Andrew Bourassa: Scalp Towel Gets To The Heart Of Why We Need State Leadership On Mascots

Overflow turnout at yesterday's public hearing for Maine's bill to ban Native mascots in public schools produced seven speakers in opposition to the bill and at least twice that many in favor. LD 944 now proceeds to a work session (not yet scheduled) before the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs votes on whether or not to recommend passage of the bill by the full legislature.

Andrew Bourassa, Early Childhood Education Coach at KVCAP Child & Family Services which operates MSAD 54's preK programs, had the quote of the day when he told the Education committee:

"The scalp towel gets to the heart of why we need state leadership on mascots."



Bourassa also noted that "local control is surpassed by civil rights" and that Skowhegan "needs the government to be the adult in the room."

Some context for his remarks was muted when the committee chair asked the previous speaker, Mark Roman of Solon, to refrain from repeating examples of hate talk aimed at Maulian and Barry Dana, Penobscot Indians who have led the successful effort to retire Skowhegan's Native mascot. "We will read them," Rep. Victoria Kornfield told Roman after interrupting him to ask if it was desirable to amplify hate speech. 

This gave Roman a chance to model the very thing that mascot changers in Skowhegan have been teaching all along: if someone says your actions harm them, listen -- and be willing to change.

Both Kornfield and my wonderful husband spoke respectfully to each other and resolved their disagreement.

Barry Dana kicked off yesterday's testimony with a moving description of his own experiences playing sports for the Old Town Indians which changed their mascot years ago. He questioned whether Native mascots honor as they are said to do, and made the historical observation:

"Being fierce warriors didn't work out so well for us...we've been trying to be diplomats for 500 years."

Dana also noted that "it is a challenge for Native students to be successful" and they don't need additional blocks that lower their self-esteem. "Would you want to allow your schools to harm your students?"

Other speakers of note yesterday included Sherri Mitchell (Penobscot) and Dwayne Tomah (Passamoquoddy).  Unfortunately I missed their testimony because I was in a meeting.

Five members of the MSAD 54 school board: Peggy Lovejoy, Derek Ellis, Sarah Bunker, Kathy Wilder -- all in favor -- and of course Jennifer Poirier, who leads the opposition in Skowhegan. According to my husband, Poirier's testimony drew heavily on material from NAGA, the organization associated with the Washington DC football team with the racist name.

One of LD 944's co-sponsors, Rep. Lois Galgay Rickett, described cutting off the offensive logo of that team from fan gear she had purchased "and I've survived nicely."

Bunker noted that there was a school board election going forward that very day in the MSAD 54 town of Canaan serving as a sort of referendum on the local mascot issue where Board Chair Dixie Ring was running for re-election. I woke this morning to find the good news that she won against a write-in candidate vowing to restore the Indian mascot at Skowhegan area schools. Ring previously told a reporter for the local paper that she had listened to Native people and changed her mind on the mascot issue.

My favorite speaker during the time I was able to listen to the audio feed from the hearing was a nine year old who spoke just after his mother. I didn't catch his first name but was riveted by his articulate and well-reasoned testimony. Also envious of the curriculum his older sibling described receiving in downeast Maine at the middle school level. 

Skowhegan students had less flattering things to say about their district's educational efforts around Maine Native history and culture.  Adelle Belanger, a senior who represented SAHS at Girls State last summer, described her four years:

We used to have this one day. Freshman year we had actual Native Americans come and talk but we weren’t allowed to ask them questions about the mascot. Sophomore year we had one website with a bunch of broken links... Junior year fell on a snow day. Nothing yet this year. 

Anyone claiming that we are getting education by having a mascot of Native Americans: that’s not true.

My favorite citizen lobbyist on environmental issues, Hilary Lister, pointed out that "the institutional endorsement" of Native mascots is a form of bullying. She described her own high school years at Nokomis when the Warrior was their mascot, "a stereotypical silhouette with Western headdress" support for which "manifested in ways that were really mocking." She described fake war dances and whooping, "mockery of a culture...while everyone sat silent...When you allow a person to be a mascot, it's easy to turn them into a stereotype."

Speakers in opposition had long since ceased when the final speaker in favor came to the microphone, a woman whose name I unfortunately missed. She sealed the deal by describing Maine's developing reputation as a racist state due to headlines generated by our former governor's many racist remarks to the press, and a white supremacist who gained notoriety before he was fired from his position as town manager in Jackman.

"I have childhood friends who are afraid to visit me here," she told the committee. "We have an opportunity with this bill to turn that around."

Amen to that, sister.