Sports Team Mascots - Assignment Example

1. What are sports team mascots such a burning issue for many Native Americans? Because Native Americans have had such a tremendously difficult timemaintaining quality living environments and trying to build a positive cultural identity. When teams use names like “Redskins” to represent humorous recreational activities, they feel like their history and importance is being trivialized. They have not been treated like equal citizens throughout their long struggles so it might be said that they consider these actions to be somewhat derogatory toward their heritage.

Even though others in society cannot understand why they take offense, it is probably because they have not endured the same kind of social and economic challenges that the Native Americans have experienced. 2. What challenges are there to reservation residents receiving effective health care? One of the challenges appears to be associated with budgets in relation to the public assistance programs. Because the Native Americans are experiencing such difficulties economically, many of them rely on welfare programs.

The textbook mentions that the Native Americans in South Dakota only make up seven percent of the entire state population but at the same time they make up 53 percent of the total welfare recipients. That is likely putting a large strain on government budgets which is why they imposed limits to it. When they can’t get good health insurance because they are poor, they are bound to have inadequate health services. Plus, the textbook mentions that many of them are untrained and uneducated in higher degree programs, so it is likely that they don’t have adequately trained health care professionals to deliver it on the reservations. 3. Why are the Jewish people most accurately characterized as an ethic group?

This is based on cultural identity, as Jewish individuals, despite their differing practices and beliefs regarding their religion all share a common heritage. This is why they can best be characterized in as an ethnic group. Since they do not share physical attributes, such as facial features (like those that might be found in the Mongloid group), they should not be categorized in any other fashion. Their common heritage is briefly described in the textbook, but it shows how these groups are all inter-connected in some fashion which has built their culture that exists today.

Meaning, they have common foods that differing regions prefer as well as different dress, but the core values and beliefs that drove their ethnic heritage is still very much a part of their culture today. 4. Why is maintaning Jewish identity so difficult in the United States? Well, in some fashion that textbook hints to the fact that there might still be some hostilities between those in the United States who still hold animosities and grudges against past events (such as the holocaust). These hostilities might in some way play a reasoning, especially against the older generations or those who were raised by rather prejudiced values against the Jews (for one reason or another).

As a more primary reason, spiritual expression is specifically isolated by the textbook as an issue facing this group today. Being unable to yet create a singular identity amongst their own ethnic group, in terms of solidifying a singular Jewish belief. It seems that they try, though, to establish a connection with heritage and religious historical devotion to be their strongest driving force in understanding themselves. Thus, it would seem that they would need to come together with the knowledge that they are more similar than they are disalike to resolve those long-standing spiritual misconceptions or internal group prejudices.

This might be a somewhat subjective statement, but it can be based on much of the book’s chapters which focus on being somewhat unable to arrive at their own unique group identity.