South Carolina with Quahogs, or something better?
The Dartmouth Select Board announced yesterday that a referendum on the "Dartmouth Indian" logo would be put on the 2022 Annual Town Election on April 5th. According to Select Board Chair Shawn McDonald, the referendum is non-binding. On the same ballot for re-election to the School Committee are two boosters of the offensive mascot, John Nunes and Chris Oliver.
Over the last few years Aunt Jemima has ditched the mammy on its syrup bottles with a press release explaining why images from slavery’s past were no longer in fashion. Maybe it finally occurred to them they had been selling, as author M.M. Manring put it, a “Slave in a Box.” Uncle Ben’s retired its house servant because “now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Ben’s brand, including its visual brand identity.” And Land O’ Lakes dropped its Native American maiden, saying only “we need packaging that reflects the foundation and heart of our company culture.” Soon Mrs. Butterworth and Cream of Wheat followed suit. Just this week the NFL's Washington "Redskins" re-branded as the Washington Commanders. And of course the mother of all surprises was Mississippi’s abandonment of the Confederate flag in 2020.
Whatever their justifications for "evolving the brand," all these companies are responding to a public awareness that the time for preserving racist stereotypes is over.
So you'd think that here in "liberal" Dartmouth we could at least do as well as Mississippi. Or are we about to prove that we are basically nothing more than South Carolina with Quahogs?
The Dartmouth Schools have defiantly defended the “Indian” mascot — the same one shared with Dartmouth College until 1974, when the college abandoned it because it was racist. Superintendent Bonnie Gifford and Board Chair Kathleen Amaral — both white — claim that the “Indian” and the greenface that “honors” it at sports events are townfolk’s way of “respecting” people murdered and sold into slavery when this area was colonized in 1619. Dartmouth children contribute to “The Weekly Tribe” — a student showcase featuring all white faces.
To add injury to insult, Dartmouth pockets royalties it receives from a mascot merchandising agreement with OhioPyle Prints, which according to the District’s lawyer are not shared with any tribe. Dartmouth “Indian” gear is sold locally in drugstores and supermarkets, and Prep Sportswear, Spirit Shop Custom Apparel & Sportswear, Jostens, Inc., and Apparel Now all resell Dartmouth Indian gear online, though the District claims to know only of OhioPyle.
Still, yesterday's announcement that the Select Board would be taking up the issue is a vast improvement over the games the School Committee has played.
In 2019 he School Committee actually voted to block public hearings on mascots. Committee member John Nunes thought it was an insignificant issue, declaring at an October 28th, 2019 meeting that he “bleeds Green” — the color of “war paint” students smear on their faces at sports events.
If Aunt Jemima was a “slave in a box,” Dartmouth's "mascot" is nothing more than an “Indian in a box.” For residents who cling to the lie that such cultural expropriation honors Native Americans, it’s the same lie slaveowners repeated of slaves appreciating being “cared for.”
A 2020 study at UC Berkeley found that 57% of Native Americans and 67% who engage in tribal cultural practices are insulted by mascots. The Chappaquiddick, the Herring Pond, and the Mashpee Wampanoag have all called for banning them.
Researchers have known for decades the damage mascots do to Native American kids (see Freyberg et al, 2008; Stegman and Phillips, 2014; Chaney, 2011; and Davis-Delano, 2020). The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) banned Native mascots in 2005. The American Psychological Association recommended retiring them in 2005 and the American Anthropological Association condemned mascots in 2015.
Back in Dartmouth, god forbid, you’d think that Sherman was marching on Atlanta. One letter to the editor by Harvey Ussach asked, if we get rid of mascots, how are kids going to learn history? Well, why not teach kids the real history of genocide and enslavement and stop pretending that exploiting Native Americans is respectful?
If Dartmouth votes to uphold the mascot without actually presenting the real history of local settlers' responsibility for Native American genocide, what's the difference from what's happening in predominantly Southern States now attacking the teaching of Black history in schools?
It’s time to quit humoring the clueless townies and immediately drop the Dartmouth Indian and hundreds like it. Senate Bill S.2493, “An Act Prohibiting the Use of Native American Mascots by Public Schools in the Commonwealth,” calls for the Massachusetts board of elementary and secondary education to:
"promulgate regulations to ensure that no public school uses an athletic team name, logo, or mascot which names, refers to, represents, or is associated with Native Americans, including aspects of Native American cultures and specific Native American tribes, or which denigrates any racial, ethnic, gender, or religious group. The board shall establish a date by which any school in violation of said regulations shall choose a new team name, logo, or mascot."
Amen to that.
But legislators have tried and tried, so now it’s up to Dartmouth residents to do what cowardly Superintendent Gifford, Committee members Oliver and Nunes, and others entrusted to ensure a safe environment for all children have resolutely refused to do — retire the racist mascots.