Racism, Equality, and My Ignorant Ass High School
Hey guys,
Today is Monday and i've been awaiting this day for soo long and when it came i quickly became dissapointed and pissed. I wrote this article when I came back from TASP that was basically me venting about how subliminally racist my school really is. I also got to use quotes from Yiwen, Julia and Prof. Greg T.
Anyways I submitted it and this stupid bitch looked over it and was like this part is unfair to this person and all this other bullshit and tried to tell me that the reason that Vestavia is the Rebels is because they rebelled against the Jefferson County School Board(where b'ham and vestavia is). Then I took my paper back and looked at all her inane writings all over it and basically pissed me off more and wrote more edgy type stuff. I then submitted that one to the sponsor for our school newspaper: The Vedette. She cut it down big time and was like "make it less preachy and more personal". I was like bitch. No but I was like can I edit it and just make it as short as yours and she said ok so I did.
This happened like 2 months ago so I've been waiting for it to come out for a while. So when I get to school today I run up to my 1st period class sit down and I'm the only person in the room. I find the newspapers and quickly snatch one. Glance through it to find out that the fuckers didn't put it in there. I was sooo pissed and one bitch said that it was b/c there wasn't enough space which is a load of bull and that they'd rather put it in the next issue cuz ppl will forget about it. BULL SHIT.
In a poor attempt to cloak our game-day mascot, some person in our school’s past decided that the mascot should garner a blue suit as to make him more ambiguous. Now our school officials can pass the so called “Stan the rebel man” as not being a soldier or general of the Confederacy because he is wearing a blue suit. Although what image of the rebels our school projects is inanely debated, one could effortlessly infer that it is an image of the Confederacy.
The next question that popped into my head was how anybody found the Confederate Rebels to be a fitting mascot or theme for Vestavia Hills High School in the first place. To answer this question I had to think back to the era of our schools inception. Ok, our school was founded in the early 1970’s in an all white suburban town in the South in a time when the historic Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education (allowing the integration of public schools) was finally being implemented with great opposition. Vestavia Hills leaders seceded from the Jefferson County School System for the purpose of rebelling against integration. What was going on just “over the mountain” from our school? What was the infamous nickname tagged to our metropolitan area? Could it be Bombingham? I guess nobody truly questioned the use of our name. Furthermore, our founding students grafted nearly all of the schools symbols from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) down to the name. In recent years Ole Miss has rid themselves of racist symbols such as the confederate flag and the same mascot that we adorn in our new gym for reasons unknown to our school officials. Even though I have posited some reasons for our being the rebels I am still unsure of how our Vestavia alumni came to that decision.
After thinking endlessly about those previous questions I thought to myself, what does this mean for our high school? This was a question to which I already knew the answer to. This summer, after spending six amazing weeks at Cornell University with 32 other high school juniors from across the globe, it became apparent what the rebels meant for Vestavia. One by one, I revealed my yearbook to each person in the program. Each student’s reaction was one of shock and disgust for our high school. Immediately they were captivated by the giant confederate flag on the title page of the 2003-2004 yearbook and then continued to be stunned by the “scary mascot” later on in the yearbook. This was a reaction that I expected but I knew that many of my classmates back at the high school would not be able to understand.
Yiwen Looi, a friend I made this summer who lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, realized the racist nature of our name and mascot. Another friend, Julia Choe from California, who is an avid debater, is now frightened to come to Vestavia for a major debate tournament because of the images projected from our high school. I for one do not think that Vestavia is frightening although after looking through our yearbook I guess it was hard for me to convince Julia otherwise. My own professor, Professor Gregory Tomso formerly of Ithaca College had this to say about the yearbook and our community, “A certain community of people in the South holding onto a powerful symbol of racism. An unfortunate use of students' appropriating an over determined symbol in the spirit of school. Any administration that would allow this is irresponsible and has grave ethical reserve of judgment.” Professor Tomso also finds the confederate flag to be creepy and racist. These images are unacceptable and deserve reform. All these vestiges of the Confederacy project a negative image of our high school and community to others across the world.
Yes, it is hard to begin to think about names other than the rebels but it is far past time for Vestavia to remove ourselves from the archaic civil war-drenched past.
Some may bicker and argue about how it is about tradition and that without the rebels and the mascot there would be no school spirit. I should hope that all our school spirit for our team and school does not simply rest in a mascot or name but that it rests in our hearts. I personally have no problem with the name “the rebels”. I in fact consider myself to be a rebel and avidly read texts of other true rebels like Che Guevara and Malcolm X. Unlike the Confederacy that attempted to enslave my great great-grandparents for another hundred years, these men rebelled and made changes for the betterment of society. It is when we associate ourselves with a racist past that the name rebel becomes unacceptable. The confederate flag is an example of a hateful symbol ignorantly waved at football games. Since our students wave the confederate flag and we have a confederate mascot I wonder why we don’t just call ourselves the Confederate Rebels of Vestavia after all we did secede from the Jefferson County School System. There is a reason why our own school board ruled just four years ago that the confederate flag is NOT an official symbol of our high school. If that is true, then we are not the Confederate Rebels of Vestavia but simply the Rebels. By allowing our cheerleaders, newspaper staff, and yearbook staff to use the confederate flag to represent VHHS our faculty and administration is misleading our student body and community either purposely or ignorantly into thinking that the confederate rebels are acceptable. It is up to our faculty, students and community to dispel our being the Confederate Rebels. I write this article in hopes that others will realize the racist nature of our name the Rebels or should I say Confederate Rebels. Go Rebels.
Today is Monday and i've been awaiting this day for soo long and when it came i quickly became dissapointed and pissed. I wrote this article when I came back from TASP that was basically me venting about how subliminally racist my school really is. I also got to use quotes from Yiwen, Julia and Prof. Greg T.
Anyways I submitted it and this stupid bitch looked over it and was like this part is unfair to this person and all this other bullshit and tried to tell me that the reason that Vestavia is the Rebels is because they rebelled against the Jefferson County School Board(where b'ham and vestavia is). Then I took my paper back and looked at all her inane writings all over it and basically pissed me off more and wrote more edgy type stuff. I then submitted that one to the sponsor for our school newspaper: The Vedette. She cut it down big time and was like "make it less preachy and more personal". I was like bitch. No but I was like can I edit it and just make it as short as yours and she said ok so I did.
This happened like 2 months ago so I've been waiting for it to come out for a while. So when I get to school today I run up to my 1st period class sit down and I'm the only person in the room. I find the newspapers and quickly snatch one. Glance through it to find out that the fuckers didn't put it in there. I was sooo pissed and one bitch said that it was b/c there wasn't enough space which is a load of bull and that they'd rather put it in the next issue cuz ppl will forget about it. BULL SHIT.
So I was gonna send copies to TASPers who were in it/ helped edit it. But no not now. Anywho I decided I'll just put it on the blog so here it is read it, suggestions, comments. Whatever if u guys have time during this busy week. This is a longer version the original!
GO REBELS
“Give me an R-E-B-E-L-S. Rebels, Rebels, Rebels.” During Mr. Bittinger’s ardent chant which is quickly becoming a tradition in our large new gym at pep rallies, I began to think to myself about what this man was bellowing about with all his spirit. The obvious answer was Rebels, but then I slowly began to ask myself what Rebels are we talking about? Why are we the rebels? And what does this mean for our beloved Vestavia Hills High School?
One does not have to go far to guess what “rebel” our school honors. After looking at our ominous mascot glaring down at the audience in our new gym and another gargantuan head of a mascot watching those who walk in a hall in the E-wing, it is quite obvious. Although some anoint the picture of the old man with the cane as being a “southern gentlemen”, the high school is undoubtedly referring to the Confederate Rebels. Could they be the same rebels who attempted to destroy the United States of America and retain their doctrine of enslaving and oppressing African-Americans? And if so, then why is this “southern gentlemen”, who is obviously associated with the Confederacy and antebellum racism, acceptable? Being a young African-American male, this is quite unnerving, as it should be to all. Even I was scared to inquire about our adored animated mascot.
GO REBELS
“Give me an R-E-B-E-L-S. Rebels, Rebels, Rebels.” During Mr. Bittinger’s ardent chant which is quickly becoming a tradition in our large new gym at pep rallies, I began to think to myself about what this man was bellowing about with all his spirit. The obvious answer was Rebels, but then I slowly began to ask myself what Rebels are we talking about? Why are we the rebels? And what does this mean for our beloved Vestavia Hills High School?
In a poor attempt to cloak our game-day mascot, some person in our school’s past decided that the mascot should garner a blue suit as to make him more ambiguous. Now our school officials can pass the so called “Stan the rebel man” as not being a soldier or general of the Confederacy because he is wearing a blue suit. Although what image of the rebels our school projects is inanely debated, one could effortlessly infer that it is an image of the Confederacy.
The next question that popped into my head was how anybody found the Confederate Rebels to be a fitting mascot or theme for Vestavia Hills High School in the first place. To answer this question I had to think back to the era of our schools inception. Ok, our school was founded in the early 1970’s in an all white suburban town in the South in a time when the historic Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education (allowing the integration of public schools) was finally being implemented with great opposition. Vestavia Hills leaders seceded from the Jefferson County School System for the purpose of rebelling against integration. What was going on just “over the mountain” from our school? What was the infamous nickname tagged to our metropolitan area? Could it be Bombingham? I guess nobody truly questioned the use of our name. Furthermore, our founding students grafted nearly all of the schools symbols from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) down to the name. In recent years Ole Miss has rid themselves of racist symbols such as the confederate flag and the same mascot that we adorn in our new gym for reasons unknown to our school officials. Even though I have posited some reasons for our being the rebels I am still unsure of how our Vestavia alumni came to that decision.
After thinking endlessly about those previous questions I thought to myself, what does this mean for our high school? This was a question to which I already knew the answer to. This summer, after spending six amazing weeks at Cornell University with 32 other high school juniors from across the globe, it became apparent what the rebels meant for Vestavia. One by one, I revealed my yearbook to each person in the program. Each student’s reaction was one of shock and disgust for our high school. Immediately they were captivated by the giant confederate flag on the title page of the 2003-2004 yearbook and then continued to be stunned by the “scary mascot” later on in the yearbook. This was a reaction that I expected but I knew that many of my classmates back at the high school would not be able to understand.
Yiwen Looi, a friend I made this summer who lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, realized the racist nature of our name and mascot. Another friend, Julia Choe from California, who is an avid debater, is now frightened to come to Vestavia for a major debate tournament because of the images projected from our high school. I for one do not think that Vestavia is frightening although after looking through our yearbook I guess it was hard for me to convince Julia otherwise. My own professor, Professor Gregory Tomso formerly of Ithaca College had this to say about the yearbook and our community, “A certain community of people in the South holding onto a powerful symbol of racism. An unfortunate use of students' appropriating an over determined symbol in the spirit of school. Any administration that would allow this is irresponsible and has grave ethical reserve of judgment.” Professor Tomso also finds the confederate flag to be creepy and racist. These images are unacceptable and deserve reform. All these vestiges of the Confederacy project a negative image of our high school and community to others across the world.
Yes, it is hard to begin to think about names other than the rebels but it is far past time for Vestavia to remove ourselves from the archaic civil war-drenched past.
Some may bicker and argue about how it is about tradition and that without the rebels and the mascot there would be no school spirit. I should hope that all our school spirit for our team and school does not simply rest in a mascot or name but that it rests in our hearts. I personally have no problem with the name “the rebels”. I in fact consider myself to be a rebel and avidly read texts of other true rebels like Che Guevara and Malcolm X. Unlike the Confederacy that attempted to enslave my great great-grandparents for another hundred years, these men rebelled and made changes for the betterment of society. It is when we associate ourselves with a racist past that the name rebel becomes unacceptable. The confederate flag is an example of a hateful symbol ignorantly waved at football games. Since our students wave the confederate flag and we have a confederate mascot I wonder why we don’t just call ourselves the Confederate Rebels of Vestavia after all we did secede from the Jefferson County School System. There is a reason why our own school board ruled just four years ago that the confederate flag is NOT an official symbol of our high school. If that is true, then we are not the Confederate Rebels of Vestavia but simply the Rebels. By allowing our cheerleaders, newspaper staff, and yearbook staff to use the confederate flag to represent VHHS our faculty and administration is misleading our student body and community either purposely or ignorantly into thinking that the confederate rebels are acceptable. It is up to our faculty, students and community to dispel our being the Confederate Rebels. I write this article in hopes that others will realize the racist nature of our name the Rebels or should I say Confederate Rebels. Go Rebels.
posted by Theo at 7:07 PM
2 Comments:
If you need a quote from someone to say anything, I'm here for you. I am honored to know someone as involved as yourself. After TASP and after my uncle died, I have gotten involved with the newly founded Gay Straight Alliance at our school. It really hit me how Goddamn backwards San Marino High School is (although Vestavia probably still wins in a landslide). Then I thought of my own timidity and inaction in the face of it all and I was sad. I wish I had had the guts to resist. I don't know what I would have done this year had I not been to TASP.
You rock, Teddy! If you need someone to proof-read before it goes public, I'm you're man (I spotted a few slips). Thematically and presentationally, you hit the nail on the head. I've been uneasy ever since MN was declared a swing state, so I can't begin to imagine what it's like where you're at. I guess I can offer a less exciting parallel:
Last year's student government elections at my school were even more of a joke than usual (or maybe I just noticed more). Signs weren't proof-read, most of the student body was clueless, and the proposals from the candidates were utterly hollow ("improve student-staff relations" "increase involvement" "make this senior class the best ever"). Naturally, I submitted a polite but scathing editorial to the school newspaper. They published it, but only after cutting several paragraphs. (Some of my best transitions were ruined!) As though that wasn't enough, they convened a special meeting of the student council executive board to draft a response. Of course, their accusations of apathy and ingnorance against me were alowed to stand. (Tangent: what's the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don't know and I don't care.)
I then launched a mock-campaign for student council (my criticism was of the recently completed class president election), complete with signs like:
"Barany: he's not George Bush" "Barany: Al Gore but without the charisma" and "Barany: He agrees with you."
The student council, well informed about my editorial before it went to print after the council election, was also in charge of balloting. Due, I suspect, to foul play, I was not elected.
Anyway, if you've kept up with the story to the end you deserve a break. Go get a bubble tea, sit on the lawn, and read poetry.
Adieu,
Michael Barany
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