DaShanne Stokes: Offensive mascots lead to offensive actions

Every so often I hear complaints about how tired people are about being politically correct. It’s something that gets thrown around a lot these days, especially with the debate about ethnic team names and mascots. And it’s revealing of something more insidious than many people realize.

You know the ones I’m talking about. The people who say things like “Yeah, okay, Tonto” and “Yeah, okay, chief.” The ones who ask if you can score them some peyote. The ones who root for the Washington football team, claim they’re honoring Native people, then tell the next Native person they see to “go back to the reservation.”

And when the people speaking these offensive things are called on it, they often get offended. They act as if the impact of their words should be discounted. They act as though others who have been on the receiving end of their discriminatory words and actions, should just “know” what they meant, and that what they said, necessarily, wasn’t discriminatory. And they say, all too often, that they’re sick and tired of everyone being so politically correct.

Nonsense.