Thoughts on Mascots

 

Troy D. Smith

Below is the text of a statement I made recently on the official Facebook page of Putnam County Commissioner Andrew Donadio, in response to his announcement that the education board had declined to form a committee to reconsider the Algood Red****s mascot.

I graduated from White County High School in Sparta. Our mascot has always been the Warriors… as in Sparta Warriors, as in classical Greece. Recently someone over there –I think it was the principal –decided to move the large Greek warrior statue from the front entrance to a less visible part of the school, and to paint over the large Warrior painting in the gym that was paid for by the class of 1970 and has been there ever since –as I understand it, because some people who had not gone to that school believed it was dirty and tacky. Now several generations of alumni are hopping mad over it, because their sense of history has been callously swept away. I am among their number. I think that was a stupid decision to make and a wrong one. I am furious.

All that was to say that, even though I am not from Algood, I understand your attachment to a school mascot. It is an integral part of a community, and becomes a part of your identity. It is also to say that –especially as a professional historian –I share your love and respect of history.

But let me explain what is different about these two cases. The Sparta Warriors is a mascot that represents, historically, a group that 2500-3000 years ago helped make up the fabric of Greco-Roman civilization, thus European civilization, thus western civilization. There is a lot to admire about Spartan culture (and a lot not to)… but they are not, and never have been since the founding of this country, a marginalized group. There are not descendants of ancient Spartans living in our community who view The Warrior as appropriating their culture or as insulting them –and if there were they would have a very weak argument.

On the other hand, there are Native American people –in this community and around the country –who are offended by their culture being used as mascots and particularly incensed at this particular word, which has been considered an insult since at least the 1800s and which is tied up with historical oppression of Native people.

And here is something that I don’t think has been brought into this discussion yet. The Algood mascot is portrayed as wearing a feathered war bonnet. That is historically inaccurate, as only tribes from the Great Plains use such a headdress, it has no connection to Tennessee whatsoever. Among those tribes who used it, that headgear is considered –still –as sacred, with huge spiritual and political importance. Only certain leaders are given the right to wear it. The feathers represent acts of courage or service to the community. Using it on a mascot is very similar to having a mascot who wears a Papal mitre (the Pope’s hat) festooned with purple heart medals. Such a mascot would be offensive (understandably) to many Catholics as well as to many who consider purple hearts to be items that should be treated with respect because of what they represent.

Some people, including me, have pointed out that it’s a safe bet the majority of people in Putnam County opposed desegregation. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have been done. Now, I’m not saying that the people who love this mascot are the sort of people who would be in favor of segregation. I’m not saying that at all. I am saying they do not really understand what it means and how it feels to others who are not in the majority. I am saying, right here in this venue, that I DO understand what it means and how it feels to you, and I am asking you to do the same for others.

Sometimes, once you learn about certain things that make up your identity and your past, you realize you have to let them go in order to grow. It is hard. It should not be done, as it was in Sparta, because some outsider just thinks it is tacky. But if it has real effects on real people whom you know and respect, and if it holds your community back, you need to do it.

www.troyduanesmith.com