Letter to the Editor
Portsmouth Herald—Seacoastonline
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Fight to get rid of Red Raider just beginning
At the April 11 meeting of the Rochester School Board's Special Services Committee, School Board Chair Nancy Warren made a remarkable admission for someone in a leadership position: "We don’t need to be a trendsetter. We never have been." She made this comment in reference to professional sports teams like the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins and their steadfast refusal to change their team names even after many years of protests from a large number of responsible American Indian, religious, educational, civil rights, and psychological related groups. She stated that until these teams change their names and symbols, there is no reason why Spaulding should do anything about the Red Raider name and logo.
Her excuses for inaction didn’t end there. She said that there's no money to change all the uniforms, though she neglected to mention how much she expects such a change to cost. In my view, that has more to do with attempting to instigate an unrealistic fear and confuse the issue than it does with reality. A recent published report put the school district's budget proposal at $47.5 million. At an earlier meeting David Colson, Spaulding Athletic Director, estimated the cost for new uniforms and other items at about $100,000. No one has ever suggested that every uniform for every team and all related icons from stationery to painted gym floors need to be changed all at once. A more sensible and less financially painful alternative is to make a gradual change through natural attrition and replacing items just as they would have been replaced regardless of whether a change had occurred or not. To the best of my knowledge, not a single public school or institution of higher education that has made a change has suffered an unreasonably significant financial consequence.
Since we're talking about tight purse-strings, what percentage of the sales of Red Raider merchandise is currently set aside for Native American charitable organizations? If we are, indeed, sincere about honoring Native Americans, I urge the School Board to learn more about organizations like NativeGiving.org, the United American Indians of New England, and the American Indian College Fund, and take immediate steps to share some of the school district's revenue with real Native Americans in need.
Ms. Warren also claimed that in her nine years on the School Board she's never heard that anyone was offended by the Red Raiders name and logo. When 97 percent of Rochester residents are white and nearly all of them love the Red Raider, wouldn’t one expect that the other 3 percent might feel intimidated and be hesitant to speak out? Numerous groups around the country have been condemning the use of these names and images for more than thirty years. Why are their voices so easy to ignore?
It was the stated claim of the Committee that it "wished to hear from the public on the issue of the Spaulding Red Raider Native American logo," with Committee Chair Peggy Parker indicating that the Committee anticipated acting on the issue at the close of the hearing. In addition to the public, speakers included two city councilors, two school administrators, and three members of the School Board, including Chairperson Warren, all of whom spoke in favor of retaining the name and logo. Mr. Callaghan went so far as to assure everyone present that he "would never vote for a change."
I thought a public hearing was to "hear from the public," not members of the city council and members of the very board conducting the hearing. Don’t these folks have enough opportunities to speak at regular city council and school board meetings? In my view, this was not a legitimate public hearing.
What would have happened during the civil rights movement of the 1960's if attempts for radical change were put to a majority-rule vote? Mr. Watson should be praised for making the motion to end the use of the Red Raiders name and logo by the end of this school year. His courage and integrity in taking the unpopular path are what leadership is all about.
I want to assure the more open-minded citizens of Rochester that, despite the claim of victory by school administrators and a good portion of the School Board, we're only getting started. I call on you to join with me in speaking out against the continued use of all ethnic stereotypes for our "fun and games."
Pete Sanfaçon
Framingham, Massachusetts
[Letter was sent to Foster's Daily Democrat on April 14 but was not printed.]