School that inspired Grease’s Rydell High embroiled in race row over mascot

The mascot was adopted in the mid 1960’s to honor a Native American coach

The Rador Red Raider, the Radnor High School mascot, has been the centre of debate in the town since 2016 for its depiction of Native Americans. (screengrab)

The high school that inspired the musical "Grease" has become the latest institution to become embroiled in a battle over whether or not its mascot is racist.

The New York Times reported that the residents of Radnor, Pennsylvania – both the setting of "The Philadelphia Story" and the inspiration for Rydell High in "Grease" – have been battling with each other over whether or not the school's mascot, the clearly Native American inspired Radnor Red Raider, is racist.

The school took on the name in the mid-1960s as a way to honor one of the school's coaches, Emerson Metoxen of the Oneidea Tribe.

Defenders of the name and mascot say the "Red" is a reference to the school's colours, red and white, and is not meant to hearken back to racial stereotypes about Native Americans' skin colour.

While that explanation may satisfy some in the town, others think it’s a shallow defense of an offensive caricature of Native Americans.

The campaign to have the mascot changed has been largely been driven by students at the school with the support of most of the school board.

According to The New York Times, the National Congress of American Indians, the American Psychological Association and the National Museum of the American Indian agree with the students' assessment that the mascot is at best an offensive stereotype and at worst a racist depiction of a Native American.

Radnor is far from the first town to grapple with an offensive mascot, and, much like other towns dealing with the same problem, the residents are split on what to do.

The battle lines in the town are predictable. Older, conservative people and those who have lived in the town for a long time – especially those who graduated from the high school – don't want the name changed. Younger, more progressive people and some transplants support ending the Red Raider.

Radnor School Board President Susan Stern pointed out that the divisions forming over the mascot battle were simmering in the community long before anyone complained about the Red Raiders.

"We didn't divide this community," she said during a special meeting in May, "We revealed the divide."

Concerns over the school's mascot have existed since at least 2006, but have finally come to a head this year.

The Red Raider mascot is not all that unique among Native American-themed mascots; the original performer wore a headdress and later performers wore a cartoonish Native American bobble-head. The mascot participated in dances meant to resemble Native American ceremonial dances and did the "Tomahawk chop" with the crowd not unlike sports fans in Atlanta and Kansas City.

What did set the mascot aside was that the first student to take on the role had to meet with Mr Metoxen – the school's beloved coach and member of the Oneida Tribe – to learn Native American dances, culture and heritage.

The mascot's origins may have been rooted in honouring Mr Metoxen, but students at the school have questioned whether it has retained that honor or has evolved into a cartoon-y parody of a disadvantaged ethnic group.

The school's newspaper, the Radnorite, published stories condemning the mascot in 2016 and 2018, and the school's activism club, Radnor for Reform, has made the mascot a center of its efforts for change.

The Radnor for Reform group pressured the school with a "Retire the Raider" campaign, even buying and painting political lawn signs with messages like "Not My Mascot" and placing them in the yards of those who agreed with their cause.

Not unlike a political campaign, many of the signs were stolen or defaced.

Naturally the battle spilled onto social media, bringing with it all of the nuance, empathy and understanding common to Facebook bickering – none.

Older alumni and Raider supporters wrote off the students' concerns as the whining of "snowflakes," while anti-Raiders chalked up anyone who wanted to keep even the name as a racist.

Despite the disagreement, the Radnorite's editor-in-chief, Anne Griffin, said that there is limited animosity between the students, as they have to see each other every day and collaborate in class, regardless of where they land on the mascot issue.

"Obviously there were students who completely disagree, but there's a limit to the hostility, since I might have to sit next to you in chemistry class, and we're going to potentially be assigned together for a group project,' Ms Griffin said. "A lot of the slurs and the vitriol that have been spewed has really come from adults – the alumni."

The town's adults harassing high schoolers ultimately did not work to persuade people to support them; the school board's president ultimately decided the mascot would be changed.

The school and community fought a lengthy battle over whether or not to keep "Raider" as the name while removing the offense imagery, but ultimately the name was retired. The school will now go by a name picked by the students, the Raptors.