As if we need another reason to dislike Vestavia...
BY John Archibald
23 June 2015
al.com
Vestavia Hills resident and mom Rhonda Steele Nabors cheers for her town's sports teams.
She'll scream Go Red!
She'll holler Go Vestavia!
But she can't bring herself to yell Go Rebels, to stand and cheer for a school mascot that, as she puts it, "marginalizes 7-to-10 percent of the students."
Long before Charleston, Nabors wanted her children to consider the messages they send to others. She was uncomfortable with the Rebel because she wants those children to understand how their own actions affect the way others feel.
This week, in the reflection of that South Carolina horror, Nabors went on a Vestavia Hills Facebook group and questioned – far more politely than I would -- whether the time of the Rebel mascot has passed.
"In light of the race-based Charleston murders, now seems like a good time to have another discussion on this topic," she wrote.
And it began. Dozens of comments rolled in and the discussion she sought began. Reasonably and agreeably and pleasantly and ... not.
Many of the commenters agreed. It is time, at the very least, to talk. Others believe the Rebel is a respected part of history, that getting rid of it is like banning pirate mascots because, well, pirates robbed people and raped women. But it was a start.
"I can't not push this issue after nine people were gunned down in Charleston because of their race," she said. "It's just not right."
And it's not.
The truth is that Vestavia Hills' Rebel has nothing to do with Civil War history, and everything to do with Civil Rights history.
Alabama's fight against integration took most of the 1960s, as stands in the schoolhouse door gave way to lawsuits. By the end of the decade, schools around Alabama began to open the doors to all people. And the flight began.
In 1970 – as a direct result of that desegregation – Vestavia Hills created its own system. It had the gall to name its mascot the Rebels.
Vestavia didn't just pick it's mascot out of a hat – like a Thundering Herd or a Blue Devil. It picked a Confederate Flag-waving Civil War Rebel because it saw itself as rebellious.
We dare defend our way of life.
We dare defend our way of white.
Of course Vestavia Hills was not alone.
"Rebels" is the eighth most common nickname in Alabama schools -- just ahead of "Patriots." It is used in public schools such as Thorsby High and at private schools like Bessemer Academy, which also formed in 1970 in response to fear of ... the Black Menace.
It was a common mascot at the so-called "Segregation Academies," where more than 50,000 white students swarmed – or seceded to -- between 1965 and the early '70s.
The Rebels.
Of course it is no longer 1970. And Vestavia Hills is not the Vestavia of 1970. And that is precisely what Nabors is trying to say.
Vestavia Hills is one of the best academic systems around, with great teachers and facilities and scores and sports and support. Vestavia Hills does so many things right. It makes no sense that it would besmirch all that with an offensive mascot.
It's like slapping a skull-and-crossbones on a bottle of penicillin, like tattooing a middle finger on Sandra Bullock's nose.
Vestavia Hills is better than that. It knows better than that.
It was 15 years ago when system leaders decided it was a bad idea for students to wave their Confederate flags at away games. Because:
a) They didn't want their students constantly getting punched in the face. Or...
b) They realized it was an embarrassment.
Either way they recognized it was wrong. They just lacked courage to do anything real about it.
Today, however, is another day. Another chance.
Nabors was right. It is time – even in the face of protest and tradition and die-hard Rebellion – to start and finish this conversation without excuse.
This mascot, this brand that stands for the city of Vestavia Hills, was founded in fear and defiance of equal rights.
It is time Vestavia Hills yelled another cheer: "We are better than that."
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