I feel so much better now that i know what im really saying now. but its revised
Janine San Juan
HIST 172: Landmarks of Civil Rights
Section: 3426
8 May 2010
We’re Not Going to Be Indians Anymore
Jefferson High is known as the school with “Indian” pride. Before going to Sojourn to the Past, I was on the side where being a Jefferson Indian was no big deal and told people to let this controversy go. I realize that it’s wrong to call ourselves Indians and that it‘s not okay to call ourselves a racial group. Being this mascot isn’t something high school students should proudly represent. The “Indian” is a word that makes people assume the American Indians were one whole race. Even from saying Native American or American Indian, it‘s incorrect to label all American Indian nations. It should be replaced by a more appropriate icon that will not insult or offend anyone attending the local high school or community. The “Indian” was once tradition, but that can change. America had its traditions, and with great events and direct action, its tradition was replaced for a better society and a new way of life. Now should be the time to have a chance to recreate the high school’s history by changing the mascot and let the community realize that it can still be the same Jefferson High people remember and love-without the “Indian”. My direct action plan is to remove the “Indian” in Jefferson completely and let the community know that the school is ready for change.
The bay area and its high schools are very competitive. When Jefferson plays this one high school at Half Moon Bay, the students at the school make banners and posters humiliating other teams’ mascots. As a South City Warrior gets destroyed by a Half Moon Bay Cougar, they depict Jefferson Indians as fat, brown, naked people with feathers on their heads running west. It also shows one man accidentally shooting himself with an arrow. When our parents were in their teen years, I wouldn‘t be surprised that they also pictured American Indians this way. So how have we progressed from the past? Not very much. The difference from then to now is that people are making this mascot a controversy and are aware it‘s insulting the Natives of this country, but no one‘s doing anything to stop such assumption that they’re one race. Our community has to learn that “Indians” are also human, that we can’t joke around about killing these type of people or else it might escalate to something that can separate ones idea of who in society is better and who’s inferior. The reason that this happens every year is American Indians don‘t live around the San Mateo County, so people feel like they‘re not hurting anyone when they draw these kind of people. We’re not directly making fun of American Indians, but we’re insulting them by keeping a picture of an “Indian” chief in front of the school and draw them as half naked “red skins”. There’s no one who really is from a Native tribe here in the town to tell us that the “Indian” mascot is wrong. A guest speaker who comes from a Native tribe should come to Daly City and talk about how s/he feels about our mascot. It’s more emotional if a true Ohlone or an American of native descent can come and touch the hearts of the students that a man with feathers on his head is not a mascot. The bay area is in need of social change and education that teaches us as people, we can’t separate ourselves from others who look different and make them as the mascot of a school or team.
My plan in trying to replace Jefferson High’s mascot is to bring awareness to the student body that it’s never right to keep a school tradition if it’s going to dehumanize a certain group of people. In order for that to happen, the principal of our school and even the PTA should be behind this idea 100% before anything happens and let students be aware of this change. When he approves, posters, presentations, guest speakers, wearable items, and student participation will happen in making this change. There will be posters that show how discriminating the nickname “Indian” is, with a list of other similar mascot names that are as discriminating as the Indian. Show how Jefferson “Mexicans”, Jefferson “Blacks”, Jefferson “Fobs” wouldn’t sound so proud to represent. These posters will be put around school and say things that show how wrong we were to still keep the name as a high school mascot visually. The presentations will consist of stories that bring examples of the words white people used to say to African Americans to insult and humiliate them. Ms. Elizabeth Eckford, one of the students from Little Rock Nine, had to experience such a traumatic event that eventually led her to PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder), maybe because of entering the army or from being called a nigger, being spit on, told to go back to Africa, and getting threatened to lynch her to a tree on her first day of school in Central High School because she was black and wanted the same opportunity as every other white teenager had. This experience can occur without us even understanding how wrong and unjust it is if we see an American Indian attending Jefferson High. If s/he were to be cornered by somebody, the other student would immediately approach the obvious way and call her/him out saying, “yeah you are meant to be in this school you ‘Indian’”, or call him/her “redskin”, “chief”, “blackout”, “red nigger”, and so much more. The American will be called out for that and students will assume since it’s okay to keep a chief warrior painting in front of the school, they can make jokes about American Indians. I can compare Ms. Eckford’s story with our mascot issue because both stories isolate a group of people, or one person who did nothing but try to live a normal life in America. Instead, America took the land of the Native, thought it was okay to put these people of color in specific areas of land, and let them suffer when one receives illness then it‘s easy for everyone else to catch whatever is in the air. America put these people of color in an economic disadvantage where other citizens of America have better education, better health care and all the simple rights citizens should have. America once declared people of color that they’re separate but equal, bring people of color down as the inferiority of the country. Ms. Eckford and the American Indians deserve at least a change of heart in us and replace our mascot to show respect of their physical characteristics. Many people in Jefferson won’t understand what the big deal about changing it in these presentations, no matter how good it is. That’s where the school would need guest speakers who really are from native tribes in America, specifically from the Ohlone tribe whose home originated in the San Francisco bay to the Monterey bay back in 500 BC, which would really get students to be concerned also. Like in Sojourn to the Past, I was very moved in the lessons, but meeting actual people who suffered through the Civil Rights movement, those who were actually there to watch discrimination and racism as a daily routine in their lives, guaranteed change of heart for me, and I predict it will change the hearts of our students at Jeff also. I need people who would know people from reservations across the country, and compensation for coming and to welcome him/her with food and anything else s/he needs. That’s where we would bring the student body to participate in helping us fundraise and find sponsors to give us resources like a place for her/him to stay and an itinerary for a nice visit in Daly City. What I mean with wearable items is to have resources for making pins, ribbons, stickers, and magnets that show an American Indian, or any person of color with a feather head gear and with a reasonable message on it, that would make students think about our mascot and how outsiders of the community would look at it as. Something that students can wear will be popular and while they wear the pins and ribbons, they’ll be educated, not necessarily agree but know it’s still a problem in our school. The budget for this to happen would round up to about 3,000 dollars or less. The type of support network that can be used are local radio stations who are for changing the mascot and down for shout-outs and messages about Jefferson’s plan. Popular radio stations like 106.1 KMEL and WILD 94.9 would attract the younger crowd. This will help get the word out that Jeff is serious about changing. Or Jefferson’s school newspaper, TomTom, will share a good word out about it. Even the San Francisco Chronicle or The Examiner can help the community see what Jefferson is doing with their mascot and share our story.
A good friend of mine, Pepper-who’s popular among Jeff students and is always preppy, everyone loves her-once mentioned to our vice principal that “it’s always been tradition and we’re trying to honor the Indians by keeping them as our mascot. They’re our icon, not a mascot, actually. I mean, there once was an Indian reservation where Jefferson is now.” Most of her friends also agree with what she stands for. Jefferson students usually wear feathers and leather vests during homecoming week and it looks like an exciting and spirited school, but what they don’t understand is that they’re really mocking the old ways of the Native tribes. We used to see it to symbolize the warrior in the “Indians”, strength, and honor to those Natives who struggled to fight for their land. It’s hard to counter-argue these points because it’s a great way to look at it. But the opinions of an Indian-American, makes a true point. Another good friend of mine, Shawn, and also a fellow Sojourner, says that-
“First of all, the mascot that we picture it to be isn’t Indian, it’s Native-American. Calling them Indian is stupid because Indians are from India, and putting them in the position of a mascot is mocking them because mascots are traditionally animals, not a race. I feel like it should be removed because we are dehumanizing a certain group of people. I’m Indian-American, and to see that society thinks of Native Americans as Indians is also making fun of my culture and what do I have to say about that? It doesn’t matter anyways because people aren’t even trying to make this mascot go away today. Indian-Americans have their side to this also. It’s not only hurting the Native-Americans, but also another part of the world. Heck, the whole world is affected. When we put a certain group of people in a position where it’s usually an animal that should be represented, who’s to say that it could have been any other type of race in the world?”
He pretty much generalized my point for me. He tells a group of Sojourners with frustration that every time he looks at signs and images that have an American Indian on it with the word Indian under, it makes him question America and its priorities in racial equality, not the equality of American Indians, but racial equality of Indian-Americans. My society is in need of education and to be free of ignorance because this shows the present is not much different to the past, to think that all this racial equality has already been resolved, we’re now applying racism in the simplest form like an “Indian” as our school mascot. Pepper wanted to keep school tradition because her family has a line of Jefferson alumni’s who were always behind the “Indian” spirit and old ways. If we want to honor our citizens from native America, why not just donate money or useful things to reservations or visit their homes? As I had mentioned, American Indians are in a large economic disadvantage. If we want to show respect and honor to them, and to show they’re iconic, we should help them out to show that we understand their issues and would like them to realize that they may be fallen heroes, but heroes nonetheless, that they fought for their land until they could fight no more. We can’t let tradition stop us from doing what’s right. America once had tradition where the black man was forced to sit in the back of the bus, where public facilities and restaurants were segregated by the color of their skin, where some types of people were not even allowed to immigrate to America, where integration was a bad thing, where the right to vote was the rights of only a white man, where citizens of color didn’t have the same rights as white citizens. These were some of many traditions in America where it was once followed, but people like Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Fred Korematsu, the four black college students integrating a white restaurant and many more fought for change and what was right. This “Indian” mascot is not right, and it’s in need for change. Change is not always bad, even some change in America became our history even though it‘s not printed in school text books. We can’t settle for the same thing all the time, we need to settle for a better tomorrow.
Potential resistance that might be faced along the way are the parents who once attended the school and their beliefs in tradition. There wouldn’t be much resistance except for students and the community who don’t understand why. Ignorance will be this idea’s potential resistance. The only way to evaluate the success in creating a new mascot is to finally see the images-the chief in front of our school and gym, the stickers and signs that say Jefferson “Indians”, anything that consists of feathers, war paint and brown people on our buildings-gone. Those who oppose should learn that removing the word “Indian” from our school will respect the old tribe that once reside on Jefferson soil who were not called Indians but the people of Ohlone or Sioux or Cherokee or Apache and many more tribes who deserve their culture to be more than an “Indian” culture. Changing the school’s mascot will be one step to a better future for the community, the fore-fathers of the civil rights movements would be proud to see that a high school understands even the littlest of things deserve justice.
People in the community should realize that changing the mascot is bigger than how they look at it. Replacing the mascot will make Jefferson show respect to all those tribes that have felt insulted by the “Indian” mascots all over America. The school’s social change will affect the whole community as well. It’s a domino effect. When people see someone they look up to or see somebody that is notable in the town be happy with the change, people will see things differently and accept change also. If the Jefferson mascot were to be replaced, it won’t ruin the spirits of past years. If anything, it would heighten our spirits, heighten and change the reputation our school has had for many generations. With the thought of a new mascot will also make people think of the thought of a new history. 88 years of Jefferson pride won’t be erased, there will just be history added on. Social change and everything that consists of change always starts small. I couldn’t think of a better quote than a quote in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of many leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, “If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” Changing Jefferson High’s mascot will be the small beginning of many other changes in the community that deals with racial equality. After replacing the mascot, the “Indian” will be just the past, there will be no looking back, and keep moving forward.
Who knows what Jefferson High’s mascot would be after removing the “Indian”. The Jefferson “Thunder”, the fighting “Bears”, the talking “Maddens”? As long as we don’t repeat the past and mock a certain group of people again, everyone will be happy. My Direct Action is to enlighten, educate and let people know that “Indians” will not represent Jefferson anymore. People’s lives were taken back then when they talked about change. Now that we have the opportunity to propose a direct action for change, it shows that our history gave us the path to fight for what’s right and take advantage at all the things that are thrown at us and beyond. Students will realize that there are better and more sensible mascot names and symbols Jefferson can proudly represent. -j9