The Power and Class of New England has a long standing tradition of including the words “Ooga Booga” in its dance routines. This is a slang term that mocks so called “primitive speak”, and parodies the dialect of indigenous African and Aboriginal tribes.

This “Ooga Booga” is a extremely dated and highly insensitive. It represents a past when white colonizers viewed indigenous cultures as savages. By retaining the “Ooga Booga” the Umass Minuteman Marching band violates one of its core goals, to be the power and CLASS of New England.

Stay classy UMMB, remove the “Ooga Booga”.