After a D.C. civil rights group accused Coachella Valley High School in California of "oriental stereotyping" with its mascot, the school honchos agreed to change its mascot name from "The Arabs" to the "Mighty Arabs," the school announced Tuesday according to The Desert Sun.
For decades the high school in Thermal, California, flaunted "The Arab" football mascot, an image of a hooked-nosed, single-tooth Arab man with a nasty scowl and a headscarf.
The sneering Arab was seen on team uniforms and on the school website. At games the mascot appeared on the sidelines along with his belly-dancing genie sidekick, the newspaper reported.
But last November, the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee sent a letter accusing the school of stereotyping against Arabs, placing the national spotlight on the high school followed by widespread calls to change the offensive mascot.
Coachella Valley United school board heeded the criticism and gave "The Arab" a makeover. The new mascot now portrays an honorable-looking man with a trimmed beard and a strong jaw. They also got rid of the dancing genie.
"The realization that the Coachella Valley High School mascot and name was offensive to fellow citizens or any group is one that we cannot ignore," Superintendent Darryl Adams said Wednesday according to the newspaper. "We must forever keep our eyes, ears and hearts open to the feelings of others even when no disrespect or harm is intended."
Abed Ayoub, a representative from the anti-discrimination group, said the new mascot design was given the green light after it was shown to the group.
"We took our time to get the opinion of that logo, and it was overwhelmingly positive," Ayoub told The Desert Sun.
But the school's former students objected to the mascot change.
"All the alumni want to keep it as it was," Rich Ramirez, president of the Coachella Valley High Alumni Association, told the newspaper.
He said he tried to make others see that in a world where people can sue for anything, "it's not up to us any longer in today's society. If you offend one in 10, you've got to do something about that one."
"It's like the Redskins situation," Ramirez said.
