Winchester Star
Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Teach children what it means to show respect

I am responding to a recent column by Lynn Oldach-Engle ("What's in a name?" Feb. 20) regarding the "Redmen" nickname at Natick High School. Ms. Engle's claim that "an alumna of Natick High School decried the name as offensive and now the town is considering changing it" overly simplifies the issues that have been under discussion in Natick and across New England and across the country over the past 40 years. Should federal tax dollars continue to support schools that use racial stereotypes as sports team mascots, nicknames, and logos?

According to a 2001 statement by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, "The fight to eliminate Indian nicknames and images in sports is only one front of the larger battle to eliminate obstacles that confront American Indians. The elimination of Native American nicknames and images as sports mascots will benefit not only Native Americans, but all Americans. The elimination of stereotypes will make room for education about real Indian people, current Native American issues, and the rich variety of American Indian cultures in our country."

The National Congress of American Indians, in their 1993 statement, "denounce[d] the use of any American Indian name or Artifice associated with Indian mascots" and called upon "all reasonable individuals in decision making positions to voluntarily change racist and dehumanizing mascots." Last year Dedham High School did just that.

In March 2007, after spending three months listening to Native American people share their opinions that the "Redmen" nickname is offensive, the Natick School Committee voted to end the use of the nickname by this coming September. Do the opinions of American Indians have no merit?

Natick High School has no course in Native American Studies. Winchester High School and more than 40 other high schools in Massachusetts that use nicknames like "Redmen," "Indians," and "Sachems" claim to be honoring Native American people yet offer no course to educate the student body about Native American history. History classes in the U.S. are Eurocentric, celebrating westward expansion and neglecting the truth about the genocide of the indigenous peoples of this hemisphere; what author David E. Stannard has called the "American Holocaust."

If the meanings of words change over time, as Ms. Engle put it, then we should listen to Native people who are telling us to stop using these nicknames and images for sports entertainment and start teaching our children what it really means to show respect.

Peter Sanfaçon
New England Anti-Mascot Coalition
Framingham