Indian Mascot Supporter Shocks Crowd: What’s next, are we going to ask dogs how they feel about being a mascot?

Bus driver Cecil Gray displays a sign with the nickname bestowed on those who continue to call for the outdated "Indian" mascot to be retired: Changers!

I started writing this blog a few years ago in order to keep my head from exploding over news of the ongoing corporate war against the poor, at home and abroad.

One of the reasons I keep blogging is that mainstream media so often fail to report significant news, local or international.

Coverage of the Skowhegan school board meeting last night by the Waterville Morning Sentinel, Fox23 TV, News Center Maine and Maine Public.org failed to share this shocking quote from one of three speakers asking to keep the "Indian" team name. Speaker Nichole LaChapelle said,

“What’s next, are we going to ask dogs how they feel about being a mascot?”

and was met by a collective gasp from the room. This is likely a reference to nearby Lawrence High School, a basketball rival, but even from the folks that continue to insist the team name "Indian" is meant to honor Native people, this is a new level of irony. Do they not experience cognitive dissonance when honoring humans by equating them with dogs?

Thank the goddess for Somerset Community TV 11 whose reporter John Harlow was front and center with his camera recording what transpired. (On February 24, Harlow was barred from a private meeting convened by board members on behalf of their Skowhegan "Indian Pride" group).

Other newsworthy things that I have found no coverage of: our side now has an official name and even a logo. Change supporter Peter Stowell produced dozens of these signs and handed them out at the meeting:

Also, there was a brief kerfuffle between Superintendent Brent Colbry and one or two board members seated to his left. Harold Bigelow interrupted the superintendent's report to move that no more discussion on the mascot take place (Colbry had placed an item about deciding next steps on the superintenden't report section of the agenda, as Bigelow would have known going into the meeting). Possibly Lynda Quinn seconded it, but I could not hear clearly because there were no microphones and I was in the back of a packed room.

I moved up front in time to hear Colbry say something along the lines of, "Are you going to let me finish?" It became clear that he was trying to recommend what he felt were appropriate next steps: to have a workshop-style meeting for the board members to discuss their views publicly, but without input from the public. Bigelow's motion was eventually withdrawn, a motion was made to accept Colbry's proposal, and the board voted overwhelmingly to have a workshop on the mascot March 7 at 7pm in the HIGH SCHOOL cafeteria.

Be there, or be square.

We Have A Name, Bestowed By Skowhegan So-Called Indian Pride: We Are Changers!

Brewer High School's mascot logo

Organizing for social change can be tiring. Especially in Maine, where 50% of our winter plans go astray as the weekly (or twice weekly) storms brought on by climate change necessitate canceling events like a door to door campaign. As an organizer I often have several precious hours already invested in an event that gets snowed out.

So that is one of the reasons that local people don't often take a leading role in changing the Skowhegan Area High School mascot from pretendians to something fun and inoffensive. Osprey anyone? (I think it's most likely they will change to Patriots, but any mascot based on human beings is likely to be problematic.)

This is a comment thread on SIP leader and conflict-of-interest board member Jennifer Poirier's post about the Skowhegan girls basketball team beating the Brewer High School Witches. I am going to assume that Mary Compton calling them "ho" is a typo and that she meant to type "go." I am also going to assume that Mindy Gilbert doesn't know that there is a sizeable Wiccan community in our area, one that proudly draws on what they call "Old Traditions of Witchcraft," and that some members may very well be offended by Brewer's mascot.

Probably Mindy did not major in history, and thus may be only dimly aware that many alleged witches were tortured to death in New England. There are towns like Salem, Massachsetts that have built an entire tourist industry on this history.

The real point here is that SIP folks think it is hilarious to offend people.

And, to return to my original point, it is exhausting trying to reason with people who find it fun to offend. For white people like me, there is the option to walk away from the problem muttering that you can't fix stupid. But it isn't stupidity, it's ignorance. And not knowing is an entirely different thing from not being capable of understanding.

Consider this SIP post in the same thread, from a political theorist posting as Joseph Pais:

Pais has a Facebook profile that includes a MAGA hat child pissing on the word Hillary (Clinton, presumably) from 2016, so it would appear that his analytical chops have developed over the last couple of years.

"Leaving race out of the argument they [changers] have no foundation to stand on" starts down a strategic path that does afford some insight. White man says: we refuse to talk about race. That's white privilege in a nutshell.

White privilege turns the corner to white supremacy when it says: "that's when you see the real racist in this argument come out."

They are talking about Penobscot tribal ambassador Maulian Dana here, whom they have demonized to the point where I'm surprised Joseph Pais hasn't photoshopped his MAGA hat meme to swap out Hillary for Maulian. It's likely that some in SIP have thought about it.

However, they have a mole in their closed Facebook group, and they know for certain that an image like that would turn up not only in this blog but also in newspapers and t.v. channels in Maine.

Pretending that Maulian "stands alone" despite the enormous turnout of Native people from several Wabanaki tribes, and that she is just doing it for attention, are common themes for SIP.

The reference above alleging that she "doesn't keep her word" means this, I think: the school board voted 11-9 in 2015 to keep using the racist mascot, and the SIP folks imagined that Maulian and the other changers had agreed to slink away, silenced, if the school board vote went against them.

Key point from Jennifer's post above: it's not the institutionalized racism that is causing turmoil, it's commenting on the racism. White silence is required to maintain the status quo. Got it.

Would it surprise you to know that some changers on the board were threatened with physical harm because they voted to retire the Indian mascot? Some had the courage and good enough health to continue serving on the school board anyway. Not all have been up to the continuous, arduous task.

In fact, Not Your Mascot chapters in Maine and throughout North America have made it perfectly clear that they will not be silenced. And that they will not go away until all the Native mascots and team names are in the dustbin of history.

I stand with them. And I'm not going away either, no matter how weary I get.