A high school in the arid, hick California town of Coachella uses an evil Arab looking man as a mascot. With the various Indian mascot controversies this one flew under the radar until this past month evidently and is now drawing attention in the media. As someone who has studied mascot racial slurs from Americas various educational institutions I was surprised I have never ran across this one.
This drawing and caricature is despicable and I can only guess few Middle Easterners have actually resided near this desert town on the left coast. I am sure Arabs would not have to been pleased are flattered by the notion that this is somehow honoring their ethnicity and the justification for this mascot is some ludicrous notion that the area also grows dates in its farm fields. it should really come as no surprise that Arabs would be targeted for mascots in California as most of the Native Americans were wiped out quickly and never put up the resistence in the area as they had elsewhere in North America. having a kid dress up in this costume is disgraceful man and I hope Arabs uses America' s petrol dollars to get this hundred year old nickname changed in a hundred days.
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