As legislation regarding race-based mascots, nicknames and logos moves closer to becoming signed into law, a Native American group sent a letter to Gov. Scott Walker Monday asking him to veto the bill.
After passing both houses of the legislature mostly along party lines earlier this session, the bill would change the appeals process and enforcement of appeals of race-based mascots, nicknames and logos by requiring a complainant to get signatures from 10 percent of the school’s population.
Barbara Munson, chairperson of the Wisconsin Indian Education Association and a member of the Oneida Tribe, voiced her — and her group’s — displeasure with the bill, calling the issue a a civil rights issue.
“WIEA has been asking for legislation that would lead to the elimination of race-based mascots and Indian logos; Act 250 — enacted in 2010 — was enacted on behalf of Great Lakes Intertribal council and WIEA,” Munson said. “The reason this is so important to Native people is because these race-based stereotypes harm our children.”
While Walker has not declared a position on the law publicly, opponents of the bill anticipate the bill will be signed into law, including Jim Smith, policy director for Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, who “suspects” the bill will be signed.
Taylor was outspoken in her opposition to the bill during the Senate session in early November, saying the bill would move Wisconsin backwards.
“I could take us back to a time where my ancestors were called niggers,” Taylor said in the Senate session. “I hope you were all uncomfortable. It took a while for us as a nation but you can’t call me a nigger and it’s OK. We should not be able to call them savages, redskins or even Indian.”
Smith said Taylor thinks the bill creates a process that will not work in practice.
Taylor has held her ground on the issue, Smith added, and would not be one to be swayed by lobbyists on the issue.
“The big thing she keeps going back to is when the Inter Tribal Council came to give their first state of the state address and they asked for one thing: to not do this,” Smith said.
As the debate on race-based mascots and nicknames picks up steam across the country, including with the controversy currently surrounding the Washington Redskins, Munson said Wisconsin was on the forefront of “this civil rights issue” and by passing the bill, Wisconsin would be moved to the “back of the bus.”
“There isn’t anything good about Indian mascots from a Native perspective,” Munson said. “They’re harmful to our children.”
As the bill passed along mostly partisan lines, there were some attempts at compromise, including by Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, who voted alongside the Democratic legislators.
“Dale Schultz, who wrote legislation that would have left a pathway for changing mascots, has more Indian mascots in his legislative district than anyone else in the Senate, and he’s a Republican and he was able to see that these are harmful to kids and there needs to be a path for changing them,” Munson said.
While the bill was split along party lines, Munson added, “This issue simply should not be about Republicans and Democrats, it should be about quality education for our children free of harm.”
No legislative sponsors of the bill could be reached for comment.
