MetroWest Daily News
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Natick High is no place for racial epithet
I am writing in response to a recent letter by Silvio Mandino (Feb. 10) in which he categorized the call to change the nickname of the Natick High Redmen as "political correctness gone mad."
The NAACP, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and the National Congress of American Indians all disagree with Mr. Mandino's uninformed assessment. But people like Mr. Mandino won't let facts get in the way.
Mr. Mandino may not be the most objective spokesperson on this issue since he has claimed to be the one who first invoked this racial stereotype back in 1956. Referring to Native American people as "Redmen" is a racial epithet that has no place in an educational environment.
If this issue is not worth the time of the Natick School Committee, I suggest people like Mr. Mandino stop fighting this change so they can move on to other issues. Life will go on. Natick High will survive. Students will continue to attend class, take exams, and attend school dances. Their teams will continue to win or lose regardless of what the students choose for their new nickname.
In his nearly 300-word rant, Mr. Mandino did not mention Native American people once. On January 8, 2007, Caring Hands, chief of the Praying Indians of Natick and Ponkapoag, spoke quite eloquently about the nickname: "We know if our children were in this high school, it would have been gone a long time ago."
How many Native Americans need to complain to satisfy people like Mr. Mandino?
PETER SANFAÇON,
Framingham