Dump racist names

What’s in a name?

A lot, if it fosters discriminatory thinking against members of Canada’s nearly 600 distinct First Nations.

That’s why Education Minister Mitzie Hunter was right last week to tell Ontario’s school boards to work with indigenous community leaders and students to review all school team names, logos and mascots to make sure they are not offensive.

The move to rid schools of any such long-standing team names as the Braves, Chiefs, Warriors or Eskimos, along with logos like feathers or headdresses, is welcome but long overdue.

For too long some schools — which, after all, should be our first line of defence against racism — have ignored requests by indigenous leaders to change names, logos and mascots that inspire pain or anger.

Indeed, the American Psychological Association declared a decade ago that aboriginal names and mascots create a “hostile learning environment” for indigenous students, affirming negative stereotypes and eroding self-worth.

Thankfully, even before Hunter’s directive some Ontario schools had changed their team’s brands.

Last year, for example, Port Credit Secondary School in Mississauga and Chinguacousy Secondary School in Brampton made changes to their sports teams’ branding after an indigenous advisory committee deemed them disrespectful.

Chinguacousy’s team, formerly the Chiefs, is now the Timberwolves. And while Port Credit is keeping the name Warriors, it is changing its logo, which was similar to the Chicago Blackhawks’.

Still, there are holdouts, such as the Northern Secondary Braves in Sturgeon Falls, Hamilton’s Sir John A. Macdonald Chiefs and the North Bay Chippewa Raiders with their mascot wearing a headdress on their website.

This despite the emotionally charged, consciousness-raising debate that occurred last fall when the Toronto Blue Jays played the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship Series, not to mention the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action.

Hunter’s directive means schools that have been insensitive to racial stereotyping will have to change.

“We won’t tolerate any form of discrimination in schools,” Hunter told the Star. “We want our schools to be safe and accepting and inclusive places for all.”

It’s too bad it takes a letter to school board directors and chairs to demand change. But at least now it will happen.

Mitzie Hunter’s directive means schools that have been insensitive to racial stereotyping will have to change