Portland school halts plan to make evergreen tree its new mascot over fears it could be tied to lynching

Daily Mail ^ | April 5, 2021 | James Gordon

[rickmichaels]

A high school in Oregon that was considering changing its mascot to that of an evergreen tree is delaying its vote over concerns about the image's potential ties to lynching.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School in Portland was renamed earlier this year after a prominent black activist and reporter who documented lynching.

The school had wanted to ditch its old Trojan mascot along with the name change and settled on the evergreen tree after input from students and staff who chose from among 420 possible choices.

A vote on the new mascot was set to take place last Tuesday but was halted after a director on the board shared concerns from the community over the tree's imagery with suggestions that a tree might conjure up reminders of lynching.

'I'm wondering if there was any concern with the imagery there, in using a tree … as our mascot? I think everyone comes with blind spots and I think that might've been a really big blind spot,' said Michelle DePass, Portland Public Schools Board of Education Director.

Another committee member said the issue had been brought up during the brainstorming process but stressed that evergreen trees were not typically associated with the barbaric act.

'We did talk about it, but we were looking at the symbolism more as a tree of life, than a tree of death,' said Martin Osborne, who is black, to the Portland Tribune. 'You could certainly take it either way, depending upon your position.'

Osborne said he believed the idea of using an evergreen as a mascot 'had nothing to do with the horrible history of lynching in the United States. Lynching trees typically are not evergreens.'

[PIF]

In the old days there were probably more whites lynched than blacks.

—
Yes there were far more whites lynched than blacks especially in the south were the KKK targeted Republicans for beatings and hangings - black hangings were just warm ups.

But we have to cater to the generations removed descents of a 13% minority which are becoming increasingly obnoxious as portrayed by liberal hand wringers and signalers; where almost every ad on TV has at least one or more blacks, and almost all the females and some males are wearing ‘Afro’ wigs.

[Bonemaker]

Washington was a slave holder.😎

[Bonemaker]

"Yes there were far more whites lynched than blacks..."

...and shooting them too just to be sure!

[taterjay]

Oh, forgot. The Football team then. UHoh, whites probably invented Football. What if they even invented the ball. Dang it, the Team. Is that a white concept also??? Can we even share writing using this white background????

[GreyFriar]

sheer idiocy —

[minnesota_bound]

They must ban Barbra Streisand as she sings about the evil evergreen tree....

Evergreen” from A Star Is Born” (1976)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udLeOOy6em4