Below is the letter I sent to the superintendent and board chair in charge of Skowhegan Area High School's racist mascot, the "Indian." Native leader Penobscot Chief Barry Dana is the dad referred to, and his teen daughter grew up to be the Penobscot Tribal Ambassador Maulian Dana. Both will be at the board meeting this Thursday, December 6 at 7pm at the Skowhegan Area Middle School cafeteria.
TO: Brent Colbry
Dixie Ring
Dear Superintendent Colbry and Board Chair Ring,
The following post to the group Skowhegan Pride on Facebook by an MSAD#54 board member who is the group's administrator is circulating on social media.
This post may very well go on to be used by college professors teaching about white supremacy and the blindness it engenders. "Dark perspective" is an interesting choice of words. It is troubling to think that Ms. Poirier has learned so little from serving as a director of your schools. Dictating how targeted groups should feel, and then giving parenting advice about how they should talk to their targeted children -- wow. Has Ms. Poirier read the American Psychological Association's 2005 report on how Native mascots adversely affect all students in schools still using them?
The mascot issue is not going away; that much must be clear by now. Please do the right thing and put your high school's discriminatory practice to rest.
Respectfully yours,
Lisa Savage
Skowhegan taxpayer
Later, I sent these educational leaders news about an educational opportunity for us all.
The documentary DAWNLAND will be livestreamed Wed., Dec. 5 free on the YouTube channel of the Upstander Project at 5pm. The film documents the removal of Native children from their families in Maine, and the work of the Maine-Wabanaki Child Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Commission toward healing.
This letter by Jennifer Poirier is confusing. She says that her years of involvement with the Skowhegan Indian Mascot issue has given her the chance to look at it from “many perspectives” – but she then reiterates the same tired perspective of someone completely unable to consider the issue from differing perspectives! What are the other perspectives she is able to see it from? People who can “see things from many perspectives” often are able to see there are many possibilities in any given situation, many possible outcomes, not a stuck “one perspective” view. Someone able to see this issue from many perspectives should be able to see that Native people are saying they don’t see this use of a caricature as honoring them or their culture. She talks about the “teachable moment” when the father could call what was happening racism, or he could continue to feed his daughter the racist idea of privilege that people wanting a Native caricature are doing so because they admire Native people. People of privilege say this even though nothing else about their behavior demonstrates honor or respect for Native people. In fact, Ms. Poirier telling them how they should feel, what they should do epitomizes the definition of privilege, of racism. And her upset at their request and refusal to consider this from any other perspective is the very definition of white fragility. If the mascot was truly “to honor” then it presumes the Native people would feel pride about it… They have said they don’t. What kind of a culture is it when a group “honored” says they don’t feel honored but the honoring is forced on them anyway… Isn’t that actually dishonoring them…
ReplyDeleteMs. Poirier has said this issue isn’t about right or wrong, but rather about feelings. In this statement she is partly wrong, and partly right. This issue is clearly about right and wrong. In 1987 I attended a fair in Vermont. I was told it was one of the oldest in the country. There were demonstrations of square dancing, displays of old engines - and a vaudeville show that included blackface. I was told it would, I was incredulous. I paid my money and sat with my New York friends who were also shocked that in 1987 a group of whites would paint their faces black with big white lips and slouch across the stage, speaking with a drawl and scratching their heads. When I left I mentioned how racist it was. Others said it was “just a bit of fun”, “not to be taken seriously”. Needless to say, they don’t have that as part of the show anymore. It was racist, it was wrong, it wasn’t about a harmless bit of fun. People were hurt by it – I was hurt by it. Those that got upset by my upset were expressing feelings, the kind of feelings Ms. Poirier was right about. These feelings are indeed important. They’re called white fragility, the feeling of discomfort and defensiveness on the part of a white person when confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice.
Ms. Poirier states the Indian name was given as someone’s idea of honoring the original inhabitants of the town, the group of Abenaki who was massacred and driven from the area. She says viewing this as anything but positive is a dark perspective. There are indeed dark perspectives here, but I am again incredulous she doesn’t see them as I do.
Ms Poirier's love for the image and term has clouded her judgement. Her bias makes her unable to rationally address the issue. School board members have a duty to protect all students but she can only see what matters to her and her followers .
ReplyDeleteMs Poirier is wrong to ignore the feelings of the natives who say that it is not right to use them for the fun of the non native majority.
So yes it's about feelings and right and wrong .
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