{"id":389750,"date":"2021-04-05T16:58:17","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T20:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=389750"},"modified":"2021-04-05T16:58:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T20:58:22","slug":"portland-activists-say-evergreen-is-a-tree-of-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/portland-activists-say-evergreen-is-a-tree-of-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Portland Activists Say Evergreen Is a \u2018Tree of Death\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fportland-activists-say-evergreen-is-a-tree-of-death%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=389750&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div readability=\"29.19587628866\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/\">Campus<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">School board member expressed &#8216;concern&#8217; for a tree mascot because of ties to lynching<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-image relative my-9\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-326-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"Washington Free Beacon - Portland Activists Say Evergreen Is a \u2018Tree of Death\u2019\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/alex-nester\/\" title=\"Posts by Alex Nester\" rel=\"author\" class=\"text-red-700\">Alex Nester<\/a> \u2022 April 5, 2021 4:45 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"73.226480836237\">\n<p><span>Portland Public Schools&#8217; Board of Education delayed a vote to approve an evergreen mascot over concerns that the symbol is connected to lynching and could be misperceived as &#8220;a tree of death.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Students and faculty at Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School overwhelmingly selected an evergreen tree to replace its former Trojans mascot in a recent survey. Board director Michelle DePass delayed the board&#8217;s approval vote on the mascot&nbsp;<\/span><span>over concerns that evergreens could evoke ties to lynchings,&nbsp;the <i>Portland Tribune <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/pamplinmedia.com\/pt\/9-news\/503434-403207-portland-school-fears-evergreens-mascot-tied-to-lynching-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;I\u2019m wondering if there was any concern with the imagery there, in using a tree \u2026 as our mascot?&#8221; DePass said at the March 30 board meeting. &#8220;I think everyone comes with blind spots and I think that might\u2019ve been a really big blind spot.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The mascot-renaming committee proposed the evergreen for its &#8220;life-giving force&#8221; and &#8220;the depth of [its] roots.&#8221; One committee member, however, said he understood how others could see the symbol as &#8220;a tree of death.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;We did talk about it, but we were looking at the symbolism more as a tree of life, than a tree of death,&#8221; Martin Osborne, a committee member, said. &#8220;You could certainly take it either way, depending on your position.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Oregon\u2019s state tree is the Douglas Fir, a type of evergreen tree. The board is slated to revisit the mascot issue during its next meeting.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In December, the board voted to change the high school&#8217;s namesake to Ida B. Wells-Barnett from Woodrow Wilson\u2014a Democratic president and KKK sympathizer\u2014to honor the black activist and journalist.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Several schools and professional sports teams across the United States have abandoned mascots deemed derogatory or offensive after the wave of riots and racial unrest in 2020. Public school districts in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlive.com\/news\/grand-rapids\/2021\/02\/saugatuck-public-schools-lands-on-new-mascot-to-replace-contentious-indians-name.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>Michigan<\/span><\/a><span> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wqad.com\/article\/news\/local\/camache-high-mascot-change\/526-b14cc7bb-cc7f-4d34-82d0-8b12c5e5a775\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>Iowa<\/span><\/a><span>&nbsp;announced this year they would drop their &#8220;derogatory&#8221; Indian mascots. The Washington Football Team\u2014formerly the Washington Redskins\u2014in July announced they would no longer use its &#8220;offensive&#8221; mascot or Native American imagery.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Campus School board member expressed &#8216;concern&#8217; for a tree mascot because of ties to lynching  Alex Nester \u2022 April 5, 2021 4:45 pm Portland Public &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2311693,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-326-scaled.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Portland Activists Say Evergreen Is a \u2018Tree of Death\u2019","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-326-scaled.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Portland Activists Say Evergreen Is a \u2018Tree of Death\u2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}