City council votes to protect sports nickname and colors

Sept. 16, 2020 | Danielle Eaton
daniellee@thereminder.com

­­­AGAWAM –  The Agawam City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Sept. 8 where a number of topics were discussed, including a resolution to support the town’s colors and sports nickname.

The night meeting opened with comments that had been emailed for citizen speak time, as the meetings are still closed to the public due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Council President, Christopher Johnson, read the comments aloud for the committee to hear. The first statement, from resident Susan Grossberg, who cited concerns surrounding two recent, alleged violations at the site of the current pipeline expansion project by Tennessee Gas.

Grossberg said the first violation had taken place on Aug. 18, and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had cited the company for trucks driving through a wetland. “This was not just any wetland, but the wetland near Gold Street, a vernal pool, which should have given it more concern and protection,” she said. Grossberg said vernal pools “are unique wildlife habitats required by multiple amphibians like salamanders and wood frogs for breeding.”

She said it was just 17 days later when the company had a “frac-out” in another wetland area. In this situation, she said, “fine particulate bentonite clay mud that keeps the drill head cool seeped up from the drilling area under Four Mile Brook and into its nearby wetland.” While she recognized that the Agawam Conservation Committee was “on top of all this,” she said she was concerned that “they can only react to violations after the damage has been done.”

Grossberg expressed frustration that the company had continued to take for granted “our environmental resources,” and cited previous violations that Tennessee Gas had been cited for. She also stated that neighbors whose homes surround the pumping station have “endured the noise and bright work lights of 24-hour work shifts for months and now seven-day work weeks.”

Following Grossberg’s statement, resident Corrine Wingard wrote expressing her belief that the accessory apartment bylaw being considered for the town currently should not be limited to immediate family members. Limiting the use of the bylaw to only immediate family members, she said, would “go against the recommendations of the Agawam’s housing production plan” and called it a “serious mistake.”

She said the plan doesn’t limit the accessory apartment bylaw to immediate family members, and she believed that expanding housing options was important. “One part of the case for accessory apartments said ‘Household may wish to provide a new, self-contained unit within their property to receive additional income, provide social and emotional support to a family member, obtain greater security,” she said.

Wingard said limiting the bylaw to only immediate family members would unfairly exclude Agawam’s senior population who may need the additional rental income provided by the accessory apartment. This, she said, would be a “tremendous disservice” to the town. Additionally, she expressed her belief that accessory apartments should include tiny homes rather than only including attached units within the bylaw. She ended her comment by requesting that the council “go back to the planning board.”

The next statement was from Rhonda Anderson who serves as the Western Massachusetts Commissioner of Indian Affairs. She said she was writing from several tribal homelands from Colrain, MA, she identified her own tribal affiliation and said she’d lived in Western Mass. for the majority of her life. She said she had also served as a “longtime activist of the removal of native mascots as well as an alum and mother of a child in districts with these mascots.” Anderson said, however, her child did not attend the high school in the district as she did not want them “to have the same issues with the native mascot.”

She expressed her opposition to a resolution on the agenda TR-2020-60. The resolution, if passed, would support “the Town of Agawam’s brown and orange colors and its sports nickname “Brownies,” which Anderson called “overtly racist.” She said, “We should not overlook racism in our child’s education system via mascots.”

She said that Native Americans were the only people still used as mascots, aside from animals. The use of the mascot, she said, contributed to racist stereotypes of Native Americans and were harmful. Additionally, she said, the use of Native Americans as mascots led to young Native Americans struggling with their identity and non-Native Americans left with harmful stereotypes.

The next citizen speak time came from Laurel Davis-Delano, who serves as a professor of sociology at Springfield College. She said she had studied Native American sport nicknames and logos for more than 25 years and had published an article with two other co-others called “Race, Ethnicity and Education.” She summarized the content of the article and said it dealt with the effects of Native American mascots.

She said the study found that regardless of the “intent of those who support Native American mascots,” and opinions about them, the mascots have negative outcomes. She cited three studies that found “that Native mascots generate negative psychological effects for students.” She added that no studies found positive impacts or outcomes for Native American mascots.

Following citizen speak time, the council approved a resolution to accept $60,000 from the Estate of Ada E. Mahoney to be used by the senior center. Several members of the council spoke highly of Mahoney, citing her generosity and stating that this was not the first time she’d donated money to the town. They then also approved a resolution to accept a grant for $4,860 from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through FEMA for personal protective equipment for the fire department.

The council then moved onto TR-2020-60, where council member George Bitzas began the discussion on the matter. He clarified that the resolution was simply for the sports nickname and colors, and the Native American mascot was “a separate entity.” He explained the reason he introduced the resolution to the council was “a show of support of the Agawam sports nickname the ‘brownies,’” which he called a symbol of Agawam’s pride.

“We cannot stay silent when people write letters and post to news outlets, social media and citizen speak time criticizing our nickname, depicting our colors as racist and demanding that we change,” he said. Bitzas said while this was not the first time people had called for the change of the nickname and colors, he felt “it must stop now.”

Council Member Gerald Smith said he was asked to be on a committee years ago when the district was considering changing the nickname from brownies to warheads. He said during that time he heard from many people that felt “unbelievably proud” representing Agawam as a brownie throughout the years. He also referred to a news report from decades ago that referred to the teams as brownies, and said he felt it would be an injustice “to change the name from something they love and were very, very proud of.”     “It has nothing to do with the color of anyone’s skin, it had to do simply with the color of the uniform that they first wore when they played football,” he said.

Councilor Dino Mercadante echoed a similar statement and said, “This has nothing to do with the logo of the warrior, this has to do with the colors of a uniform and a noun that you want to call your team.” He said he was asking for “common sense.”

“At what color can we make a uniform where somebody’s not going to be offended,” he asked. “I don’t see any problem with being called the brownies, it’s part of the color of the jerseys, it’s part of the Agawam colors and I don’t see a disruption.”

City Council Vice President Cecilia Calabrese said while she didn’t see a problem with the nickname and colors, she was concerned that the resolution had too much in it. She cited the part of the resolution that stated “Whereas, the nickname has never been intended to call attention or be derogatory or disrespectful of any person’s race, color or creed…” She said, “You can marginalize a group of people without intending to, and I think this is what we are seeing backlash.”

Councilor Paul Cavallo said he worked in the Agawam School District for years and said he supported the resolution based on his experience. Member Robert Rossi agreed with some of the concerns stated by Calabrese, but said he had never met anyone who played a sport or attended school in the district “that wasn’t proud and honored to wear those colors.”

He added that he’d never heard anyone from the Town of Agawam complain or feel as though the nickname was offensive. Cavallo said while he had seen complaints regarding the nickname and mascot on social media, those people did not live in Agawam and he felt as though their opinions should not matter.

Councilor Rosemary Sandlin agreed with Calabrese and asked for the removal of the part of the resolution that discussed intentions and welcoming. “We really should delete, or send this back to the original orchestrator and have him bring it back to us in a different form,” she said.

She added that she was “a proud Agawam brownie,” she felt as though “we should take out some of the things that imply that there may have been a problem.”

Councilman Anthony Suffriti said he didn’t understand why “this was even an issue,” and felt that “the only reason this is an issue is because of what’s going on in the world right now.” He said he agreed with both Sandlin and Calabrese, and said he was in support of the intent of the resolution.

President Christopher Johnson stepped from the chair and again emphasized that the resolution had nothing to do with the Native American mascot. He said Bitzas knew this, which was why there was no mention of the mascot in the resolution. He suggested that the clauses and statements in the resolution that councilors had expressed concern be removed. Bitzas said he had no problem with removing those parts of the resolution.

Calabrese then made a motion to remove the agreed upon parts, which passed unanimously 11 to zero. The motion then passed unanimously.

The last order of business for the council was to pass a resolution which allowed the town to accept a grant for $435,000 from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. Johnson said the grant would go towards a second round of small business grants as part of the CARES Act.

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