HISD’s Lamar High School and the NFL’s DC franchise have the same mascot. Today the Chron E-Board says it is time for Lamar High to get a new mascot. Check out the E-Board take:
The holiday season is supposed to be a time of generosity and compassion, yet it took a convenient history to celebrate a shared meal between pilgrims and Native Americans while ignoring the bloody underbelly of manifest destiny. That Thanksgiving disconnect becomes all the more obvious when we cheer football mascots that stand on objectification and exploitation of native people.
While the debate continues over the NFL’s Washington Redskins, it is time to have that same discussion about Houston’s own Lamar Redskins. This wouldn’t be the first time that Lamar High School, named after the second president of the Republic of Texas Mirabeau B. Lamar, has faced questions over its mascot name. As Chronicle sports columnist Randy Harvey wrote in October, some students in 1999 unsuccessfully pushed to change the name. According to Capital News Service, 28 high schools in 18 states have dropped the Redskins nickname within the past 25 years. Yet Lamar’s name is particularly offensive given that President Lamar’s first major act as president was a campaign to slaughter the native tribes in Texas. On its own, “Redskins” is inappropriate, but “Lamar Redskins” is blatantly so.
Society is now shocked by things that seemed acceptable 50 years ago – and vice versa. And in another 50 years there’s sure to be a whole new realm of controversial issues to drive social debate. Good people make honest decisions that we now see in a different light. But the fact of the matter is that the Americas were once filled with native tribes and civilizations, all of whom fell at some point to European disease, the march of Western expansion or integration at the barrel of a rifle. We celebrate the friendship between the pilgrims and Indians on Thanksgiving, but rarely mourn when that friendship ended. Instead, we treat these very real people as a mascot. Out of sheer kindness to fellow man, it is time to end that practice.
I am curious to see who is going to step forward and defend the mascot choice. The mascot name is an embarrassment and ought to be canned.
Speaking of best games of all time, when Bill Mazeroski hit his Game 7 World Serious winning dinger over the left field wall in the bottom of the 9th against the Yankees at Forbes Field in 1960, who was in left for the Yankees?
Early Voting in Person starts on Wednesday and Election Day is in twelve days and the last campaign contribution and expenditure reports are due Friday.
I actually was watching the game Saturday and rooting for underdog Auburn. I thought the game was heading to OT and I was trying to remember the OT rules for college football. I tweeted within a minute after the winning TD. Was it the best game of all time? I will say it was the last greatest game ending of all time. After all, running back missed field goals for a TD just doesn’t happen.
Yogi Berra of course was in left field for the Yankees and watched Maz’s dinger sail over his head.
The Texans have the inside track to the number one draft pick next May. In June the ‘Stros will pick first. What a coincidence!
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