A group of organizers in Massachusetts is leading the charge to push for state legislators to pass three bills in the state that would accomplish three things:
1) A full review of the Massachusetts state flag that analyzes what the group is deeming a racist depiction of a Native American with a sword over it's head.
2) Banning all public school Native American mascots throughout the state. The argument is that these mascots are "de-humanizing".
3) The return of Native American artifacts that would return them to the tribal community.
Senator Joanne Comerford is one of the lawmakers sponsoring the bill that would do away with all public school Native American mascots. She said this to local news outlet WBZ TV: "Research has shown that these kinds of mascots are both dehumanizing, especially Native American youths, but actually they perpetuate very negative, harmful stereotypes that hurt everybody."
There was a protest outside the State House, yesterday July 16th, 2020 to object the current state flag of Massachusetts and push for change.
These 3 bills proposed would need to be passed in a timely fashion, before the current Beacon Hill session ends on July 31st. Governor Charlie Baker says he is open to "conversations about changing certain symbols". Baker had this to say to WBZ-TV: "If people here in Massachusetts want to pursue discussions with respect to some of those, we’d be open to talking to them about it. Obviously it’s the sort of thing that would have to be done in conjunction with our colleagues in the legislature as well.”
What do you make of the proposed bills that would change the Massachusetts flag as well as do away with public school Native American mascots throughout the state? I have two different opinions on the matter. For starters with the Massachusetts state flag, on the surface, for those who have no idea about history or the story before the flag, it appears that the sword above the Native American is being brought down on him. Now, for those who know the history, the sword represents the arm of Myles Standish, who was a pilgrim who stood up to British tyranny and the sword in the air symbolizes that, not an attack on the Native American. Furthermore, the armed sword is above the shield with the Native American, meaning it's not connected. Secondly, the Native American on the flag represents the original settlers of this state and it gives homage to them. With that being, I think we do not need to replace the flag, I think we need to give people a history lesson in this state.
Then, when it comes to doing away with the public school mascots of Native Americans throughout the state, I don't understand how it's "de-humanizing". From my understanding, the mascots reflect the bravery, strength, and resilience of the Native American people as a whole and that's a positive thing so I don't understand how it's "de-humanizing." Now, the mascots are featured in the Native American cultural garb and maybe that's what some find offensive? With that though, most cultures are proud of their traditional and cultural garb so I don't see how displaying it is supposed to be "de-humanizing" or a "negative stereotype". In the case of the Washington Redskins who just decided to change their name, their logo is a Native American man in his cultural garb, not doing anything "racist" and it's not a cartoon depicting a stereotypical feature, it's an attractive looking Native American man so the push to change that logo escapes me. I'm not Native American so I can't speak to why they find it offensive but I can say I do not understand it. As an example though, I'm an Italian American among other things and I've seen plenty of product mascots that feature a dark haired Italian man with a mustache slinging a pizza with an apron on. While that is a stereotype that Italians make good pizza and pasta and I understand not all Italians are dark haired, have mustaches, or even are good at cooking, I think it's a positive attribute of the culture and I'm not offended by that, I say heck yeah we make good pizza and pasta! That's what we do with mascots, we showcase the positive attributes of their character and in no way is the goal of a mascot to be a racist depiction of the subject because if it was, why would we want that to represent us? In the case of the Native American mascots, why is it a bad thing to highlight warriors being brave; or the strength and resilience of the Native American people as a whole? It doesn't fully make sense to me but what do you think?
-Producer Lightning