Not Again 

They're coming after my Alma Mater again:

Wauwatosa East High School is searching its soul, as befits schools with Indian nicknames. Its sports teams go by the handle the Red Raiders. The School Board is weighing whether to scrap the moniker. It should.

In fact, all 39 remaining school districts in Wisconsin with Indian nicknames should heed the call of Superintendent of Public Instruction Elizabeth Burmaster to discard the names and the accompanying logos and mascots.

My old high school, Wauwatosa East, is known as the "Red Raiders". For pretty much my entire time there, they're mascot was Tommy Raider:



Tommy Raider died my senior year... and was replaced with:



The upperclassmen fought tooth and nail to keep the old logo when we were there. It was pretty bitter. But the decision had already been made before we were even asked. They even brought in spokesmen from an Indian tribe to talk to us about how racist the logo was. Had the guy been from a local tribe, it might have held more weight. But this was some guy when flew around the country bitching at every school and sports team that used an Indian logo.

Now the old logo only exists on one wall of the Raider Room in the basement. Frankly, I'm shocked it wasn't painted over. But apparently the logo change wasn't enough. Now even the name has to go away according to many. My friend Josh went to a graduation there a couple years after we left. He told me they even took down all the old championship banners from previous years when the teams used the old logo (even though they weren't on the banners themselves). How sad is that? It wasn't enough to change logos... they had to go through and try to wipe away the entire history of the sports teams that played and won under the Indian head.

This sort of politically correct stuff really bugs the hell out of me. You know what Tosa East... I say if the local tribes want a name that honors them for what they are... then change the name to the "Bingo Playing Grannies". The logo could be a pair of false teeth biting down on a casino chip.

Via Shark and Shepard