Here. An excerpt:

Each of the three standard arguments used to brush off such substantive criticism is more inane than the next. Let’s debunk them one at a time:

Nonsensical Argument #1: A mascot is designed to honor, not lampoon, an ethnicity

To know this is idiotic is to replace a Native American mascot with a caricatured mascot depicting another ethnic group — and then ask if that would really be considered an honor. Would anyone seriously defend a team called the Boston Blacks or the New York Jews, each with mascots of ethnic stereotypes? Probably not (sure, Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish embody a non-Native American cultural stereotype, but two wrongs don’t make a right). Nobody would or should defend those hypothetical names because we know what a mascot really is — we know its whole purpose is to draw attention through flamboyant spectacle. We also know, then, that when we turn an ethnicity into a mascot, we are not-so-subtly insinuating that the group is inherently an attention-grabbing spectacle of flamboyance — that is, we are insinuating that its otherness is so alien, strange or ridiculous, that its people are fit to be presented as glorified clowns. That’s not an honor — that’s an insult.

Nonetheless, the mascot-as-hero conceit is frequently trotted out by a majority culture desperate to continue the minstrelization of minorities via athletic logos. As the University of Akron’s Dana M. Williams reports, surveys show that “one of the most common storylines about the (UND) nickname offered by white supporters is: ‘It’s intended as an honor because Native people were brave fighters.’” To this, Williams offers a powerful rejoinder:

Such a claim minimizes the racism inherent in a predominantly white university using a discriminated-against racial minority as its sports nickname. The statement also reinforces the misleading stereotypes that all Native Americans were brave and were fighters, thereby making all Native people targets of an externally imposed “honor.” Ironically, in the past, attributing the labelfighting to Native Americans would have been perceived as highly negative, and would have helped to justify attacks by the U.S. Army on Native Americans, as well as white settler incursions into Native territory.

‘Nuff said.