Downeast Brother: I Would Feel Embarrassed Running In A Tank-top With A Picture Of A Native American's Head On It

UC Santa Cruz where one of my nieces went to school has a great mascot: the banana slug.

Some of the strongest testimony to the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee about banning Native mascots was given by two boys who were skipping school. 😂

I found out yesterday that theirs was not the only family that sat down together to write statements they would submit for the public record. As a teacher, I consider this a highly educational activity even before the public speaking component is added!

Because their mom witnessed the harassment of another speaker while he was at the podium (a Skowhegan I#$%^* Pride supporter passed directly behind and hissed an obscenity at him in a stage whisper), she has shared these with me but asked that I not identify her sons by name or school.

Senator Millett, Representative Kornfield, and honorable members of the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs,

I am here to support LD 944, An Act to Ban Native American Mascots in All Public Schools. First, I want everybody to remember that Native Americans are people with feelings, not an animal or an object that should be used for a mascot, like a hornet or a dog.

Bowdoin College in Brunswick where I went to school has a polar bear mascot.

The mascots are not honoring, they are taking what is not ours and using it to represent us. Wabanaki people have kept saying that they do not feel honored, but the exact opposite. We invaded them for their land, and used them as symbols for sports teams, but they are people. Not mascots that somebody thought up.

I am on my school’s cross-country team. Our school mascot is a ripped bulldog. I would feel terrible and embarrassed running across a finish line with dozens of people watching me in a tank-top with a picture of a Native American’s head on it. 

The American Psychological Association has stated that racist mascots teach non-Native kids to discriminate against Native kids. While affecting non-Native kids in one way, it also harms Native kids’ self-esteem.

In conclusion, please make the right choice and pass the LD944 bill. Thank you.

(9-year-old Downeast brother)

Senator Millett, Representative Kornfield, and honorable members of the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs,

I am here to support the bill LD944, An Act to Ban Native American Mascots in All Public Schools.

Albert and Alberta are the Gator mascots of the University of Florida at Gainesville

When you think about a mascot, what do you picture? Most mascots are either animals or professions. That means that when you put a group of people on a mascot, it is putting them on the same level as dogs. That just isn't alright.

You wouldn't have the mascot be the Chinese or the African Americans or even the Caucasians, so why do it to any other ethnic group?  

Imagine this scenario. The thumbs up is obviously a good thing for people in the USA, but not for some other countries. You don’t know this, and you go into another country where thumbs up is offensive and you congratulate a friend there with a thumbs up. The friend gets upset, and they ask you why you made an insulting gesture. You say you didn’t know that was an insult, apologize, and you don’t proceed to flaunt the thumbs up sign. You don’t say that it is respecting them, because it isn’t. It’s the same way for mascots.

When a group of people depicted by a mascot says they don’t want it, you don’t say you are respecting them, you just drop the mascot.

Whenever a group of people is depicted on a mascot, someone is going to get upset, and schools are supposed to be protecting people and helping them when they are upset. That means that in the moral code of schools, no group of people should be put on a mascot. Just keep it to the animals.

As a study by the American Psychological Association says, Native American mascots are hurting all students. They teach non-native children to be racist, and they make a hostile environment for Native students, as well as damaging their self-esteem. Please make the right choice, and pass the bill.

Thank you.

(12-year-old Downeast brother)

Incidentally, these boys also conducted research by listening to the testimony of Skowhegan students in a video of  the school board's public forum on January 8.

It consoles me to know that the whole mascot debacle has been an occasion for educating youth around the state in the English Language Arts I love: research, writing, listening and speaking.

I'll bet there was some reading in there, too. Woot!