Case Study: Native American Stereotypes Of Jim Thorpe

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uring his playing career, Jim challenged cultural norms, breaking social barriers. Sports is a great median for stereotypes to be portrayed. Such in today’s society, many NBA players are considered “thugs”. One of the ideas built around this stereotype is that NBA players have a different culture from the owners of the teams. This cultural difference is apparent in Thorpe’s career as well. Thorpe successfully overcame numerous Native American stereotypes. Some of the Native Americans stereotypes he overcame is that all Natives are lazy, and barbaric warriors. One of the reasons that so many people attended the Harvard versus Carlisle game is due to the attraction of wanting to see a warrior play. However, Thrope was able to not just use his