Central High’s team name may be in for a change

Central High’s outdated, racist “Warriors” team name and logo may be in for a change this summer.

The Cleveland Indians baseball team announced yesterday that they will be dropping their team’s name after 105 years, because it has long been considered racist.

Cleveland’s move follows the NFL team, the Washington Redskins’, announcement last July 23 that after 87 years they are changing their name for the same reason: the name is outdated and racist.

What of our local schools’ racist athletic team names?

The ongoing cultural shift towards erasing long-accepted racist memes has the name of the Central High School’s team, the Warriors, with its stereotypical Indian head logo, looking increasingly racist, dated and out of touch.

But a change is in the works.

An inquiry to School District 51 about Central’s team name revealed that Central High’s Student Senate is now actively considering changing the name of the school’s team.

Central High Athletic Director, Josh King, says students started considering changing the name last July, after Washington announced they were changing the racist “Redskins” name. Changing the name of Central’s team is solely up to the Central High’s Student Senate.

The Student Senate has been in touch with Indian tribes, like Ute and Hopi, and they hope to have a decision about the name at the end of this school year in May of 2021.

If you want to support the students’ decision to change the school’s team name to something less offensive, you can write to the Central High School Student Senate at 550 Warrior Way, Grand Junction, CO 81504. (And yes, this also makes the point that the very name of the school’s street is dubious.)  If you’re not into snailmail, you can send an email to the school’s athletic director Josh King at josh.king@d51schools.org, and he will get it to the right place.

 

  8 comments for “Central High’s team name may be in for a change

  1. Dave, you seem like you have a very fair and balanced perspective. I was on the fence about this potentially being racist but was convinced by your use of ALL CAPS to tell us it cannot be considered racist.

  2. Indian mascots are NOT racist! A recent survey of Native Americans showed that 95% of Indians said that using native American themes as mascots was a “high honor”. The only people who are racist are those who falsely claim that ethnic mascots are racist. Racism is defined as “actions that denigrate a race”. But using a Native American mascot is recognizing the dignity and high honor that Native Americans have in the hearts of virtually all Americans — so honoring American Indians CAN’T be considered racist.

    • GJ has an awful history with Native Americans. Horrible. It’s about time we quit parading Natives around like mascots. I was so sick of seeing the One Tribe graduation signs. Proud of this decision. Sad it’s forced by law.

    • Can you actually backup that statistic you pulled from thin air with evidence? I’d LOVE to see it.

  3. As a Central alum, it seems to me that the name “Warriors” isn’t the issue so much as the mascot. There are other types of warriors they could use as mascots and still keep the name.

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