think there’s evidence that people are starting to be aware [that it is serious]. For the last four years, tribal leaders have been standing up and saying “we are offended,” and they would simply say, “no, sit down, 9 out of 10 Native people are not offended,” based on a bad survey. Part of the reason I study this is because I’m really interested in how cultural representations shape identity and development. Did you know that the Indian mascot affects self esteem more than negative stereotypes? Like, if we present Native kids with negative stereotypes about alcoholism, suicide rates, and dropout rates, that lowers self-esteem significantly. The mascot lowers self esteem significantly more than those other stereotypes.