cant just go with a bald eagle or some local geographic thing? they really need to stick with the wrestling? sigh.
Wrestling? Perhaps wresting, at best…
Isn’t that the crest for Pawnee Indiana?
Wrestling? Really? WTF is this - the SyFy channel?
Yeah, right? Two things–it don’t think horrible, racist images should be erased. They are an important part of the WTF were we thinking!? narrative. But this one is sooooo beyond the pale I’d support replacing it with, I dunno, a bald eagle eating the white guys face while wearing a Mickey mouse hat.
Cause if we are gonna go for stupid, go full stupid.
Can’t really get much more whitesplainy than “camaraderie.”
Nah, it’s South Park.
You don’t have to erase it to stop using it to represent yourself, though…
The whole story of the wrestling match is here:
In fact, the Oneida County Historical society have recently been so keen to retcon the “friendly wrestling” story that they somehow managed to get the original of the seal listed in their inventory as “copper copy of the origina seal of Whitesbor, depicting Hugh White wrestling with an Indian” in both their 1894 and 1897 proceedings.
…and they somehow managed to get it into a book with an 1838 publishing date:
https://books.google.com/books?id=OrRIAQAAMAAJ&dq=white%20oneida%20wrestling&pg=PA34#v=onepage&q=white%20oneida%20wrestling&f=false
This does seem to be a genuine part of the town’s mythology. The 1800’s version of the seal definitely looks more like an actual wrestling match, but it would seem that whomever updated it managed (chose?) to miss the point entirely.
The “middle ground” would seem to be to replace the town’s seal with something comparable to the 1800’s version, but there are legitimate reasons to question whether an image of a white settler overpowering a native can ever be a good idea for a town seal. We don’t even know for sure whether this event actually took place, and, if it did, it seems to involve White smothering the native with his 250 lbs girth — so, presumably, it was more of a sumo match by 19th century standards, and the seal should reflect this, if you want to plead “historical accuracy.”
That’s terrible. Everyone knows that an Oneida Indian would be wearing one feather pointing up, and another pointing down. It should really be fixed. Other than that, it does show a fairly accurate representation of an actual historical event - Hugh White, the town’s founder, winning a wrestling match, and gaining the respect of the local Indian tribe. But everyone already knew that, right? I mean, it’s not like people would just have a knee-jerk reaction without checking out the facts.
That’s my favorite wrestling move. I use it on Bart all the time.
Then we agree! Funky dance time? Who am I kidding, when isn’t it a funky dance time?
If there’s one thing ol’-timey white folk are known for, it’s accurately portraying the opinions and experiences of people who weren’t white.
Truly, history tells us this repeatedly.
It’s right there in the history books.
Is it not an historically accurate representation of the founding of the town?
I’m pretty sure Pawnee’s crest involves a Native American tribe’s chief tied to a tree with a canon aimed at him. If memory serves.
All of this is weird.
My solution:
If they want to represent an historic moment, camaraderie and wrestling without being too racist (that’s showing the Native American defeated) they can zoom in and show only their arms.
Here is my proposed concept, a screen cap from a documentary on camaraderie.
If the town council considers that there is not clear who is the non white man arm and whose is the white’s one you can throw a few beads and feathers on the Native American and a jar of mayonnaise on the white one’s.
Or, you know, tattoo a broken treaty on the white one’s.
As a historical oddity it’s worth putting up in the court house with a placard explaining the historical context, but as an official seal it’s time to retire that one. I would like to see what the original looked like since it seems odd to remove the coonskin cap and replace it with a hideous head of hair.
I don’t think the random inflammatory remark is really needed as this is already about as embarrassing as talking with grandparents about racial issues.
