Justin Salisbury: The next step after the bans: get back those racist clothes

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This commentary is by Justin Mark Hideaki Salisbury of Burlington, Mikmaq and Indian Passamaquoddy, a graduate student in education at the University of Vermont. He has worked as a design lab assistant, economics researcher, therapist, legislative assistant and teacher.

Vermont recently joined other states in banning racist mascots and likenesses. While these bans are significant, the effect of past mascots and likenesses will continue.

Additionally, the effect of out-of-state mascots and likenesses will also continue. Although we were able to make it illegal to retain the Green Mountain Chieftains, the Kansas City Chiefs are not directly affected. Although the South Burlington Rebels mascot may have been retired, the clothing remains, so much of the effect remains. The Ole Miss Rebels, again, are not directly affected.

I support bans, but I write to encourage other anti-racists to create voluntary opportunities for people to swap racist clothing. People who participate should be congratulated for their participation, not shamed for owning racist clothing.

In Vermont, many of us are familiar with carbon harvesting, where we basically plant trees to harvest carbon from the atmosphere. Here is an idea: the recovery of racist clothing. I will describe the idea of ​​a school, but it is applicable to any public institution.

Schools can organize a clothing exchange. At your school, allow students, faculty, staff, and/or community members to voluntarily swap racist sportswear for other types of clothing. Some people might call it a buyback program, but I’m not talking about giving money away.

This idea is a modification of an idea from East Carolina University, my alma mater. At East Carolina, we used to have t-shirt swaps to get apparel from other colleges on our campus. Whether it was UNC or NC State, we wanted to replace those clothes with East Carolina clothes, so we set up a t-shirt swap program.

At our annual college-wide end-of-year gathering, we allowed students to trade a t-shirt from another school for an East Carolina t-shirt. We did it for any school, regardless of racism. We then asked students who lived in faraway places like Vermont to bring home these shirts from other schools and drop them off at a thrift store in their home state.

Here I am focusing the clothing swap on racist school and sports team clothing. The mascots of Indigenous peoples, Ku Klux Klan members, and Confederate soldiers are widely believed to be racist. We can also examine the implicit racism of the San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills and other mascots.

Anyone running a racist clothing salvage program will have to decide which team identities should qualify.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to donate racist clothes to thrift stores. It does not remove him from society. It must be destroyed. I wish I had a bonfire to destroy everything, but please at least cut it so no one can ever view it again.

No one should wear a Galloping Ghosts or Red Raiders t-shirt. In addition, two large groups are disproportionately low-income people: people of color and people who shop at thrift stores. Putting racist clothes in thrift stores is systematically racist.

Tip: If you learn your school is doing this, buy a cheap racist hat or shirt from a thrift store, then trade it in for new clothes with your school logo on it. Thrift stores could develop the justice orientation to begin destroying donated racist clothing.

After Michael Vick was dethroned for dogfighting, animal shelters used his singlets for dog bedding. Maybe we could do that with racist clothes.

Trading your school clothes puts more of your school spirit out into the world and eliminates the oppression of the world. If you are a company that owns its own clothes, use them. If you are a community organization, distribute your logos.

Find donors or fundraise to buy the new clothes. Student government entities may choose to allocate a portion of their funding to such a program. Many schools have budgets for diversity programs; these budgets could be used for this kind of program. Be creative. If it’s a priority, you can find money.

At universities, it might start as a big clothing swap event for an educational show, but it can become an ongoing program at campus bookstores. The funder specifies the replacement shirts they will purchase, then pays the bookstore for each racist clothing item collected, much like scalps or redskins at a trading post. We collected 10 racist t-shirts this month, so it will be $100.

If you have other types of clothing that you would like to spread in exchange for racist clothing, go ahead. I’ve always been a Boston Red Sox fan and I hate the New York Yankees. That said, if everyone in Vermont swapped their racist clothes for Yankees clothes, I’d be thrilled. The Yankees team identity does not contribute to the oppression of anyone as far as I know.

Within our existing spheres of influence, we can be the change we want to see in the world. Bans can’t go any further, but we can get rid of racist clothing with freedom and unity.

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