Today the President of the United States joined San Francisco, the state of California and a bunch more towns and states around the country in naming Monday, October 11 as Indigenous People’s Day. It’s a small way to recognize the enormous and essential contributions made by indigenous people to this country, as well as to recognize the innumerable injustices they continue to face.
This recognition is one more reason October is in my opinion the best month of the year around here!
Fall sports are in high gear, from the pro baseball championships to the football, basketball, and hockey seasons well underway. But many sports fans can’t enjoy it when their local school or professional team use racist Native American names and memes for their teams and mascots.
More Than a Word, a film from Media Education Foundation (MEF) is a look at the long struggle to eliminate these racist depictions, focussing on the ultimately successful movement to change the name of the Washington Football Team.
Directed by filmmakers John and Kenn Little of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the film draws on the voices of Native American activists and scholars to place this controversy within the wider context of Native American history and racial stereotyping more generally. MEF says: “More Than a Word offers a deeply personal account of the injustices done to indigenous peoples, the inequities that still plague Native American communities, and the cultural stereotypes that have helped normalize both.”
Gleeson Library provides permanent streaming access to the USF community for this and many other MEF video titles on the Kanopy platform. Watch them on your computer, streaming device or Kanopy app.
and Go Giants!