DENVER – A Democratic-controlled Colorado House committee this week advanced a measure that would limit American Indian mascots at public schools.
House Bill 1165 on Monday passed the House Education Committee on a 6-5 party-line vote to cheers from Native Americans sitting in the audience.
The issue last was discussed by the Legislature in 2010. Since then, it has picked up steam, with national attention thanks to pressure on the NFL’s Washington Redskins to change the team’s name.
“You would have to have a very privileged view of life to consider redskins and savages to be political correctness ...” said Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, co-sponsor of the bill. “We’re talking about people that have been disenfranchised over a number of centuries.”
HB 1165, also sponsored by Rep. Jovan Melton, D-Aurora, would establish a committee that would need to approve use of the mascot, or schools would need to stop using it.
The bill also would set a fine of $25,000 per month if the school continues using the mascot after it has been rejected by the committee.
In an effort to address costs to schools associated with switching to another mascot, the bill would create a fund for schools in order to make the transition.
Sponsors began the hearing by showing slides of cartoons accompanied by derogatory racial slurs. Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, who is black, was so offended by the presentation that she asked sponsors to pull the slides.
But Melton, who also is black, said the point of the slides was to show what Native Americans see at school, seeing “savages, or redskins, or to see some type of image that degrades them.”
Opponents said the bill was steeped in politics, while not fully taking into account costs associated with the proposal.
About 18 schools could be impacted by the legislation.