For the longest time, Ygnacio Valley’s school mascot has been the “warrior”, accompanied by a depiction of an indigenous man wearing a headdress. Recently there have been changes to make the mascot a feather and arrow while keeping the name. This obviously still alludes to the caricature of native people used before, and it feels like we’re being fed a diet of bread and circuses while the racism continues. How do you expect us to show school pride when our mascot is a mockery of an identity does not belong to us? Indigenous citizens are PEOPLE, not mascots, and should be treated as such. When we allow smaller symptoms of racism like insensitive logos to go unchecked, we trivialize their experiences and identities. If the arrow, feather, and “tribal” imagery continue, it seems that the message being sent to students and the public is that native peoples and culture are not taken seriously at Ygnacio Valley. We will not settle for more subtle forms of racism against indigenous peoples, we stand with our native brothers and sisters, and we will not be satisfied until ALL racist imagery at YVHS is gone. With the recent changes we’ve seen being made to Cleveland’s baseball team, Washington’s football team, and even Stanford’s transition to the Cardinals from a native man wearing a headdress, it is clear that the time for progress is now. We leave it up to the School Board to decide whether they’d like to be a part of that progress, or henceforth stay stuck in the racist tendencies of the past. Growth and discomfort will inevitably come hand in hand, but I leave you with this, is a temporary inconvenience really more important to you than indigenous students’ right to learn and thrive in a non hostile environment?