As the school year comes to an end, so does the voting of mascots which we may need to have by the end of the year. Strangely, we must put away a mascot which has been with our school so why now. Well reader, in this article we will talk about why this mascot shall be changed, the history of it, and a student’s view on it.
The reason why it is being changed is due to an bill-1356 where it’s states in act-one in page one it’s states¨Relating to prohibiting the inappropriate use of Native American names, symbols, or images as public school mascots, logos, or team names;¨ As it was highlighted, we must change the mascot is due to this bill and our mascot is demand inappropriate use. At first the mascot Indian does seem to be an inappropriate use of it, however, we do know the understanding behind the meaning of such a mascot. The mascot and name of the ¨ Renton high school basketball team with Henry Moses, when rival mocked their team by calling them the ¨Indians¨ the players decided to claim the name¨ As this demonstrates the reason behind such an name for the Renton high school was defiance to their time racism and was post to give pride. Overall the reason behind why it had to be changed was due to a Washington bill which states the mascot is inappropriate in modern world view, the history behind it was to give students a way to own back their identity.
Now let us now take a look at what that mascot is viewed in our current day, and does that belief still hold today or does it mean something else. In the modern day, such mascots could represent something else, such is the case of Lekanoff where she found them misused ¨“We’re trying to remind Americans that they are Native American people. They are not animals. They are not symbols. They are not something to be used in a disrespectful way,” this highlights that
The mascot today is no longer a symbol of which stood in defiance but being used as an easy way to have a mascot. Our mascot was indeed posted to support a message which was social justice, but still was being used to create merchandise. Overall the student body should consider why we are changing it now, and the effect this mascot had in the past and current day.