As changes go during this era of racial sensitivity, this seems like an easy one to make.
It’s not a discussion about rethinking law enforcement. Or a treatise on systemic racism. Or a debate about statues of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.
No, this is simply about mascots for athletic teams and whether they should invoke Native American imagery. You know, like Chieftains.
That’s the nickname at Columbia River High School, and it often is accompanied by a logo featuring a Native American-looking man in a headdress of the school’s colors, purple and yellow. A recent petition, signed by more than 1,300 people, has been sent to the board of Vancouver Public Schools urging them to change the mascot. “We believe that the Chieftain mascot trivializes Indigenous people, their personhood, their cultures, and the trauma they’ve endured at the hand of colonialism and white supremacy,” the petition reads, in part.
You might agree, or you might not. Either way, that’s not really the point. No, the point is best articulated by Stephanie Fryberg, who said, “What we find is that among Native people, about two-thirds of them are offended by Native mascots.”
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