Activists Will Protest Race-Based Mascots At High School Basketball Tournament

Opponents of Native American sports mascots and logos will hold a ceremony and protest outside the Kohl Center in Madison on Friday night.

Organizers say the goal is to call attention to the negative impact such sports mascots have on the entire state. The protest will take place just before the Mukwonago Indians take on the Neenah Rockets in the state high school boy’s basketball tournament.

“Race-based mascots do not stay in local communities,” said Barb Munson of the Wisconsin Indian Education Association. “They impact native students throughout the state when a team plays in state tournament – something that certainly we have talked about many times trying to get legislation passed in the past, over the 20 years that this discussion has been going on.“

The Mukwonago high school logo is a Native American man’s head in profile with a feathered headdress. For several years the school district resisted legal efforts to force it to change the mascot; it then led the successful effort to pass legislation last year that places the burden for forcing a mascot change on those who complain about it.