The culture wars are heating up in Dartmouth
The culture wars have come to Dartmouth, Massachusetts where I live.
Like many towns where ultra-conservatives are trying to sanitize ugly American history instead of confronting and teaching it in the schools, the Town of Dartmouth is embroiled in a simmering conflict over the local high school “Indian” mascot.
Conservatives on the town's Select Board have forced a popular vote on the mascot without residents ever having a meaningful community conversation about how offensive to Native Americans and damaging to kids such mascots are.
The NAACP has opposed Native American mascots for almost a quarter of a century. The New Bedford branch (of which I am a member) just published a long piece on the issue:
https://naacpnewbedford.org/2022/02/reckoning-race/
Another group to which I also belong has created a Facebook group to put additional information out there:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/newmascot
If you are a Dartmouth resident, please check out these resources before you vote in the upcoming town election. Referenda like this are extremely troubling and just plain wrong! Using an election to decide how a minority is treated — instead of using loftier social and Constitutional principles — is a quick and certain path to hell.