Schools should drop offensive nicknames now

The National Football League team formerly known as the Redskins now, at long last, has a new name.

The team’s interim name — “Washington

Football Team” — might not have a lot of sizzle, but it’s immeasurably better than a racist slur. The only question is what took so long.

The question for a handful of Connecticut high schools is: What’s taking so long?

While many high schools in recent months have dropped their Native American mascots and nicknames — RHAM’s “Sachems” are now the “Raptors,” and it appears that Glastonbury High School’s “Tomahawks” are on the way out — other high schools need to recognize the damage they are doing by continuing to use Native American imagery.

In addition to the “Tomahawks,” there remain at least six schools using the “Indians” mascot, six “Warriors” (although some say they refer to Greek mythology), a “Chiefs” and a “Chieftains,” two “Red Raiders” and, most offensive of all, the Killingly “Redmen,” replete with headdress feather insignia.

Farmington and Newington are actively considering whether to change their “Indians” nicknames, and they should.

Earlier this month, when Glastonbury High School voted to advance a plan to phase out the school’s “Tomahawks” nickname and logo, residents weighed in. There were petitions for and against the change, but the number of signatures on the petition opposed to the change had about 1,000 more names.

The amount of support the petition received is startling, but it also shows how much our communities need to engage in this conversation, which is part of a broader national dialogue that has been too long in coming.

Most of the opposition to such mascot changes seems to come from those who insist that there is nothing offensive in co-opting Native American names, faces and symbols — but that is not their decision to make.

“Native American mascots, often portrayed as caricatures or cartoons, are demeaning to Native Americans, and it is our opinion that they should not be used,” Nipmuc Tribal Council Chairman Kenneth Gould Sr. said last year.

That is about as clear as can be. Communities should respect their point of view.

The state legislature has weighed passing a law that would ban such nicknames, and we have supported that move, although it would be far better if communities made that choice on their own.

It is unfortunate that some put more value in tradition than in compassion. There’s nothing wrong with tradition — unless the tradition is hurtful to a people or harmful to progress.

Killingly’s Redmen, along with Derby’s and Torrington’s Red Raiders, are the worst, and residents of those communities must restart their own conversations about what is important.

We are all familiar with stereotypes about nearly every race or ethnicity. They used to be common. Watch a rerun of “All In The Family” for a refresher.

But we have moved on from that. Stereotypes are cheap and hurtful. They do more to divide than unite. Being sensitive to the wishes of marginalized groups is no longer simply “politically correct” — it’s just the right thing to do.

Team names can be fun and frivolous, like the Yard Goats or any number of Minor League Baseball teams that have plucked quirky but relevant names from their communities’ histories. Names can be fierce, like the Raptors, or quaint, like the Red Sox. They do not have to be mean-spirited or racist. This national conversation about the importance and power of the words we use — or even the letters, such as the capital “B” in “Black” that The Courant and other newspapers has adopted when referring to the people — is critical. The words we use define how we think about things.

If 2020 is teaching us anything, it’s that we need to rethink our past — and what our “new normal” should be.