POV: Racist Symbols Have No Place in Massachusetts. It’s Time to Change the State Flag and Seal

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Voices & Opinion

POV: Racist Symbols Have No Place in Massachusetts

We have an opportunity now to change our state flag and seal

July 24, 2020
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More than 130 years after Charles Eastman (MED 1890) became the first Native American graduate of Boston University’s School of Medicine, Massachusetts continues to fly a flag threaded with white supremacy. At the top, a white arm clenches a downward thrusting sword. The point aims at a stereotyped Native figure who stands below. The same image appears on the state seal. At a time when even the National Football League team named with a racial slur is changing its name, it’s time for Massachusetts to change our racist symbols. Speaking at a July 16 State House rally and press conference, Mahtowin Munro from United American Indians of New England asked legislators to support bills to change the flag and seal (S.1877 and H.2776), ban Native American school mascots, and protect Native heritage and sacred objects. We must  seize “a historic opportunity to begin to listen to indigenous voices statewide,” Munro said.

The state seal, mascot, and heritage bills collectively address long-standing wrongs. To understand their intertwined racism, read artist Edmund Garrett’s account of creating the state seal. Garrett’s descriptions of Native Americans display hateful stereotypes. His report dates from 1900, but today’s Native American mascots embody similarly racist views. As for the state seal, it is modeled on objects at Harvard’s Peabody Museum taken from indigenous communities, including Wampanoag leader Metacom’s sash, and a bow pulled off a Nipmuc man shot in 1665. And in a horrific fact requiring a trigger warning, Garrett used the skeleton of an unnamed Native man from Winthrop to create the design.

The three bills before the State Legislature aren’t just about changing symbols from the past. They are about respect and justice for the living descendants of the original inhabitants of this land now called Massachusetts. The far from radical Senate and House bills don’t even mandate removal of the flag and seal. They set up a commission, with at least five members “of lineal descent of tribes,” and require a recommendation by the end of the year.

Whatever that recommendation, the bills ensure they will come from the understandings and experiences of Massachusetts’ diverse Native communities. In contrast, no Native person was consulted when the legislature approved the current flag and seal in June 1898. Indeed its origins lie not, as some argue, in the struggles of a revolutionary past. The 1775 flag Paul Revere designed featured a white patriot holding the Magna Carta.

The current flag and seal arose out of a shameful apex of American racism. The period leading up to the 1898 adoption included the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the imperialist Spanish American War (1898), and in 1890, the massacre at Wounded Knee.

Thanks to antiracist activists, from Charles Eastman, who bore witness to the atrocities of Wounded Knee, to present-day leaders, some change has come. In June, the Mashpee Wampanoag won a court victory, and at least for the moment stopped the Trump administration from revoking reservation status. Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court recognized the land claims of Native nations in Oklahoma.  

But that is not to say the threats are gone. As Hartman Deetz, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Nation, said at the State House rally, the flag and seal are “not just symbolism.” Native people in Massachusetts, and across the country, “continue to live under that threat today, from continued genocide, from continued dispossessions, from continued oppression.” That oppression is evident in disproportionate rates of police brutality, and in the devastation COVID-19, enabled by centuries of racist settler colonial policies, is wreaking on Native and indigenous communities.

The impact of racist images of Native Americans in promoting stereotypes and causing harm to Native people is well documented. Worse, the state seal is an official image. It hangs over meetings of the State Board of Education, and is stitched on uniforms of the overwhelmingly white (89 percent) and male (95 percent) Massachusetts State Police. Knowing the power of symbols, I do not discount the role of a racist state seal in racist policing, or in Massachusetts receiving one of the worst scores in a 2019 review by the National Congress of American Indians of state efforts to offer “accurate, culturally responsive, tribally specific, and contemporary content about Native Americans” in K-12 schools.

Structural racism, like a Jenga tower, has many interlocking blocks. Removing a few won’t topple the tower. But it makes it less stable. Use this form to write your legislators. Do it today, before the State Legislature adjourns July 31. Tell them racist symbols have no place in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

 

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  • Mary Battenfeld

    Mary Battenfeld is a College of Arts & Sciences clinical professor of American and New England studies; she can be reached at mbatten@bu.edu. Profile

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There are 15 comments on POV: Racist Symbols Have No Place in Massachusetts

  1. Thanks for bringing this opportunity for change to our attention. It only took me a minute to follow the link and fill out the form requesting change.

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  2. The following is a quote BU alumnus Rev. Vernon K. Walker STH ’16 made during the 7/16 press conference about this important issue. “Four hundred years after the Pilgrims have landed in Plymouth, it is long past time for Massachusetts to begin to reckon with its racist and damaging history with Native Americans, We are the last state to abolish and eliminate the white supremacy represented on our flag. The time is now for a change.”

    If you agree please use the link in the last paragraph to write your elected officials.It actually take less than a minute. If you don’t agree please read Dr. Kendi’s book How to Be an Anti-Racist.

    Thank you Prof. Battenfeld and Rev. Walker for speaking out.

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    1. Yes, it is time for a change. Time to change the BU administration who applauds all WOKE craziness and at the same time justify social oppression of the working folks at BU.

      How about standing up for real frontline workers for once? How about accolades for maintenance and facility staff who are underpaid and overworked while professional agitators among administrators give themselves awards and promotions.

      Lower the tuition, pay decent living wages, and take on the issues which really matter to working people in our state.

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  3. I understand where you’re coming from in this article and I respect your concern for Native Americans.

    As a Native American, I’ve found that few people understand my culture or are even aware Native Americans exist anymore. There have been many offensive things in pop culture regarding Native Americans, and that can be exhausting. For example, the Washington Redskins had an offensive name for a long time. Thats because “redskin” is a slur, not because they featured a Native American as there logo. That being said, I don’t find this flag to be offensive in the slightest. It makes it seem like an ethnicity that is largely ignored has some place in America. By removing the Native American from that flag, it makes it seem like Native Americans don’t deserve to be on a state flag. It makes it seem like an often forgotten minority has no place in America. It’s just another place for the US to forget and brush over Native Americans as our heritage seems to fade away. So while I have complete respect for your concern and willingness to advocate for Native Americans, please don’t advocate against a Native American on the state flag.

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    1. Massachusetts is the only state who’s name is in Native language, meaning “of the hills.” As far as I know, one of the only state flags in the union with a native american on it is Massachusetts. Massachusetts is one of the most equitable, fair, progressive states in the Union. Growing up in public school we visited and were visited by Native Americans to teach us about there heritage many times. To imply that washing all history and native symbolism from our state would somehow do anything positive other than appeasing privileged, “offended-on-your-behalf,” marxist liberals, is without merit. I am a BayStater and PROUD of our state and the incorporation of Native Culture and symbolism, good or bad. And to imagine anyone in their right mind seeing this flag and inferring from that, that we should slay Natives with a sword, or even that we should be proud of that, only makes sense in the eyes of someone looking to prove a horrific and dangerous political point. This is nonsense. Before making such offensive claims, I reccomend “checking your privilege,” as they say.

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  4. Thanks Cole, and great point. I should have been clearer, but I’m not advocating for removing the Native American figure from the flag. I support the bill, developed by UAINE and other Native groups, which sets up a commission that is majority from Massachusetts tribes, to review the design and made recommendations that come from Native voices.

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  6. Massachusetts is the only state who’s name is in Native language, meaning “of the hills.” As far as I know, one of the only state flags in the union with a native american on it is Massachusetts. Massachusetts is one of the most equitable, fair, progressive states in the Union. Growing up in public school we visited and were visited by Native Americans to teach us about there heritage many times. To imply that washing all history and native symbolism from our state would somehow do anything positive other than appeasing privileged, “offended-on-your-behalf,” marxist liberals, is without merit. I am a BayStater and PROUD of our state and the incorporation of Native Culture and symbolism, good or bad. And to imagine anyone in their right mind seeing this flag and inferring from that, that we should slay Natives with a sword, or even that we should be proud of that, only makes sense in the eyes of someone looking to prove a horrific and dangerous political point. This is nonsense. Before making such offensive claims, I reccomend “checking your privilege,” as they say.

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    1. While I’m glad that you take pride in your home state, and your heart seems to be in the right place, you do make some fairly dubious claims yourself:

      “Massachusetts is the only state who’s name is in Native language…”

      You might want to check with Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, Alaska, Mississippi, Kansas, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, Idaho, Connecticut, both of the Dakotas…

      (While you’re at it, maybe try spending an hour talking to a liberal about Marxism, or a Marxist about liberalism, and see if you can come up with a definition of “marxist liberals” that extends beyond “people who disagree with me.”)

      Finally, you argue that that the interpretation of the sword-arm on the flag “only makes sense in the eyes of someone looking to prove a horrific and dangerous political point.” My understanding is that the sword pictured is based on one carried by Myles Standish, who was indeed responsible for killing Native Americans during his tenure as the commander of the Plymouth Colony militia. With this historical fact in mind, the interpretation seems plausible, if not entirely obvious, which leads me to wonder what “horrific and dangerous political point” so concerns you?

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  7. I’ve lived in the southwest for many years now in an area with a high native population. None of them like this highly offensive white savior nonsense. Woke white lefties are telling them they are weak and need the woke crowd to think and speak on their behalf. There is a word for that…

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  8. I appreciate and respect Cole C’s comment. The overly emotional name calling by Mr. Abushahkh is unhelpful, uncalled for, and uninformed (there is no such thing as a Marxist-Liberal, other than on say FOX or OAN or in the NY Post; there is one or the other, and they are naturally in political and ideological opposition). Like Cole C. I also do not see any or all representations of Native Americans (or First Nations, the term used in my former country of residence) as racist. The point is not to remove all representative images, it is to represent with respect and inclusiveness. I have just volunteered for a Town committee in my domicile town of Natick, MA, where the town seal IS actually racist and there is a truly appalling mural in the (Federal) Natick Post Office, depicting what must be called the historical, violent ethnic cleansing of Natick and the surrounding region (https://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/indiansatthepostoffice/mural16.html). My stated condition for serving is that First Nations representatives must also be on the inclusion and diversity committee, and have their views actively sought out and recorded as part of a wider educational effort in a town that until recently called its public high school teams the “Redmen.”

    That said, the article above is underwhelming. It does not help that it begins with a clearly inaccurate (in several ways) description of the flag, which fortunately can be viewed on its own, a simple act that immediately corrects the false impression of it in the article. It is a real reach to describe that sword as pointing down in a threatening manner. It is actually pointing up, unless you assume that the figure holding (“clenching”?) it is in fact lying on their side, which would make the sword about as useful as a lost duck in a thunderstorm. It does NOT aim or thrust at the figure below. To the contrary, because it is a saber (either officer or cavalry), it doesn’t point or thrust at anything, ever. One does not thrust a sabre. One slashes with it. A minor technical point, you may object. But in this case it completely vitiates the claim of violent, racist intention, since the natural slashing motion carries the blade AWAY from the figure below. Maybe people should stop seeing offensive things in every image out there, and actually look at the image. I write this, I confess, having never once before today looked at the state flag of MA. It’s not like that’s the stars-and-bars up there. Let’s get a grip.

    Cathal J. Nolan
    Professor of History
    Boston University

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  9. I appreciate and respect Cole C’s comment. Like Cole C. I also do not see any or all representations of Native Americans (or First Nations, the term used in my former country of residence) as racist. The point is not to remove all representative images, it is to represent with respect and inclusiveness. I have just volunteered for a Town committee in my domicile town of Natick, MA, where the town seal IS actually racist and there is a truly appalling mural in the (Federal) Natick Post Office, depicting what must be called the historical, violent ethnic cleansing of Natick and the surrounding region (https://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/indiansatthepostoffice/mural16.html). My stated condition for serving is that Native American/First Nations representatives must also be on the inclusion and diversity committee, and have their views actively sought out and recorded as part of a wider educational effort in a town that until recently called its public high school teams the “Redmen.”

    That said, the article above is underwhelming. It does not help that it begins with a clearly inaccurate description of the flag, which fortunately can be viewed on its own, a simple act that immediately corrects the false impression of it in the article. It is a real reach to describe that sword as pointing at anything, let alone pointing down in a threatening manner. If one is forced to say, then it is actually pointing up, unless you assume that the figure holding (“clenching”?) it is in fact lying on their side, which would make the sword about as useful as a lost duck in a thunderstorm. It does NOT aim or thrust at the figure below. To the contrary, because it is a saber, it doesn’t point or thrust at anything. One does not thrust a sabre. One slashes with it. A minor technical point, you may object. But in this case it completely vitiates the claim of violent, racist intention, since the natural slashing motion carries the blade AWAY from the figure below. Maybe people should stop seeing offensive things in every image out there, and actually look at the image. I write this, I confess, having never once before today looked at the state flag of MA. It’s not like that’s the stars-and-bars up there. Let’s get a grip.

    Cathal J. Nolan
    Professor of History
    Boston University
    Gilder Lehrman Prize in Military History (2018)

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