Native Images in Schools and the Racially Hostile Environment

Abstract

Many American Indian students attend schools that also have Indians as their mascots. They and their parents often find the stereotyped images that these schools use offensive and are searching for a legal challenge to the use of negative images of Indians by public schools. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any federally funded program. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has interpreted Title VI to prohibit schools from creating, encouraging, or tolerating a “racially hostile environment.” This essay addresses the legal standards for the application of the racially hostile environment regulations to schools that have American Indian mascots.