Mascots as well as the honorees of schools' names have been much in the news recently, from the mascot of the NFL franchise in Washington, D.C. to the honoree of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, FL. Over the last few days my attention has been drawn to another instance of a problematic mascot: the “Arabs” of Coachella Valley High School in Thermal, CA, some 30 miles southeast of Palm Springs. The article from Wednesday at al-Jazeera America is among the most substantive discussions of the development of the recent controversy, initiated by a letter from Abed Ayoub of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) to District Superintendent Dr. Darryl Adams. The Desert Sun has provided local coverage of the story here and here, with the first link including a video showing the historical development of the mascot from the 1920s to the present. The story is now gaining national attention as, for instance, in this piece in Thursday's Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.
Hop the ta'miya al-burtuqali for some commentary.
Abed Ayoub's letter for the ADC to Superintendent Adams is worth citing at length here, as it points clearly to the problematic status of "tradition" in so many of the debates surrounding the propriety of mascots and honorees.
The purpose of this letter is to express ADC's concern over the use of the term "Arab" as the official nickname, mascot and logo of the Coachella Valley High School. ADC understands the context in which the nickname was initially selected. However, in the 21st Century, such justifications for these actions are no longer tolerable.
ADC is appalled at the use of a caricature depicted to be an "Arab" as the official mascot of the high school. The image of the Coachella Valley High School mascot depicts a man with a large nose, heavy beard, and wearing a Kaffiya, or traditional Arab head covering. It has come to our attention that during sporting events, and school functions, a student dressed as this figure, makes an appearance.
Many videos on YouTube clearly show orientalist stereotyping of Arabs. During half-time shows at sporting events, the "Arab male" comes out to music, while a female dressed as a belly dancer entertains him. Further, the gymnasium has the face of an "Arab" caricature in the middle of the basketball court, as well as around the walls. Outside of the building, an "Arab" on a carpet is depicted, with a woman next to him.
ADC strongly believes that use of the word and such imagery perpetuates demeaning stereotypes of Arabs and Arab Americans. The "Arab" mascot image is a harmful form of ethnic stereotyping which should be eliminated. By allowing continued use of the term and imagery, you are commending and enforcing the negative stereotypes of an entire ethnic group, millions of whom are citizens of this nation.
The "context in which the mascot was initially selected" is amply discussed in the
al-Jazeera America article, a context that hinges on the late nineteenth-century development of the date industry in the Valley and the efforts through the first decades of the twentieth century to develop the area as a kind of Middle Eastern-themed tourist destination.
The crop's success filled the region's desert landscape with towering date palm trees, which inspired locals to market themselves as an American oasis. This tenuous Middle East connection inspired a frenzy of Arabian fantasies that continue to this day.
The "Arab" mascot itself appeared in the 1920s and, as discussed on the webpage of the CVHS Alumni Association, has evolved through four phases to its present appearance, illustrated above. As an aside, the most unintentionally humorous aspect of this debate is the rationale for the change in the mascot's appearance in the 1980s:
A group of Arabs from Saudi Arabia who were in the area touring the desert's date industry recommended that the mascot's headdress be changed from a fez to a hijab or head scarf. Their reasoning was that Saudi Arabia was no longer under French rule; therefore, Saudi Arabians no longer wore the fez as their headdress.
With what I read as delightfully wry humor, the authors of the al-Jazeera article respond as follows:
Of course, the story may not be entirely accurate — as the hijab is the headscarf of Muslim women, the French never occupied Saudi Arabia and the fez, which originated in Morocco, owes its popularity in the Middle East to the Ottomans.
The current controversy over the mascot is not the first. Indeed, both during Operation Desert Storm and in the wake of the events of 11 September 2001 there were calls to change the mascot on the grounds that it could be perceived as anti-American and,
per a former head of the alumni association, some were uncomfortable with the association to "terrorists."
In my opinion, the most significant portion of Ayoub's letter for the ADC to Superintendent Adams is the phrase "orientalist stereotyping," a phrase that may require some unpacking. I've written here about Orientalism and Edward Said's treatment of the subject several times, so I'll offer this comment from a previous diary:
Now, where Said’s treatment of Orientalism is provocative and in my opinion most powerful is in his recognition of the symbiosis among policy, science and popular public imagination, what Said denotes above as ‘the corporate institution.’ The core notions binding these three realms were: 1) the fundamental otherness or exoticism of the East, an otherness essentialized to the opposition of Eastern stasis versus Western vitality; 2) the natural and scientifically demonstrable superiority of the latter over the former; and 3) the privileged position of the Western construct of the East over actual Eastern narratives of their own cultural histories. Orientalism was in essence a Western cultural project to appropriate the East, a manifestation less of substantive knowledge of the East than of the production of knowledge to justify a will to govern the East.
In short, our popular culture, including CVHS's "Arab" mascot, trades overwhelmingly in the fantastical appropriation and construction of an exotic Arab Middle East that has more to do with the titillations of the traditions of imperialism than with reality.
While I do not agree with the ADC's position on every issue, they are in this instance correct to draw attention to the offensive and demeaning nature of CVHS's caricaturish "Arab," correct to encourage Superintendent Adams and CVHS to abandon the mascot and correct as well to use a public petition campaign to pressure the district to do the right thing. The ADC may in fact have an ally in Superintendent Adams who, according to the al-Jazeera America article, is scheduled to raise the issue at a Board of Trustees meeting on 21 November.
Adams may also want to raise the issue of the "Rajah" mascot at his district's Indio High School. Just sayin'...
Signed,
an alumnus of the Saxons, Rams, Bulldogs and Wolverines.