JUST A THOUGHT COLUMN: A change will do no good
| SHOULD WE CHANGE THE APACHE? Faculty Response Student Response |
WHAT THE NEWSPAPER STAFF THINKS
EDITORIAL: Time for the board to take action |
By Nate Bloomquist
Apache Editor
Huntley, a town of a few thousand in the Chicago suburbs, may be in a world of its own. The city's high school board voted to keep the school mascot name, the Redskins, in a 4 - 3 vote.
Most board members say they would've liked to vote in favor of changing the name, but instead voted for keeping it due to local residents' influence.
Yet, Huntley school district superintendent Dr. Jerry Hartley says it's an issue that is far from being ended.
"I've got a file folder on this issue for 2001, 1999, and 1997," says Hartley, who's been superintendent in Huntley for seven years. "I'm sure I"ll be adding at least another file in a few years."
Residents of the suburban hamlet say leaving the mascot unchanged is historice and there's a tradition behind it. In part, they are right.
It's a tradition of racism, one that they are unaware of. The term Redskins is seen in the eye of a Native American as no less of a racial slur than Chinx is to a Chinese American. Pekin's high school changed its mascot name from the Chinx to the Dragons long ago.
But mascots aren't that big of a deal; they're simply a rallying cry for athletics. IVCC uses the Apache as its mascot. Originally it was the Comanche that the student body voted to be synonymous with the school, but instead, Apache was used because it was shorter.
The vote was taken in the 1940s when cowboy and Indian movies were produced in herds. A small, vocal group of Native Americans claim using the Apache name is offensive and sacreligious even though that's not its intent.
Huntley isn't celebrating the racial slur; instead they're celebrating the symbol of power and the Redskin warrior that was created by Hollywood, so what's the big deal?
At IVCC, there's no one dressed up in cowboy-and-Indian garb promenading at IVCC athletics events and there won't be any time soon.
But the name Apache, in the IVCC case, doesn't come from Native American culture. Instead it's part of American culture; it's also something of Hollywood.
The portrayal of Native Americans in movies is inaccurate; that's clear. The Apache mascot is a caricature; it's not meant to represent Native Americans. In fact, all mascots are that way.
The stereotypes about Native Americans are wrong, as all stereotypes are. But there's a lot of stereotypes in this country, in other mascots.
The National Football League's Pittsburgh Steelers portrays steelworkers as large, hulking men with a lunch box in one hand and a hammer in the other. Yet, no skinny female steelworker has ever complained about that.
Notre Dame, a Catholic university, uses the Fighting Irish as its mascot. If taken literally, it portrays all Irish Catholics as drunken belligerents who are out to pick a fight.
But there's no faction of offended Irishmen who want Notre Dame's namesake changed.
The Apaches are used because they're a symbol of power, a force to be reckoned with, as they were portrayed to be in post-war era movies.
No school would want to attach itself to a derogatory name.
Granted, IVCC isn't stuck in the 1940s, and a new tradition could be made if IVCC rallied around the Rocks, Cardinals, or whatever other symbol was chosen in the future. But that's not necessary.