JBHS Mascot Change
The Indian Mascot from my perspective.
I want to first start out by saying that I present as a Black woman. I was raised as a Black woman. I, in no way, based on how I present, want to diminish the horrid and tragic events that our Native Americans have and still go through to this day.
I moved to Burbank in 2004, with my husband, two elementary-aged children, and pregnant with my youngest child. It took years before my son entered high school. My son is a basketball player and signed up to play for the John Burroughs High School team. At the time, I walked into the gym and saw this huge painting of a Native American Chief. I immediately got nauseous and left the gym. I wasn’t even sure why that was happening to me. But I knew it was just wrong. I felt wronged.
As a child I had a different father from my siblings. My father is Native American. His mother left the South to protect the remaining children that the state hadn’t taken and put into residential schools. She ran up North and got a birth certificate that said “Negro” because no one wanted “Negro” children. While visiting with my Grandma Chrissy I felt normal. I looked like her and my father and Aunts. I had my “real name” there. Though Grandma Chrissy was always sad because she missed her other children, she was always happy to see me.
When I was with my mother’s family who were, Black and white I stuck out like a sore thumb. My siblings would run around me in a circle making a woo woo woo sound. My nickname there was “Mohicans,” which I later understood to be a reference to “The Last Of The Mohicans.” Back then Crayola had a crayon named Indian Red. All of the children around made sure they gave me “my” crayon out of their boxes.
I think that it’s the lies that are told to us that create spaces where people are harmed. It’s the intentional miseducation of the masses about how we, as a country, murdered, torchered, and decimated an entire group of people only to turn around and call them the savages. All of that is why a school would choose to adopt imagery, chanting, and memorabilia and think they are honoring a people, all while using a term that is in-and-of itself a racist word; Indian.
November of 2021 BUSD proclaimed it to be Native American Heritage Month. What stuck out to us at The Destiny Education Project was the signage at John Burroughs High School. How could we rightfully answer the call to truly honor our Native Tribes with a huge racist sign in front of the high school. Given the plans to invite Native leaders to our schools to speak to students, it seemed like we would be part of further traumatizing our Native community. Were they supposed to pull up and see a huge disrespectful sign with a Native Chief and the word Indian engraved on the front of the building?
The commitment to staying true to our Destiny Education Project mission meant that we had to support the district in any way to remove the racist image on the front of our high school. One of our founders Polly Stenberg spoke at the Board of Education meeting and offered our support for covering the sign. Destiny Education then followed up with the school facilities team to offer our support and share our knowledge on the history of Native Americans.
On November 10, 2021 we received photo confirmation from the facilities team that the sign had been painted over.
This was a major foundational shift. We have close to 3000 students attend John Burroughs High School every year. For years we have been sending our students out into the world with the understanding that racism is ok as long as you say you are honoring people. Students started asking questions and doing research on the topic of the mascot. Now we can uphold the district’s anti-racist policy. We can keep implementing honest/decolonized curriculum in our district. Going forward we can start supporting our Native communities. I feel a sense of relief. I am, for the first time in a long time, feeling hopeful.