We just lost our mascot, the "Redskins"... I was an alumni at the school I Head coach/advise for. We had been the Redskins since 1918. All school spirit items purchased for our school was purchased through local tribes. Anything even remotely in connection with Native American culture to our school would only be displayed or depicted with approval of local tribes. When introduced into our school as a freshman a two week lesson was given specifically on educating students on Native American culture.. Specifically the origination of the term "Redskin" and how the name and or term was now to be treated as a tribute. We have multiple visits from local tribes a year... 1. To keep in connection with the spirit and respect their culture 2. To ensure that we comply with their wishes and standards... That they are accurately and respectfully represented. 3. To continue the education and communication
We lost the mascot. It will cost out school more than a million to make necessary changes. Funds that will be taken from education. Our social media sites are harassed daily... Even though we have agreed to comply with the change . We are harassed by activists calling random students racists while cursing. We had a cheer video where the girls were simply dancing on you tube that had to be taken down due to activists calling the girls names and when asked to let us transition to a new name in peace activists continued to threaten students... All of this...simply because of the mascot name that they were offended by (mind you, these individuals were not Native American) however the kids were not chanting or wearing anything with term.
We have slowly removed Redskins from cheers... This year, it's not on our main uniforms.
It is my personal belief that Everyone has the right to be offended... The right to a strong opinion in opposition of something... However, at what point do we stop and say rather than continue to just be angry and offended and decided to "take away" or abolish, hide a word away... Why not show the world we have the power to change the meaning of it?! Perhaps the issue isn't the WORD itself... Or the problem... But the way everyone is handling it. I know the school is resolving to make the change... But that doesn't mean the change stops there. One can argue all day long about what side is right or wrong... what should or should not be done... But there's a few unarguable FACTS that have simply been dismissed and are quite often overlooked in maters like these: keep taking things away, we will not have much... Keep getting angry, Nobody will be happy... Keep fighting needless battles, nothing will be left.
I guess what I'm saying is I don't feel the real loss is the mascot here. It's the ability to look beyond a word and a name. We Live in a world that must have multi tonal emojis now so as to not anger anyone!? Why couldn't we just keep the day Glo orange one - NOBODY is Neon orange?!
