Opinion: This is a moral issue

To the editor:

George Marcotte's letter of Feb. 14 ("How does a subcommittee represent the masses?") to Dartmouth Week is filled with so much misinformation and so many dog whistles that it requires a lengthy rebuttal.

Mr. Marcotte, who heads up a group called "Defend Dartmouth," told Dartmouth Week and WBSM that a "vocal few" "woke" "aristocracy" wants to "cancel" the mascot. Marcotte goes on to target a single member of the School Committee for questioning the continued use of the mascot, accusing her of "incendiary" "crusading" -- even though he surely knows that the subcommittee consists of several members of the school committee and has only consultative status.

Mr. Marcotte, in addition to his ad hominem attacks and dog whistles, holds up a member of the Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard as the designer of the "Indian" logo -- although the 1974 "Pathfinder" he references is not in fact the logo used today. The present-day "Indian" logo is virtually identical to the 1974 Dartmouth (Hanover, New Hampshire college) Indian -- which was retired that year because, according to a 1971 petition by Native American Dartmouth students, it "is a mythical creation of a non-Indian culture and in no manner reflects the basic philosophies of Native American People."

According to Marcotte's supporters, Dartmouth is simply honoring "the kind of core values that the native peoples brought to this area." But the honor does not appear to extend to sharing tens of thousands of dollars of royalties from the sales of "Indian" merch — sweatshirts, key fobs, mugs — with any Native American group.

As to Mr. Marcotte's attacks on "woke" people, let me observe that if this were 1965 and not 2022, Mr. Marcotte would be railing against "woke" white allies of the Civil Rights movement like Abraham Joshua Heschel, who marched to Montgomery, Alabama with Martin Luther King. People don't just wake up one day and decide to be arbitrarily "P.C." There are real issues, real moral values, and real people at stake — real people who need and appreciate allies.

As America changes, a reckoning with real history and a push for real respect for all members of society are sorely needed. But White America is pushing back with book and curriculum bans, and considerable petulant whining from those who no longer feel free to practice their racial insensitivity at will. While the NCAA, professional sports teams, Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, Land 'o Lakes, and countless corporations have all retired offensive logos and stereotypes, Dartmouth seems determined to double down with Alabama, Florida, and Texas in defending the indefensible.

Drowned out by a few selectively chosen Native American supporters of the mascot are many voices of Native American groups who oppose mascots. These include Massachusetts Indigenous Legislative Agenda, United American Indians of New England, the National Congress of American Indians, the Chappaquiddick Tribe of the Wampanoag Nation, the Herring Pond Wampanoag tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, the Massachuset-Ponkapoag Tribal Council, the Nipmuc Nation, and the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe. Not one mention of these have appeared in your publication.

The NAACP, whose members include people of all colors and whose local branch includes members of the Wampanoag, has opposed Native American mascots since at least 1999. We are real people, not the "woke" "aristocrats" Mr. Marcotte would like you to believe.

Voices within the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah — a tribe local mascot supporters hold up frequently — are not as monolithic as you might believe. Kisha James, a member of the Aquinnah who supports statewide legislation to ban mascots, told the Boston Globe last Fall that "mascot is just another word for pet." She added, "It solidifies this idea that we're not people. We're costumes, we're characters forever stuck in the past."

"It's like settlers are hearing ‘no' for the first time and they don't like it," James told the Globe. "Getting rid of mascots and acknowledging racism humanizes us and a lot of people aren't comfortable with that. Because if you do, you also have to acknowledge the other wrongdoings, like genocide."

This is precisely what Dartmouth's upcoming mascot vote is all about.