Dancing at Halftime: Sports and the Controversy Over American Indian Mascots - Hardcover

Spindel, Carol

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814781268 ISBN 13: 9780814781265

Publisher: NYU Press, 2000

Synopsis

A topical discussion of the controversial use of American Indian mascots by college-level and professional sports teams.

About this title

Review:

"Yesterday's racism we recognize and we are embarrassed by it. Today's racism we often do not recognize until we read something like Carol Spindel's clear and fascinating message in Dancing at Halftime."

-Senator Paul Simon

"With clear and compelling language, Spindel shows us how the naive rituals of a previous era can become the insensitive orthodoxy of today. I can't imagine a more readable-or a more even-handed-exploration of the mascot issue. This should be required reading for anyone committed to building a new sense of community in the United States."

-Frederick E. Hoxie, Swanlund Professor, University of Illinois, and editor of The Encyclopedia of North American Indians

"Spindel displays considerable courage in tackling a controversial subject. A very personal account of the twentieth-century phenomenon of American Indians used as sports mascots, Dancing at Halftime also contains some fascinating history of early college football. The whole is strongly and beautifully written."

-Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

"I celebrate Dancing at Halftime, which brings Carol Spindel's wry and penetrating perception to this subject. As she well understands, it is a cipher through which one can read the deeper meanings not only of American history but of contemporary life today."

-Susan Griffin, author of A Chorus of Stones

"Honest, insightful, and a well balanced analysis of this complicated problem. Spindel has discovered the confusing reservoir of tangled emotions that underlie American attitudes towards Indians-and toward themselves. A 'must read'."

-Vine Deloria, Jr., Professor of History Emeritus, University of Colorado and a Standing Rock Sioux tribal member

Synopsis:

An exploration of issues that show a deep divide between the loyalty of sports fans towards their native American sporting mascots, and the indigenous peoples who are fighting institutionalized racism. Spindel reasons that these mascots are metaphors expressing longing for a home.

About this edition

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0814781268
• ISBN 13: 9780814781265
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 308