pngfanatic said:
I agree that the complete response would have included the historical significance of the Indian mascot. However, I totally agree with the non-PC comments of Superintendent Cavness. The last thing we need is a European company "creating new identities" by throwing money at our school districts. And I couldn't care less how the mainstream media construes Cavness' comments. I commend him for standing up and stating the obvious.
This isn't a matter of whether you agree with Cavness's sentiments as expressed in that article. Personally, I agree with Cavness. I'm a law school student at UT. I deal with political correctness the likes of which Southeast Texas has never seen on a daily basis (if you don't believe me, check out the opinions section of
The Daily Texan sometime). I hate it more than you and Dr. Cavness combined, I guarantee you.
Instead, this is a matter of whether it was appropriate for a public servant to make a comment like that in representing a public school district. It was not. This is a matter of how those comments affect the reputation of PN-GISD. Summed up: badly. It's a matter of how this makes people outside of PN-G, who don't know our history and don't know why we use this team name, perceive our use of the American Indian likeness. Do words like "ignorant," "culturally insensitive" and "racist" mean anything to you? Because like it or not, they do to John Q. Public, and like it or not, John Q. Public can put an end to the Indians in a heartbeat.
When new families move into Southeast Texas and are looking at communities to buy a home in, how's it going to look when they Google PN-GISD and this comes up? What are they going to think? How are they going to perceive stuff like this when they don't have the full story and can't put the Indians and all of our traditions in context, and instead just have comments about "leftist extremism" from, of all people, our superintendent? Are they going to look at us like we're accustomed to having people look at PN-G, or are they going to start looking at us a lot more like we look at Vidor and Evadale? And when those families decide to steer clear of PN-G, how do you think that affects property values? How do you think that affects the quality of students coming to PN-G schools, the revenue flowing into PN-GISD and the quality of education and extracurricular programs PN-G offers?
Earlier this year in a separate
Beaumont Enterprise article, the head of the Native American & Indigenous Studies program here at UT, herself a woman of American Indian descent, lambasted PN-G specifically for using the American Indian likeness. If, and more likely when, she sees this, how do you think she's going to react? And most importantly, who do you think she's going to tell? Maybe her friends in various American Indian tribes around Texas and the rest of the country? Maybe her fellow professors in NAIS, who themselves also have friends in American Indian tribes that they're likely to discuss this with at some point? How much do you think she would love to use Dr. Cavness's comments to prove all of her asinine points about how racist we are? How much more seriously do you think people will take those arguments in light of this?
What if this gets back to the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the sovereign Indian tribe that gave PN-G its blessing in 1980? Put yourself in their shoes. What do you think goes through their minds when they read something like this? The letter attached to the proclamation they gave us, which was written by their chief, mentioned the honor and the pride PN-G carries itself with, specifically. If they read this, don't you think they're going to ask themselves if something's changed in the last 35 years? Maybe they'll have a hint of regret for issuing that proclamation? Maybe enough to revoke it?
How do you think this looks to people outside of Southeast Texas who don't know much, if anything, about PN-G? What do you think they'll say to each other? What do you think the reputation of PN-G will be in their minds? I hope you don't think it will have anything to do with
Cherokee, or our phenomenal community support, because it won't, and it already doesn't. Two separate UT law students approached me today about Cavness's comments, specifically. There's a Nederland alum in my own section that has already started sharing the
Enterprise article with other students. What do you think is running through their minds right now? What do you think has been running through my mind, even as a proud PN-G graduate? How do you think I've felt spending these last 24 hours doing damage control for my alma mater?
I mentioned the national media in my previous post. How much do you think they would love to use this every time the mascot issue comes up, which it does every few years or so? And while you're considering that question...
http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/the-state-of-texas-november-11-2015/
... keep in mind that we're now one step closer to primetime. Are you prepared to have PN-G at the center of every on-air discussion hosted by Wolf Blitzer, Al Sharpton and Sean Hannity? Are you prepared to have PN-G's name drug the mud on MSNBC, slandered on
The View and quasi-glorified on Fox for weeks on end? Are you prepared to go from reading statements like this in local newspapers to seeing Dr. Cavness give them live on national television? Are you prepared to go from spending Friday nights watching high school football to spending weeks, months or perhaps years playing political football? I'm warning you now, that game's a lot less fun.
I hope you really are happy with those comments, because they may very well have just turned PN-G into the whipping boy for the mascot issue in this state.
