The adoption of a new mascot for Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School was put on pause, after concerns about potential connotations of lynching.
After adopting a new namesake earlier this year, the Southwest Portland high school also wants to ditch its Trojan mascot. A committee comprised of students, staff and community members suggested the evergreens as the school’s new mascot.
“Evergreens are characterized by the life-giving force of their foliage, the strength of their massive trunk, and the depth of their roots-in an individual tree and as a forest of trees,” Ellen Whatmore, a teacher and mascot committee member at Wells-Barnett High School said, reading from a resolution. “They provide shelter and sustenance. They have histories that preclude us and will continue in perpetuity after we are no more.”
But just before the Portland Public Schools Board of Education’s vote to approve the new mascot Tuesday, March 30, Director Michelle DePass shared community concerns of an unwanted correlation between Ida B. Wells-the historic Black activist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who documented and crusaded against lynching-and a tree which could conjure up reminders of hanging people with ropes from branches.
“I’m wondering if there was any concern with the imagery there, in using a tree … as our mascot?” DePass asked the renaming and mascot committee. “I think everyone comes with blind spots and I think that might’ve been a really big blind spot.”
School Principal Filip Hristic told the school board that Wells-Barnett’s family has been supportive of the school’s efforts to honor and promote her legacy, but shared DePass’s concerns.
“We take this seriously and I definitely want to follow that commitment to protect, preserve and promote the legacy of Ida B. Wells,” Hristic said, but noted the school’s committee hadn’t had conversations with the Wells-Barnett family specifically about the mascot.
“The focus and opportunity was really to marry this sentiment that we heard from a lot of our stakeholders during our naming process, which was the desire for a local connection,” Hristic said. “Ida B. Wells was somebody who stood strong and stood proud against what Woodrow Wilson and many others promoted.”
Hristic and Whatmore said the evergreen tree was a great way to capture more of a local connection in the school’s identity.
In February, a mascot survey was sent to students and staff. They submitted 420 different nominations, said Ellen Whatmore, a teacher at Ida B. Wells who served on the committee to find a new name and mascot. The massive list of potential mascots was narrowed down to just five, with the evergreen tree being the frontrunner.
Martin Osborne, one of the committee members, said the group did discuss the potential symbolic connection between the school’s new namesake and the murderous acts she fought hard to denounce, but the tree still stood out as the best way to represent the Southwest Portland school.
“We did talk about it, but we were looking at the symbolism more as a tree of life, than a tree of death,” Osborne, who is African American, told the school board. “You could certainly take it either way, depending upon your position.”
Osborne said the committee’s idea of the evergreen “had nothing to do with the horrible history of lynching in the United States.”
“Lynching tress typically are not evergreens,” he added, saying deciduous trees with large, lower branches were typically used to hang Black people in the south.
The conversation was enough to give the board pause. DePass suggested the school committee reach out to Wells-Barnett’s family to make sure they saw no issue with the potential mascot. She also implored her colleagues to weigh in.
“Lynching is a really difficult topic to talk about and as a sole Black board member, I invite you, beg you, implore you to join me in disrupting the situations, practices, that are racist. I can’t do this by myself,” she said.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School wants to swap Trojan mascot for evergreen tree.
The board delayed the mascot vote until the next meeting.
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“Racist” is the new Socialist Democrat Party catch word. It is like “sexual harassment”.
All one has to do is accuse someone or something as “racist” or ‘sexual Harassment” without any proof at all and presto chango they are guilty. Like the plastic potato head toys gender or Dr. Seuss’s, The Cat in the Hat or Green eggs and ham. These idiots have even accused “sheet music” as being racist. Now trees are “racist”????
Nancy Pelosi admitted an unfortunate truth about her impeachment “farce”
– It hinges on witness’s “allegations” not “proof.
https://youtu.be/7dzhIxeF204
I don’t care what these radical control freak “Woke” and “Cancel Culture” believe.
Stay away from me or you may end up ‘woke up” or “canceled”.
PULL YOUR kids out of all public schools.. DO IT NOW!!
That’s it. I have got to move from The Evergreen State!
But isn’t there some way we can simply cut all trees down to ensure there are no more lynchings in the future?
Hahahahaha – my first big laugh of the day…thank you Oregon (again). Maybe the mental giants of Antifa will cut down or burn all the evergreen trees in Oregon as an anti-racist gesture, by turning the countryside black.
That’s what all last fall was about. Many many of the fires were arson related, and interestingly NEAR highways and rural roads. No one can be blamed for missing this fact, as the three “woke” governors tried their best to link all the fires to (wait for it)…….global ……something. Many fires which finally escaped the “arson” tag also had suspicious beginnings. The dirty little secret in the PNW is that forestry management has been called “on the carpet” for a few decades now as being shy of dealing with the build up of heavy fuel loads. Of course, as of this date, some who would have suffered from losing wood products-related jobs are being employed to watch those forests burn down. Of course, this will come to an end, and there will still be a lack of forestry related jobs and then…..
An Aside to this story was how I found about much of the arson was, a friend in China sent me a list of articles concerning many of those caught red-handed. Another aside, and something I have little knowledge of, or interest in, is that his motivation of watching Qanon related news. I’m not an advocate, nor has he been able to stir much interest in me for that cause. BUT, I am interested in the arson aspect which our media found it reasonable to ignore to a degree.
With the amount of “millions of acres” already burned. I AM Shocked there’s anything left TO burn.
Time to tell the woke to choke
Just when you think this crowd cannot get in dumber, they go and prove you wrong.
the sad part is, they lowered the bar to MINUS 38 Feet Deep 30 years ago, they are STILL DIGGING
Just let Oregon, California, Washington and any other IDIOTIC state who believes in this stupidity secede and let normal people live their lives. Don’t even give these idiots a platform to promote their trivial stupid notions. IT’s time to IGNORE these morons because they get more stupid each day.
Better yet, LET IT SLIDE deep into the pacific ocean!
What a bunch of ****!
What about the Earth (aka, the ground; aka, DIRT)? Is IT racist, because slaves were buried in the Earth?
Then, again, leaves (and pine needles) FALL from the trees, and they’re walked (dare I say, “trampled”) on by “White People”! Clearly with RACIST intentions!
But, hey… Forget about famous Black people, like William Ellison, Jr. (aka, “April”) – who was an ex-slave and slave OWNER (http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/african-americans/William-Ellison-bio.htm)… Just blame whites for all your failures over the generations!
Maybe hardware stores should be forced to quit selling rope, after all we know what rope was used for.
Don’t knock it.. I am sure the left, would LOVE TO bash all hardware stores, cause of that…
Heard some really stupid things come from Portland but this one takes it to the top of stupidity. You people are so unclass uneducated and just plain stupid and unamerican fools. Grow up and stop being sheep for communism and destroying America.
The stupidity of the left knows no bounds. Just when you think you’ve heard it all………..
Every time, you think they can’t get any dumber, they love to prove us wrong.
The wood that goes into houses, comes from trees, so the wood in houses is “racist”. I suggest that all of the “liberals” tear down their own houses and live in caves. Oh, and don’t touch a tree, to cut it down for firewood, to heat your cave, because touching a tree is “racist”.
Since trees generate the oxygen that we breathe, that must mean that by breathing the oxygen we become racist… Ahhhhh! I get it now…
EVERYTHING is racist..
BLAH…BLAH…BLAH …BLAH,BLAH…BLAH…..BLAH, BLAH…racism!…Blah…blah…BLAH,BLAH…BlAH…racist!…BLAH..BLah…BLAH! Is there anybody who’s NOT insane that give an excrement what these jackasses say! Get you children OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS… Period!
A racist will find racism in every thing. They will never agree on a name for anything. They only want full control. LOL what a waste of oxygen.
Right you are!
Eskimo Blue Day. “Doesn’t mean **** to a tree”. LOL
Is there something in the air or possibly seeping from the ground that affects the brains of people living in Oregon. From he very start, ‘community concerns’ sounds like a catch-all without any specifics or, for that matter, actual population figures airing such concerns. As stated, evergreen trees would be a poor choice for such activity, the branches are usually too thickly spaced from the ground to the top and too pliable. Someone really didn’t do their homework on this latest stupid idea.
I thought the very same thing
Seeing as, for the past 3 decades, it seems EVERYTING coming out of Wa/Or/Ca is insanely rotten, it certainly SEEMS LIKE it must be something in the air/water/food…
Whale farts caught in the easterly breezes?
Don’t believe for a moment Portland represents Oregon. Most of the counties are red, and Portland represents Portland. Our elections have been rigged and stolen too, the left here have no compunction about it either. Our “governess” was almost recalled last year but we came just shy of 250,000 signatures. Of course that is what “they” told us. People here cannot stand her.
Same here in the state of seattle. It has been decades since their has been a fair and honest election here.
Homework?? That’s racist too..
Good tall Oak tree is way better for the numerous and frequent lynchings we see these days.
I also thought the same thing. An Oak, or a Maple would be a much more effective choice.
‘Evergreens’ could be tied to lynching? Stupid.
WHAT is wrong with people on the west coast?? They are ALL mental…
Everyone knows that lynch mobs would only use an evergreen if they were absolutely desperate and couldn’t find an oak or cottonwood.
Perhaps they should rename it because Evergreen is a common slang term associated with child sex trafficking.
Perhaps because Hillary Clinton is associated with a Taiwanese Slave Ship named Evergreen that was recently in the news for blocking the Suez Canal.
There are lots and lots of good reasons for not wanting to associate your school to the name, but LYNCHINGS??? C’Mon Man!
Why would they want to remove the Trojan Mascot in the first place? Many schools continue to use the ancient warrior as a mascot, can you say USC? Why should I be surprised?? Cancel culture has already removed numerous classic books and even cartoons. Many cartoons I watched growing up in the 50s are now unavailable do to “Twisted” logic! Marxist Communists have and still are Perverting our Once Great Nation culminating in a Massive Fraudulent Election. Conservative States Need to gather and Squash this metastasizing cancer!!!!
R.I.P. Yosemite Sam!
Trojans were white supremacists, who bashed troy… ?
Either that, or cause Trojans are more often associated with condoms, and leftists seem to not know what a condom is (cause of their love of abortions), they want all things that may make someone link to condoms, removed/.
I really don’t know who is coming up with this **** but it has to be the 20 something crowd. You know the ones that stay home all day at their parents house on a computer and doesn’t work. Parent Alert: Kick them out! Make them think about survival VS cancel culture!
Good God, where to begin…. Is there something wrong with the mascot “Trojans”?
And now an evergreen tree is racist?
Do these morons even realize that half of the people ever lynched were white people who supported civil rights?
That would require they STUDY HISTORY.. Something liberals never do! Unless its via their revisionist history bull.
It must be a lot of work to spend all your days looking for ways to find racism in the world around you and then being offended by it. What a waste of time, energy, and life.
all that free time waiting for the next welfare check gives them plenty of time to attend re education classes.
Don’t you mean Re-indoctrination camps!
And when the Logging Company comes to town…
Just rename the mascot to “
“
Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School has fallen to the trap set by a Trojan Horse. They are engaged with a war on trees while the real danger is the existence of the Democrat Party. Linoln declared war on the Democrats and the North whipped them and freed black people. But the Democrats invented the Ku Klux Klan and hung black people. Then the Demcrats created Jim Crow Laws, segregation and went on to vote against the 1964 Civil Rights Law. Fortunately Republicans pased that law. As long as the Democrat Party remains you are tied to accepting THE group that brought us slavery, strange fruit and segregation. Get rid of that party or stop complaining about racism.
Democrat has been the party of treason for over 150 years. Just look up Nathanial Grigsby and see how serious it is.
I think that being so close to colliding tectonic plates must release stupid-gas into the atmosphere. There can’t be any other logical explanation for the stupidity of the so called “intelligensia” who live in Oregon. Has anyone done a MRI on the heads of school board members to see if any of them have a functioning brain?
Get rid of Trojans? I thought liberal schools liked condoms. Also name one person hanged in an evergreen tree.
You can’t write satire anymore because real life has gone insane. The West’s enemies are laughing as the idiocracy has taken over America’s reins. As for the hypersensitivity about lynching, blacks now kill each other in larger numbers EVERY YEAR than were lynched in the entire over-a-century of slavery and Jim Crow. Last but not least, evergreens are not hanging trees.
The sad thing is that people actually vote for the idiots. Unbelievable. Total stupid exists. This is proof. Interesting comedy from the 70s called Quark. They gave up on names and started celebrated numbers. The main event was Eleven. Unfortunately it was considered racist. Number 11 considered racist because blacks were too stupid to know it was a prime number. In 1982 we laughed at the insanity. Today, it is considered main stream. Shoot me.
Let’s see how this works. An evergreen tree in my living room at Christmas can barely hold up an ornament. So now they are strong enough to hang a person. Also how do you wade through all those branches to find a place to tie a rope? No more “lynching” ornaments for me.
Thinking like that requires too much common sense. That is verboten in the leftists community.