In early 2011, after the RSU 12 Board of Directors voted to “immediately” and “permanently” remove the term “Redskin” from any and all schools within the district, we said in this space it was the right decision, badly made.
Pressed by representatives of the Maine Indian Tribal State Council, in October 2010 the RSU 12 board voted to form a committee of Wiscasset residents to consider a new school mascot. On Jan. 13, 2011, the board changed course and voted to discontinue to use of the name immediately.
The plus side of the board’s action was the name and the racial connotations went away, and the heated debate died down quickly. The downside is by doing it in the manner they did, the RSU 12 board enraged Wiscasset residents and eroded whatever precious little goodwill the board may have enjoyed up to then.
Still, we thought then, and think now, the benefits outweighed the deficits. Make no mistake, we said at the time, the mascot issue was a long-term loser for Wiscasset, one that painted the entire town with one racist brush.
That being the case, we were very surprised to see the term resurface last month when, offered the chance to name a private drive off Bradford Road, the Wiscasset Board of Selectmen picked the only one of five possible choices that came with blatant racism attached.
We honestly don’t think the Wiscasset Board of Selectmen individually are racists, but theirs was a racist act.
The assertion the name is intended as an honor only serves to underscore the lack of understanding involved. It is not the place of the majority to tell a minority how they are to feel about a term the majority invented for them.
Then too, why even go there? This issue had died a painful, messy death, but it was dead and gone and within a few years, it would have been long gone. Why bring it back now and for what?
We note in the stories we publish this week, courtesy of our news partner The Bangor Daily News, that tribal leaders are considering legal action. We are not surprised. They may well file suit, and they do have a case, but we are not sure this one promises victory.
After all, the selectmen did act legally, and we are talking about a private road. Regardless of whatever the town says, the road owners can call their road anything they want.
If a legal fight comes, the town may well win it, but that will only formalize the right to retain racist pejoratives as place names, long after the rest of society has moved on.
