The 15'x15' 'Warrior Love' tarp that once adorned the Pfaff Center. It has since been removed.
To the editor:
This is something I am feeling pretty passionate about and wanted to share with the town of Medfield. I designed an altered version of Medfield's Warrior logo for the seniors' rolling rally. There was a lot of positive feedback from it and plans to reproduce it for shirts and other paraphernalia to help a group of senior Girl Scouts to raise money as a service project. I decided one evening this week that it was important to research how Native Americans generally feel about how professional sports and amateur sports teams portray images of them as mascots. My eyes were opened to their hurt, suffering and negative stereotyping that these mascots bring to them. I woke up the next morning with this in my heart.
As this pertains to the Warrior Love logo:
I would never want to negatively symbolize a people. Native Americans have been trampled over and left for dead in this country. We have depicted them in a stereotypical and degrading way for far too long.
As a black man looking for change, getting rid of negative stereotypes and trying my best to teach love and understanding for all people, it would be hypocritical of me to know that this is wrong and still follow through with any reproduction of this logo. My act was purely out of my love and empathy for the Medfield senior class of 2020, but I cannot disrespect others in the process. I apologize to anyone I have offended and thank those who have shed light on this controversial subject.
This has become a teachable moment. Who would want someone else to represent your family with a symbol if they have never had respect for your home or took the time to learn about your culture and family history or asked in the first place? It wouldn’t be their place to make an appropriate symbol.
Being an adopted African American, I don’t have anything that truly represents my family history and culture. If there was one symbol that represented it, who should make it?
As a child, I was always embarrassed during school history lessons as the only light shed on blacks were us bond in slavery. It is pretty obvious why the many white children sitting around me could view me as a lesser person. I don’t want to feed into the stereotypes and racism that minimize many cultures in this country.
I think the class of 2020 deserves a more appropriate symbol that represents their pride and perseverance, and so do the Native Americans… but who says they want one?
With great remorse and more respect,
Kurt Jackson
