Racism in Marin County, CA 2001

Published on Thursday, February 22, 2001
© 2001 The Press Democrat

By CHRIS SMITH

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

TOMALES -- This country town on Wednesday saw its second roadside protest in as many days, a vocal minority of about 12 Tomales High students holding placards declaring it is ignorant and culturally insensitive to continue calling the school's teams the Braves.

The mannerly teens suggested from the curb in front of the Tomales Bakery and Emily B's Deli that any one of the area's native animals -- the red-tailed hawk, elephant seal, great white shark -- might make a more suitable mascot and team name.

``Anything that's not a people, that's not a culture,'' said Ashley Scheiding, a leader among the handful of Tomales High students openly supportive of the school board's decision last week to eliminate the school's use of the name Braves and of Indian-related images.

Wednesday's protest in central Tomales, a historic dairy town west of Petaluma, followed a larger one a day earlier by more than 100 Tomales High students who want to retain the name Braves for their teams.

Those students contended that Tomales High's more than 50-year identification as the home of the Braves shows no disrespect to American Indians.

The issue, which has fired emotions throughout the sparsely populated coastal school district and lit up the phones of the district's trustees, may come to a head when the board reconsiders the no-Braves vote within the next week or so.

Stephen Rosenthal, superintendent of the Shoreline Unified School District, said he will announce the day of the special board meeting today. The session, to be held in the evening, is expected to draw a large crowd.

The school board's 4-2 vote last week to eliminate the Braves name and Indian-related sports images culminated more than a year of on-and-off campus discussions about whether the tradition might be offensive to American Indians.

Similar debates have occurred at other U.S. schools with Indian-inspired team names and logos. In the past two decades, hundreds of schools -- including Stanford University, whose Indians became the Cardinal -- have dropped team names such as Apaches, Redskins, Mohicans and Warriors. Many others have retained their Indian-themed names and mascots.

As students, parents, administrators and trustees at Tomales High debate whether there is anything offensive about the school's team name and logo -- the profile of an Indian mane with a feathered headdress -- American Indians, too, disagree.

One organization that has weighed in the Tomales issue, advocating the elimination of the Braves name, is the San Francisco-based International Indian Treaty Council, an organization that grew from the American Indian Movement.

The group's general counsel, Alberto Saldamando, said Wednesday he applauds the students whose sensitivity to racism prompts them to oppose the Braves team name. He said that just because the name has a long tradition at Tomales High doesn't make it right.

``That's what they (supporters of Indian-themed team names) say all the time: it's a tradition, it's not meant to be derogatory and all that,'' Saldamando said.

``Lots of Southern whites who weren't necessarily racists supported slavery and the denial of voting rights (to African Americans) because they were tradition,'' he said.

In Santa Rosa, Gary Higgins, who is part Pueblo Indian, said the American government slaughtered American Indians, stole their land and forced them onto reservations, and now what he sees as overzealous advocates of political correctness want to eliminate tributes such as that embodied in the Braves tradition at Tomales High.

Higgins said he is honored by the school's use of the name and the Indian-head logo, and he finds it ``racist and disturbing'' that anyone would advocate eliminating them.

``I fail to see how they are offensive, and I challenge anyone to show me how they are,'' he said.

In downtown Tomales on Wednesday, area resident Leslie Swallow saw the anti-Braves protest and said she's happy to see the kids and the small, rural community openly debating the issue.

``These sorts of things are so important in a place like this,'' she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith at 521-5211 or e-mail csmith@pressdemocrat.com.

PHOTO: color by MARK ARONOFF / The Press Democrat
Holly Stimson, front, Maria Escobar and Ashley Scheiding were among the Tomales High students protesting the use of Braves for school teams.