One of the NDSS Golden Hawks’ fiercest KASSAA rivals will soon sport a new moniker.
Recently Kingston’s Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School announced it would be phasing out its Crusaders nickname. Instead they will search for something they deem to be more inclusive. While that’s always a noble goal, at a certain point common sense needs to prevail. In short: there are much bigger issues that could be focused on that would have more of an impact.
A quick Google search of the word Crusaders reveals the issue that some may have with the name. Per the first definition that pops up: ‘Crusader: a person who participated in any of the military expeditions undertaken by Christian powers in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to win the Holy Land from the Muslims. This is religion as the Crusaders knew it: a battle to the death for souls that if not saved will be forever lost.’
When looking at it that way, it’s perhaps a little too intense for a high school sports team.
Of course the obvious answer is to identify as the ‘other’ definition of a crusader: “A person who makes an impassioned and sustained effort to bring about social or political change.”
Looked at with the right mind set, a crusader doesn’t have to be a bad or divisive entity. When writing a story of a person embarking on a fundraising cause this reporter has more than once relied on the tired but trusted cliche of referring to their mission as a ‘crusade’. Never once considering that term could have been mistaken for something entirely different with any kind of religious undertones.
Any talk of updating a sports name is sure to garner a snap reaction and another over used word: woke. Or perhaps the term ‘wokeness’ will get thrown around. The problem with that blanket statement is there are times when a nickname that was acceptable yesterday is simply not proper by today’s standards. Truth be told a lot of those terms shouldn’t have been acceptable back then. Just because they were doesn’t mean they were ever ‘right’.
One notable example is Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians-known today as the Cleveland Guardians.
Dropping the term ‘Indian’ was the right thing to do. Losing the red faced smiling character as a logo was also long overdue. The fact it took well in the 2010’s to actually do it is quite embarrassing for a professional organization, but as they say, better late than never.
Aside from sporting a racially insensitive name on their jersey, keeping the name Indians also bred ignorance. Many would argue the term couldn’t be that bad if an MLB proudly displayed it. Many had no idea why it was even in bad taste.
And so we seem to have arrived to an era of no gray matter when it comes to school mascots. Some sort of middle ground when it came to deciding what names are acceptable would be ideal. But that’s not likely to happen any time soon.
-Adam Prudhomme