A ruling was made in New
York State on Thursday that has a lot of people talking, for and against what
the ruling says.
On that day, the New York State Education Department ordered all school districts in the state to remove “Indian” mascots and associated Native American imagery from their respective public school systems.
The memo, signed by State Education Department Senior Deputy Commissioner James Baldwin, warned that districts that continue to utilize Native American team names, logos, and/or imagery without current approval from a recognized tribe, "must immediately come into compliance,” or the districts found in violation would risk losing state funds.
Of course, this negates the history of the use of American Indian imagery and names related to sports teams and our American way of life, which began back in the late 1800s to laud these Native Americans, not to chide them.
Even a team name like the one used for the Cleveland American League baseball team, “The Indians,” was at least originally not used to dishonor Native Americans, but to honor them, as the name was used to honor one of the early players in franchise history, who happened to be an American Indian.
Of course, later on, the imagery did get a bit outside of that original testament to that Indian player, but that has all been taken care of, with the team now known as “The Guardians.”
There have been other similar instances in professional sports, most noteworthy being the Washington football team, which went from Redskins to Commanders.
And the Atlanta Braves—still the Braves whether they are in Atlanta or Milwaukee or Boston—and the team did tone down some of its imagery too.
But in this case, we are talking about public schools, and at least in the area I live in, the American Indian-related names have never been ;used to mock Native Americans, but to honor and revere them.
Right in my community, the school system’s team name is “The Chiefs,” and it was never used in a derogatory way in any way, shape or from.
It was used to honor these Native Americans, with the word “Chiefs” meaning "the best."
Look, English is an amalgam of many languages, and if we were to go to the granular level of every word, we would have to get rid of hundreds, if not thousands, of words, because they “irritated” some people.
In the case of the word “Chief,” we would have to get rid of not only the word, but the phrases surrounding the word, like “chief executive officer” and “editor-in-chief,” and heck, how about “commander in chief?”
“Chief” is used here as the top person, the best of the best, and how is that derogatory to Native Americans?
Look, you want to get rid of the imagery and the mascots, fine, but the name? How is the name an insult to American Indians in any way?
I think people have to chill out a little; some people seem to get offended by everything under the sun, looking for things to get upset about.
The next thing that will happen is that animal rights activists will get upset that school teams use animal names—like “The Tigers”—and they will sue to get those names removed too.
And of course money is tied into this, and of course, certain school districts which use the American Indian names are consulting their legal counsels to find out if they could fight this latest ruling.
Just what you want, money and lawyers getting into education, rather than the three R's.
There is a way out of all of this.
If a school district does not want to change their teams’ mamas when it comes to the use of American Indian monikers, it has to get approval from a recognized Indian nation to have a chance to gain approval of the name.
The town I live in has its very name tied into the Native Americans who once lived here, and thus the school distinct, to honor those people, named the school teams “Chiefs” in a positive way.
So the town I live in must get approval from that group—if those people even exist as a recognized American Indian group at this point in time—to win that approval.
One district near where I live actually did this years and years ago, if you want to believe what they say, so I guess if they can prove that they did gain this approval from a recognized group, they can continue to use the name without reprisal front the state.
This is all so very stupid and silly and a waste of time and money.
No matter what name you are going to use, you are going to probably offend someone, so it ends up putting the schools between a rock and a hard place, dumping agendas on them that only a minority of people in that community really care about.
We have just gotten out of a pandemic that put schools in predicaments that they have never seen before.
Kids are not getting educated, the absentee and dropout rates are at all time heights, and this is what the state cares about?
On that day, the New York State Education Department ordered all school districts in the state to remove “Indian” mascots and associated Native American imagery from their respective public school systems.
The memo, signed by State Education Department Senior Deputy Commissioner James Baldwin, warned that districts that continue to utilize Native American team names, logos, and/or imagery without current approval from a recognized tribe, "must immediately come into compliance,” or the districts found in violation would risk losing state funds.
Of course, this negates the history of the use of American Indian imagery and names related to sports teams and our American way of life, which began back in the late 1800s to laud these Native Americans, not to chide them.
Even a team name like the one used for the Cleveland American League baseball team, “The Indians,” was at least originally not used to dishonor Native Americans, but to honor them, as the name was used to honor one of the early players in franchise history, who happened to be an American Indian.
Of course, later on, the imagery did get a bit outside of that original testament to that Indian player, but that has all been taken care of, with the team now known as “The Guardians.”
There have been other similar instances in professional sports, most noteworthy being the Washington football team, which went from Redskins to Commanders.
And the Atlanta Braves—still the Braves whether they are in Atlanta or Milwaukee or Boston—and the team did tone down some of its imagery too.
But in this case, we are talking about public schools, and at least in the area I live in, the American Indian-related names have never been ;used to mock Native Americans, but to honor and revere them.
Right in my community, the school system’s team name is “The Chiefs,” and it was never used in a derogatory way in any way, shape or from.
It was used to honor these Native Americans, with the word “Chiefs” meaning "the best."
Look, English is an amalgam of many languages, and if we were to go to the granular level of every word, we would have to get rid of hundreds, if not thousands, of words, because they “irritated” some people.
In the case of the word “Chief,” we would have to get rid of not only the word, but the phrases surrounding the word, like “chief executive officer” and “editor-in-chief,” and heck, how about “commander in chief?”
“Chief” is used here as the top person, the best of the best, and how is that derogatory to Native Americans?
Look, you want to get rid of the imagery and the mascots, fine, but the name? How is the name an insult to American Indians in any way?
I think people have to chill out a little; some people seem to get offended by everything under the sun, looking for things to get upset about.
The next thing that will happen is that animal rights activists will get upset that school teams use animal names—like “The Tigers”—and they will sue to get those names removed too.
And of course money is tied into this, and of course, certain school districts which use the American Indian names are consulting their legal counsels to find out if they could fight this latest ruling.
Just what you want, money and lawyers getting into education, rather than the three R's.
There is a way out of all of this.
If a school district does not want to change their teams’ mamas when it comes to the use of American Indian monikers, it has to get approval from a recognized Indian nation to have a chance to gain approval of the name.
The town I live in has its very name tied into the Native Americans who once lived here, and thus the school distinct, to honor those people, named the school teams “Chiefs” in a positive way.
So the town I live in must get approval from that group—if those people even exist as a recognized American Indian group at this point in time—to win that approval.
One district near where I live actually did this years and years ago, if you want to believe what they say, so I guess if they can prove that they did gain this approval from a recognized group, they can continue to use the name without reprisal front the state.
This is all so very stupid and silly and a waste of time and money.
No matter what name you are going to use, you are going to probably offend someone, so it ends up putting the schools between a rock and a hard place, dumping agendas on them that only a minority of people in that community really care about.
We have just gotten out of a pandemic that put schools in predicaments that they have never seen before.
Kids are not getting educated, the absentee and dropout rates are at all time heights, and this is what the state cares about?
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