The evergreen tree was the frontrunner of a mascot survey submitted to students and staff in February, looking to change the school mascot at Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School located in Portland, Oregon.
The school has postponed changing its mascot to an evergreen tree after a committee member raised concerns about its possible implications of lynching.
“Lynching is a really difficult topic to talk about and as a sole Black board member, I invite you, beg you, implore you to join me in disrupting the situations, practices, that are racist. I can’t do this by myself,” Director Michelle DePass said.
“I’m wondering if there was any concern with the imagery there, in using a tree … as our mascot?” DePass asked the renaming and mascot committee last week, according to the Portland Tribune. “I think everyone comes with blind spots and I think that might’ve been a really big blind spot.”
Check out our ‘Cancel Corner‘, a section we launched in February, where we report on the latest Cancel Cases and stories from around the globe.
“Evergreens are characterized by the life-giving force of their foliage, the strength of their massive trunk, and the depth of their roots-in an individual tree and as a forest of trees,” Ellen Whatmore, a teacher and mascot committee member at Wells-Barnett High School said, reading from a resolution. “They provide shelter and sustenance. They have histories that preclude us and will continue in perpetuity after we are no more.”
“We did talk about it, but we were looking at the symbolism more as a tree of life, than a tree of death,” Martin Osborne, who is African American, told the school board. “You could certainly take it, either way, depending upon your position.”
Osborne said the committee’s idea of the evergreen “had nothing to do with the horrible history of lynching in the United States.”
“Lynching trees typically are not evergreens,” he added, saying deciduous trees with large, lower branches were typically used in lynchings in the south.
We will note that evergreen trees are on the Oregon State Seal, the Oregon State Flag, and on Oregon State license plates.
The board has postponed voting on the mascot until its next meeting.
Check out our ‘Cancel Corner‘, a section we launched in February, where we report on the latest Cancel Cases and stories from around the globe.