Public schools in North Myrtle Beach - the most notable being NMB High - have been known as the Chiefs since 1970. Since then, many students and teachers wore the school’s mascot with pride. Yet as of recently, more and more people have brought attention to the racist implications of such mascots. According to Wikipedia: “such mascots maintain harmful stereotypes that are discriminatory and cause harm by distorting the past and preventing understanding of Native American/First Nations peoples in the present.”

The history behind the mascot is not clean, either, as the mascots of previous schools have consisted of “The Braves” and “The Indians.”

The stereotypes of indigenous peoples goes beyond the mascot, though, as many logos and paintings around the schools depict arrowheads, arrows, and the plains Cherokee headdress. In addition, those who dress up as the mascot during pep rallies wear a headdress, a mask with war paint, and brown clothes reminiscent of stereotypical native clothing. NMB Middle even has a tradition of passing around a special axe for winners of pep rally games - an axe clearly inspired by native aesthetics.

Many states in America have changed their native-themed logos and mascots after recognizing the issues with reinforcing harmful stereotypes of Native Americans. As a former student of North Myrtle Beach High, I do not want to see our schools fall behind on this. We should be able to represent ourselves as a community with another mascot - one that is not made at the expense of indigenous folk.

We should band together as a community and find a better mascot to introduce to our schools.

TL;DR: North Myrtle Beach’s school mascot, “The Chiefs”, should be changed due to the racist implications and stereotypes.