For the generations of students who have attended Coachella Valley High School in Thermal, California, their team name and mascot have been a source of pride and school spirit. But as more and more Americans take another look at sports team names that might be considered offensive to specific groups – for instance, the protests by many Native Americans over the National Football League's Washington 'Redskins' – the Coachella Valley Arabs are also generating controversy. It's not so much the team's name that the Arab-American Anti-Defamation Committee (ADC) finds offensive. It's the school's mascot and the way it relies on a stereotypical image of an Arab. "ADC is appalled at the use of a caricature depicted to be an 'Arab' as the official mascot of the high school," the ADC wrote in a letter on November 1st to Dr. Darryl Adams, the superintendent of Coachella Valley Unified School District. "The image of the Coachella Valley High School mascot depicts a man with a large nose, heavy beard, and wearing a Kffiay, or traditional Arab head covering. It has come to our attention that during sporting events, and school functions, a student dressed as this figure, makes an appearance. "Many videos on YouTube clearly show orientalist stereotyping of Arabs. During half-time shows at sporting events, the 'Arab male' comes out to music, while a female dressed as a belly dancer entertains him. Further, the gymnasium has the face of an "Arab" caricature in the middle of the basketball court, as well as around the walls. Outside of the building, an 'Arab' on a carpet is depicted, with a woman next to him." "That logo is a very stereotypical logo," ADC's director of legal and policy affairs Abed Ayoub told ABC-TV's Palm Springs affiliate KESQ. "It's very offensive to many Arabs and many Arab Americans." The name 'Arabs' and the mascot date back several decades. In the early 1900, the US Department of Agriculture brought date shoots from the Middle East and North Africa to the valley, and established an industry that currently produces the top two selling dates in the US. The Middle Eastern influence also can be found in the names of other local towns, such as Mecca, Arabia, and Oasis. "In order to boost date sales and also to boost tourism to the region, they decided to tap into the romance around the Middle East," Sarah Seekatz, a doctoral student at the University of California, Riverside, studying the history of dates in the Coachella Valley, told National Public Radio (NPR). The festival which was started to "tap into this romance" only attracted only a few people at first. These days it attracts thousands of visitors. It features camel rides and a beauty pageant where girls dress up like Arabian princesses to compete for the title of Queen Scheherazade. But there are very, very few Arabs-Americans who actually live in the Coachella Valley of Southern California. In fact, 99% of the students who attend Coachella Valley High School are Latino. The school's sports teams were originally known as the 'Date Pickers' before the name changed in the 1930s to the Arabs, according to Rich Ramirez, the president of Coachella Valley High School's alumni association, said. He told KESQ that the name and mascot honor Middle Eastern nations. "It wasn't to discriminate, it was to say, 'Hey, thank you, Middle East,'" Ramirez told KESQ. "We bought it from them, the date shoots, and now the date industry." Ramirez also pointed out how the town defended the name of the team after the 9/11 attacks, when many people pressured the school to drop the name. But Ayoub disagrees. "Bombers, billionaires or belly-dancers," he told KESQ. "There's a lot more to Arab-Americans, the Arab culture and the Arab heritage than what's being depicted by this high school." Compromise may be possible. Ramirez said the mascot's current features are designed to show him as a fearsome opponent, but if that's main problem, he thinks it possible to reach an agreement with the ADC. Superintendent Adams seems to agree. "It's not so much the name but the depiction of the mascot," Adams told CNN. "I'm from Memphis, Tennessee, so I understand how people can look at different symbols and caricatures. I look at it as an educational opportunity for our students and staff to discuss it. "Things evolve over time, and it's the 21st Century and it's 2013, and this group feels we need to look at it and we will," Adams added. The school and the ADC will have a meeting on November 21st to discuss the issue.
