A group of academics is calling on all Saskatchewan sports teams to drop outdated Aboriginal logos which they say are racist and offensive.
The seven academics are all members of the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Saskatchewan.
Robert Innes, a member of the group, says some Saskatoon high school teams, such as the Bedford Road Redman, still use these offensive logos and it is high time they found something else.
“So, yes, it’s only sports — but, of course, sports is not devoid from society as a whole,” he says. “And because there are certain notions of Aboriginal people that a lot of people have, these images act to reinforce those.”
The group of academics say in a release that some prominent schools in the United States, such as Stanford University, have already dropped the offensive logos from their sports teams.
They are also calling on both the provincial Ministry of Education and the Saskatoon school board to remove all such offensive Aboriginal logos from their sports teams.