I have been on a hiatus due to COVID-19 response efforts, but today I must end my silence.
We are standing on a precipice of change, where our next step is either progress toward equity or continuing blind complacency. Mahopac’s elected officials and candidates have been SILENT on condemning racially unjust systems and proposing solutions that our district can actively do to truly welcome diversity and inclusion! Vacant words of support are unacceptable, The Dignity for All Students Act is not enough, and the years of ignoring students of color and proposed solutions MUST. END. NOW.
I come to you today with the opportunity to be a better ally and demand action from our community! A new coalition has formed, created by community members of color and composed of hundreds of neighbors and allies, vying for equity in our municipality, Mahopac For Racial Justice. Since our administration has failed to do the work, inaugural members of this coalition have decided to do it for you. We have written a letter to the superintendent, school board members & candidates, and the community at large demanding three actions:
1) Removing the “Indian” mascot,
2) Creating a Committee on Diversity & Inclusion, and
3) Ensuring timely public response to condemn acts of hate.
Speak your narrative. Let administration know your experience with racism in the school district and community. For the sake of our neighbors of color, join them in holding our local representatives accountable.
Facebook: @Mahopac For Racial Justice
Twitter: pac4racialjustice
Instagram: pac4racialjustice
~Sincerely,
Daniel Ehrenpreis
_____________________
TO: The Residents of Mahopac and Surrounding Communities, Anthony DiCarlo, Melody LaRocca, Leslie Mancuso, Michael Mongon, David Furfaro, Lawrence Keane, Ray McDonough, Lucy Massafra, Mark O’Connor, Adam Savino, Michael Simone, Ben DiLullo, Tanner McCracken, & Gilbert McMahon
FROM: Mahopac for Racial Justice (A New Coalition of Hundreds of Neighbors)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: mahopacforracialjustice@gmail.com
June 1st, 2020 - Our school district and municipality have witnessed our student body make headlines for racist remarks and racially-incited incidents. These incidents are not random or isolated. Rather, they signify a larger problem: the prevalence of racism within our school district and community. Although recent events have sparked the conversation about racism in our nation, Mahopac residents have been speaking up about anti-racist actions our community needs to take for years, but our voices have not been heard. The purpose of this letter is to urge our current board members and candidates to develop an action plan to address this injustice through three steps:
1) Removing the “Indian” mascot,
2) Creating a Committee on Diversity & Inclusion, and
3) Ensuring timely public response to condemn acts of hate.
As the blatant racism in America is currently being addressed through protests over the unjust death of George Floyd, let us remind the district that the Mahopac Central School District (MCSD) has not been innocent in creating a culture that allows racist actions to persist, the same culture that has taken so many Black lives. In 2014, Mahopac high-schoolers made racist comments during a basketball game against Mount Vernon High School. Specifically, the Mahopac students used Twitter to degrade the Mount Vernon students after suffering a loss. To name a few, our students belittled and stereotyped Mount Vernon students’ income status and family situations, and made racial remarks by referring to them as “monkeys” and “gorillas. While this led to the creation of sensitivity training and consequences for students involved, it has not corrected the underlying issue.
A similar incident occurred in 2019, where our Junior Varsity Lacrosse players insulted players from New Rochelle High School with racist remarks and actions. In detail, our students called others “(expletive) Mexicans” and refused to shake hands with Black athletes from the opposing team. These incidents are calculated and intentional as they only happen when our predominantly white student body interacts with schools of diverse student bodies. These incidents are a symptom of lack of action taken by our leaders— our educators, our school board members, our trustees, and our own community members. Upholding the Dignity For All Students Act (DASA) can no longer be used as your facade for “promoting diversity and inclusion”.
Removing the race-based athletic identity that Mahopac has held onto will help to create an environment that fosters equitable treatment of minoritized groups in our schools and community. Notably, our mascot remains an “Indian,” which perpetuates derogatory stereotypes of Native Americans. The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and the American Psychological Association (APA) have called for schools, athletic teams, and other organizations to remove the “Indian” mascot due to minoritized youth bearing impacts of confused self-identity, poor self-esteem, decreased positive belief in their communities, and decreased belief about their ability to reach their goals. Continued use of race-based athletic identities promotes normed and acceptable prejudiced behavior to non-Native Americans. In order to create change we need to make the decision to abandon this tradition and to choose our student’s well being first. For years, community members have tried to remove this mascot but have been met with no resolution. The district is also very aware of the condemnation it has received from organizations who actively support and amplify Native American voices, such as: The Wisconsin “Indian” Education Association, Religious Americans Against “Indian” Nicknames and Logos (RAAINL), Maulian Dana & Penobscot Nation, The John Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, and Coalition of Natives and Allies. NCAI, the oldest and largest organization representing Native Americans in the United States, has even contacted the school board and superintendent condemning our race-based athletic identity, but with no response from administration. The MCSD has refused to listen to members of its own community and members of the communities who our mascot is harming.
Many surrounding communities have previously shared the “Indian” mascot, including the Katonah-Lewisboro School District, Yonkers Public Schools, the Ossining Union-Free School District, and the Rhinebeck Central School District. However, each of these districts have since changed their mascots to other titles such as “the Sharks,” “O Pride,” and “the Hawks,” over the past 15 years. It is time the MCSD follows suit in acknowledging that the use of the “Indian” as a mascot perpetuates derogatory ideals in relation to the Native American community, and situates the Native American population, identity, and culture in a stereotypical manner. A counter petition was created in response to a previously circulating petition calling to retire the Mahopac “Indian” mascot in December 2019. In this opposing petition, some community members expressed that our mascot “pays homage to the native people of the town” and that changing the mascot would “erase them from our history.” However, the curriculum within the MCSD has not provided education on the Algonquin tribes that resided in the Mahopac area, nor has the district formed a Committee on Diversity and Inclusion in order to educate its students and community members on the topics addressed in this letter. If the Mahopac community would like to pay homage to the Native American community that preceded us, we will honor them by retiring the “Indian” mascot, acknowledging and empowering our students of color, and educating our community. Our municipality is full of “Pac Pride,” so no matter the mascot, we will continue to uplift and support our community— with a new, culturally-responsive mascot that better represents who we are.
Mahopac is a community with evident racial disparities but there have been no steps taken to create a task force to address these achievement gaps. In 2015, The U.S. Department of Education released civil rights data on every public K-12 school in the country. For Mahopac Central School District, racial disparities were shown throughout the report however, one instance was how non-White Hispanic students, who made up less than 16% of the school population, accounted for more than 35% of all out of school suspensions. It is now the responsibility of this district to create a Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. The committee should encompass people with multidisciplinary perspectives to ensure that voices do not go unheard. This committee should be tasked with: proposing updates to school policy in regard to equitable treatment of all students, generating monitoring and evaluative measures/reports related to maintaining, and developing inclusivity. This task force would be open to all constituents and would center on three key points, based on the New York University Ad Hoc Advisory Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion: 1) Allowing all residents of Mahopac along with faculty, staff, and students of the MCSD to share their input on the state of our school district in matters of diversity, inclusion and equity. This would create discourse on diversity and inclusion issues plaguing our community. 2) Identifying future solutions and mechanisms to create a more equitable school district for all students despite race, class, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship status, etc. 3) Implementing programs and policy changes that can better the state of our school district. These solutions can range from hiring more faculty of color, investing in more art/music programs that center the experiences of our diverse student body, creating classes for ethnic studies, inviting outside speakers and influencers of color, and creating concrete steps to bring these changes about in our district.
Administration and elected school officials need to briskly and openly condemn acts of hate internal and external to community lines. For example, issuance of statements of support on behalf of impacted students after incidents of hate— at most 48 hours after the incidents occur. Staying silent in the wake of injustice only augments the power of hate, which will further damage our communities. It is imperative to denounce acts of hate and bias on a community scale and on a global scale. In reference to this incident with the global protests in honor of George Floyd and President Donald Trump’s interference, a statement is needed, on behalf of all students, in an unambiguous manner. If our elected officials truly respect our residents of color, then they must take a stance saying hate has no place here. You must check in with our students and families; seeing this as an opportunity to educate ourselves and move forward.
What can exactly be done on behalf of our community? How do we stop these incidents from occurring? How do we make students from impacted backgrounds feel safe and welcomed in our community? We might not have the answer to that, but we know what we should not do. We should not sit in silence as we watch riots break out across the country, in the midst of a pandemic, impacting Black Americans. We know that it does not look like an allowance for candidates running to represent our school board, one of the most powerful positions in our community, to sit idly by while across the country fires burn in order for impacted people to be seen. We know that true justice in our community doesn’t look like multiple racial incidents occurring within our school district as well as keeping a mascot that is shown to psychologically harm minority youth— and having that tarnish our reputation. In light of this time, we have the choice to take a stance and change our future, we have the choice to be vehemently anti-racist and culturally-responsive. To reiterate our action plan: we urge our current board members and candidates to develop an action plan to address this injustice through three steps: 1)Removing the “Indian” mascot, 2) Creating a Committee on Diversity & Inclusion, and 3) Ensuring timely public response to condemn acts of hate. Work with us. Not against us. Your community is damaged by your complacency.