Growing up, my first school mascot—aside from the adorable Owls of my kindergarten year—was the Chief. We hailed the rallying cry over a face similar to the one in this photo, and my hometown still has this mascot today—which is why I have yet to take my daughter to a single game of any sport featuring this mascot. There are plenty of other local schools and little league teams we can support for fun without this disturbing perpetuation of racism as our unifying emblem.

When I went to college, I was dismayed to discover that our mascot was once again the Indians. I hadn’t really paid attention to that detail and it was a bit late to transfer, but I joined other voices in calling for a change—and a change did occur. Within a couple of years, the new mascot was the Redhawk, which I love. It’s a cool emblem and it maintains the school colors while not enforcing racist stereotypes or using a person or people as mascots.

Sometimes I fear that for someone who demands to know why these stereotypes are called stereotypes or racist in the first place, no answer will ever suffice. Can you not see how a caricature of an entire culture is harmful and racist? Would you like to be the Fighting Germans, with a figure of a two-stepping man with a thin mustache and a swastika on your armband? My last name is Schmidt and I can tell you that I would definitely be offended by such a portrayal of my culture, particularly as an individual whose great grandparents fled Germany to escape such horrors. This “Indian warrior” trope has got to go—what, exactly, do you think all of the indigenous children think and feel when they see this emblem as something for sports teams to use, such as when the Braves pretend to use tomahawks during baseball games?

The University of North Dakota was supposed to stop using the Fighting Sioux—something even more specific and perhaps even more offensive than, say, the general term Chiefs or Braves—but they have decided to continue using the name, at least for now. When will people learn that this is unacceptable? I don’t care if you have a few native people on your side claiming it’s okay; if it smells like racism and it looks like racism, it’s racism, and you need to stop engaging in it.