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week
of 4/10/02
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Stereotypes
don’t make good icons To the editor: I have been watching the progress of the Confederate mascot debate with some interest. I see both sides presented with some degree of consideration, yet no one has as of yet addressed the problem from where I see it. The slavery issue, for both Black and White, is a sensitive one. My Scots-Irish ancestors never owned slaves. Ours was a life of hard work with little reward. We were not the plantation owners of the Deep South nor the Abolitionists of the North. Our bunch was too concerned with making our own ends meet to worry about those of others. America as it were offered my ancestors a respite from impending famine and poverty; a life of hoeing small crops and falling further and further into debt. America was the proverbial “land of opportunity.” Yet, in the new country there existed slavery, a condition that our kind barely avoided yet could sympathize with. A situation so vile that it still raises eyebrows and emotions even today. Slavery held down fellow humans in the same situation that my ancestors were in. They escaped it themeselves, but only due to their fair skin. They still wrestled with constant poverty, prejudice from the locals, and the ever-present struggle to become something better. And thus it is that which gives me discomfort. As a White person, it makes me uncomfortable to think that my fellow Whites exacted this upon those of darker skin. It makes me mad that so many injustices were carried out simply because of race. I suppose I am the “guilty White man.” And that, I feel, is why so many people of all races want to abolish the exhibition of the Confederate flag and its related mascots. A stereotypical rebel, replete in white suit and tie, causes discomfort. Knowing that my people legally repressed tens of thousands of Blacks makes me uncomfortable. Knowing that my race dictated centuries of prejudice upon another makes me squirm and therefore is something that should not be celebrated. I personally have been acquainted with people of many colors, Black and White included. Not once has the past come back to haunt our association. But seeing such stereotypes being paraded around as icons brings only an uneasy pause in the dialogue of racial relations. Yes, you may rebuke my argument by calling me a liberal. I will take that not as a compliment, but as one person’s unsubstantiated judgment of another. And yes, if we forget history we are doomed to repeat it. However, speaking as someone whose American heritage lies firmly (entirely, for that matter) in the South I would wager that the majority of those in support of the Rebel mascott would quiver at the sight of a Nazi mascot (“And entering the field, the Fighting Hitlers”). And thus, the use of such a controversial Southern “icon” should not be excused as grandstanding by liberals or the opposing response of conservatives. It is an argument the results of which will set the tone for acceptance of different races for generations to come. Let the history of our nation remind us of our notorious past; let’s not also be reminded by the caricatures of our government-funded school mascots. Arthur C. Wiley Waynesville |