A Southern California high school has received backlash from the Arab-American community about their mascot.
According to USA Today, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington sent a letter Friday to the Coachella Valley Unified School District, stating their concerns about the macot.
"ADC is appalled at the use of a caricature depicted to be an 'Arab' as the official mascot of the high school," Abed Ayoub, director of legal and policy affairs for the anti-discrimination committee, wrote in the letter. "The image of the Coachella Valley High School mascot depicts a man with a large nose, heavy beard and wearing a kaffiay, (often spelled in English as keffiyeh) or traditional Arab head covering."
"The 'Arab' mascot image is a harmful form of ethnic stereotyping which should be eliminated,"Ayoub added. "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."
However, the school's mascot has been the "Arabs" since 1920s and not all people consider it offensive, according to Aljazeera America. David Hinkle, 69, is an alum and he is "proud to have been one of the 'Arabs."
"I don't think it can be viewed as offensive," Hinkle told Aljazeera. "I don't think the images they have now are offensive."
Hinkle told Aljazerra after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, some people wanted to change the mascot because they did not want to be associated with "terrorists," and there have been other times in history where they wanted to change it.
"And during the first Gulf War, there was concern over whether to use the Arab imagery because a lot of people didn't want it because it would be anti-American," Hinkle said.
Superintendent Darryl Adams of the Coachella Valley Unified School District told USA Today he would discuss the mascot controversy with the school board during its next meeting Nov. 21. Adams admitted he was taken back by the mascot when he first saw it.
"When I first came here, I raised an eyebrow (at the mascot)," Adams said. "Being an African-American from the Deep South, I'm sensitive to stereotyping. But in this context when this was created, it was not meant in that way. It was totally an admiration of the connection with the Middle East."
