Opinion: It Is Past Time to Change the Braintree High Mascot

Mr. Devin, Mr. Chafe, Mr. Kokoros, Ms. Dolan, Ms. Cobb-Lemire, Ms. Psaros, and Mayor Kokoros,

Hello; my name is Michael Chapman, and I’m a Braintree resident and an educator. While I could not stay for the entirety of the committee meeting this evening, I wish to share my thoughts regarding the Braintree High mascot, which is in desperate need of changing.

Mr. Mayor, while I am happy to hear that you are still in meetings with Faries Gray, a moment of pause and concern comes along with that. While walking along and pointing out monuments and imagery of the First Nation people, that is a huge difference from talking about the Mattakeeset (of Massachusett) tribe culture and history within our classrooms. Furthermore, it is quite clear that this is not nor should it be a matter of “justifying” why the school should have a mascot that is representative of a native tribe. Faries Gray has publicly stated that these native mascots are not honoring their peoples; in listening to the stories of students and community members during the listening sessions of some Town Council members, it is clear that the multiple accounts of people wearing headdresses, making what they feel are “tribal noises”, and the like are antithetical to any sort of honoring, yet they still happen, without any public sense or retribution.

During my courses on school leadership, my cohort and I were introduced to the works of Professor Edgar Schein. Schein talks about school culture, and identifies three levels of understanding and analyzing culture- artifacts, espoused beliefs, and assumptions. Cultures can easily be destabilized when there’s misalignment in these areas, and that is what is happening here. Our observed behavior of keeping the mascot for tradition’s sake goes against our town’s and our schools’ espoused beliefs about community, equity, and inclusion. No matter what the racial and ethnic make-up of our students, maintaining the mascot sends the message that ‘Sure, we hear First Nation tribal requests to stop using their name, and we don’t care that we have literally taken your name for our own purposes’. What sort of message is that sending to our students- past, present, and future? By this logic, you could even say 'Blackface is something that Black and Brown people have asked us to stop, but because of tradition, we will keep doing it’. Thankfully we have not gotten to that point, but that is the message that is being sent by our lack of action. It sends the idea that we do not care about cultural understanding, awareness, and belonging, which are necessary to have in our work on cultural competency.

It is time for us as a community to get our physical artifacts, espoused beliefs, and assumptions in order, especially as “Inclusion” is part of the town’s public school motto that shows up every time you click the school’s website. Let’s continue to educate ourselves and others, while actively moving towards positive change by changing the mascot, and doing so swiftly, rather than drag our feet trying to justify our foolish attempts of “honoring” the Mattakeeset tribe and their former cheif that lack empathy, understanding, and, to be honest, a lack of consent. Pride is not in a mascot; pride is created in a fully inclusive and caring community. Do not wait for the state legislature to eventually get to the same conclusion. We should be more like the Nashoba Regional School Committee, which has already voted to retire their culturally insensitive and inappropriate mascot. This is some of the lowest hanging fruit that our community can grasp to try to work towards a more equitable and inclusive community, and would be a small step on the growing staircase that we need to address to make our schools better. Do not let it go to waste.

I look forward to the continued dialogue, and hopefully expedient action, on this matter. Please feel free to follow up with any questions, comments, or concerns.

All my best,

Michael Allen Chapman Jr.
Teachers College, Columbia University, Ed.M '19
University of Virginia, BA, MT '10