Onus on Lamar High to join 21st century
by RANDY HARVEY randy.harvey@chron.com
twitter.com/randyharvey
Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle 10/27/2013
It is time for the Lamar High School Redskins to change their
nickname.
It actually is past time.
A good time would have been 15 years ago. According to a 1999
article in the Houston Press, Kenyon Weaver, a Lamar senior, began a campaign the
year before to change the nickname.
His impetus was a vacation he took the previous summer to Santa
Fe, N.M. When he started to don his Redskins sweatshirt, his mother, a University
of Houston professor, counseled him against it, warning him the name would offend
many of the city s American Indian residents.
Upon returning to school, Weaver used his position as a member
of the Lamar student senate to place a referendum before students.
The only decent thing to do
the only worthy cause was
the Lamar Redskins, Weaver told the
Press.
After heated debate, students overwhelmingly voted to remain Redskins,
although Weaver said his effort was sabotaged by school officials when students
were told they would have to pay for the expense of changing the logo.
Inseparable marriage
Weaver now is a Harvard-educated attorney working for a major
law firm in the nation s capital, where he is reminded daily of his lost cause because
of the controversy over the nickname of the city s NFL team.
There are a lot of parallels, Weaver said recently.
You ve got the same kind of gut-level reaction here that we had in Houston.
Many people find their identities inseparable from Washington Redskins or Lamar
Redskins.
Lamar school officials today say the nickname has not been an
issue in years.
Why make it one?
Because it s wrong.
Who says?
The National Congress of American Indians, which has declared
that the use of nicknames and imagery
perpetuates stereotypes of American Indians that are harmful, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the
NCAA and the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which defines the name Redskins in particular as one that is very offensive and should be avoided.
Among others.
To an extent, Lamar officials have acknowledged the nickname is
wrong by disassociating the school from virtually everything about it except the
nickname itself.
There is little evidence at Lamar that the school mascot remains
Redskins, starting with the elimination of the mascot. It was a big-toothed, big-nosed,
diaper-clad artificial statue called Big Red that was trotted out at sports events.
Any new teams, groups or awards will be known simply as Lamar.
Drill team members are known as Rangerettes.
Give the school credit for doing a lot to right its wrong. But
it hasn t done as much as some. According to Capital News Service, 62 high schools
in 22 states are known as Redskins while 28 high schools in 18 states dropped the
nickname within the last 25 years.
Principal James Mc-Swain, who was in the same role when Kenyon
Weaver was a student, said recently if Lamar were a new school choosing a nickname
that it wouldn t be Redskins.
What s the holdup?
Weaver, while expressing respect for McSwain, counters with a
question he might ask in cross-examination.
If that is McSwain s belief, why doesn t he encourage the school
to take the one last, inevitable step?
If they had done this in 1998, it wouldn t have even registered five years
later, Weaver said.
McSwain said the nickname was chosen when the school was established
in 1936 to honor American Indians, and while it might some day change, the prevailing
alumni sentiment is that it remains a positive symbol.
We want to honor our historical values, to honor the cultural heritage but
at the same time be respectful of future views, he said.
That s a fine line.
It is a worthwhile goal to honor cultural heritage. That can be
done by teaching it accurately and respectfully in classrooms.
Lesson One: The term
redskins is believed by many
to refer to the scalps of American Indians after they were removed by bounty hunters.
Origin rooted in bigotry
For that reason, the history of Redskins as a sports nickname,
as well-intentioned as its adoption might have been by Lamar High School and others,
is repulsive. (We can talk later about Braves, Chiefs, Warriors, etc.)
George Preston Marshall, the NFL owner who changed his team s
name to Redskins, was the last to integrate his team, doing so in 1962 when the
federal government threatened to cancel his stadium lease. When Marshall died in
1969, his will created a Redskins Foundation prohibiting it from supporting the principle of racial integration in
any form.
NFL officials, who have supported current team owner Dan Snyder
s right to keep the nickname, now are open to discussion, scheduling a meeting Wednesday
with the Oneida Indian Nation.
Closer to home, Lamar High School is named for former Texas Gov.
Mirabeau B. Lamar, who supported displacement
and extinction of American Indians.
He no doubt would support the nickname Redskins, although probably
not to honor them. randy.harvey@chron.com
twitter.com/randyharvey
Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle
Fans attending a Lamar High School sporting event won t find the
same references to the school mascot
the Redskins as in years
past, with the silhouette on this flag sometimes serving as the only reminder.
