American Indian Mascots and Self-Esteem - Assignment Example

According to Fryberg et al., the negative impacts of exposure to the images of American Indians can be linked with their relative invisibility in the present American Indian society in the United States (216).  Further, the researchers discovered in their study that American Indian mascots and other dominant representations of the Indian community in America have no positive relationships for the positive construction of the identity of American Indian students.

The authors present previous studies postulating that “American Indian mascots have harmful psychological consequences for the group that is caricatured by the mascots” (216). Stereotypes usually culminate in negative impacts on the self-esteem, identity, and social dimension of minority groups. Many researchers have identified stereotyping as a major blow to people’s self-esteem, thus American Indian mascot images together with other dominant representations of the American Indian community may be accused of low self-esteem and thwart the identity construction of invisible American Indians. The negative consequence of American Indian mascots emanates from the fact that there are often few alternate American Indians, thus they suffice for generalizations made about the entire American Indian society.