A group of school board officials is calling for a ban to prevent children from wearing any sports merchandise deemed to promote offensive names or logos while at school. This would mean no more Chicago Blackhawks, Cleveland Indians, or Washington Redskins jerseys, caps, or t-shirts permitted on school property.
According to a report in today’s Toronto Star, the Equity Summit Group of Ontario, Canada have sent a letter to the province’s Education Minister urging a ban be put in place when it comes to clothing bearing these team logos.
An excerpt of the letter from the Star report; “The use of pejorative indigenous names, logos and mascots is both an exploitation of indigenous cultural, spiritual and intellectual identity, and in many cases, a racist misrepresentation of that identity. This extends to students wearing clothing of amateur and professional teams that bear the pejorative and racist names and logos. When this occurs, our schools across Ontario are fostering a learning environment that is asking indigenous and non-indigenous children to tolerate racism and it must stop immediately.” Adding that allowing this merchandise to be worn in school, “violates the province’s own strategy on inclusive education”.
The proposal includes the maintaining of a list which would be updated regularly in consultation with local aboriginal communities as to which names, logos, and mascots should be added.
If this ban were to be put in place (and it’s by no means anywhere close to happening at the moment) it would be implemented province-wide across Ontario, which would include students in Toronto and Ottawa, both cities with teams in leagues where some of these teams play.
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