Let’s Go Esko?

A tale of a small town and its mascot meets 2020.

Disclaimer: Two things: One, this is my hometown so want to be upfront about that. Second, this is an opinion piece aimed at being respectful and thoughtful. No disrespect is meant to anyone. It is meant to be thought-provoking. I’m scared to post this due to all the yelling these days (trademark theme of 2020). So peace please.

It’s no secret that Facebook can bring out our worst. Yet it’s one of the few places you can see posts from old friends and acquaintances if only just to know they are alright in these moments of isolation. It was here on a Friday night, I came across dueling petitions and impassioned debate over the importance of letting go, or keeping the high school mascot & team name, the Esko Eskomos; associated with a small freeway stop between Cloquet and Duluth, MN.

As I read through, I learned that the “i” version of the word Eskimo is a controversial and hurtful word for the Inuit in Canada and Greenland. A term assigned to them via colonialism. Linguistically there are different theories as to where the word actually came from and what it meant. Regardless, colonialism as usual left its discriminatory and sometimes violent mark. And if you haven’t noticed of late we are looking to scrub signs of colonialism and other troublesome figures of our human past in our language and symbols. All well and good.

But the high-school mascot in question (the “o” version of the word) comes with some nuance. Yes, the mascot looks like an Eskimo, but the town and mascot come from the word “Esko,” named after the Finnish man and family who founded the town, originally called Esko’s Corner. Local history tells of how there was also anti-immigrant sentiment towards the Finns when they came to this region, due to their role in the miner strikes on the range, their close knit communities and coops, and some of their socialist traditions were viewed as anti-American by other groups. This is a part of Minnesota’s history and Esko was a part of it. And as a result, the town’s name and mascot are a little farther away from the struggles of the Inuit, both in spelling and in intent.

So let’s get back to the mascot. As I watched the comments, pleading for reason, gaslighters, trolls, and others all rage across the screen, it hurt. It felt sad. Some people were downright cruel to those who are suggesting the name change, and I was horrified. There were also equally mean comments to those who want to leave the mascot. I myself wondered if the mascot removal would be enough for folks or if they would also demand the name of the town changed, as that would be too close for comfort? As this is about spelling, it really made me wonder. It made me jealous of the Wrenshall Wrens, unless there’s something about that bird I don’t know yet.

Here’s my concern. People can demand and get the school board to remove the mascot. Sadly I expect it, given the times we live in. But I sincerely don’t think it will benefit the Inuit people with the challenges they face today. It feels more like empty gesture, an exercise in symbolism that’s easy but also feels cynical.

Here’s why I think this. The gain of removing the mascot will be short-lived for those not attached to my hometown. They will feel like some injustice has been corrected and move onto the next small town, and the next and the next, via online petitions and news coverage. Esko will try to make a mascot out of a freeway stop or a hay field or something. Maybe a bird, that sounds non-controversial, easy right?

But on the other side of the coin, emotions and sentiment are human and have weight in our hearts. We are all trying to adapt to extraordinary times. And in these times, people tend to cling to nostalgic symbols that don’t change, as a foundation for change ahead. When a piece of your identify that feels solid shifts, for reasons that are out of your control and for reasons that feel like an overreach, it hurts. And that’s normal. And this makes people crazy for better or for worse. In that light, you can see how others will view this change as a nuanced snub to the Finnish heritage of the town. And the whole silly issue will distill down to a sad online fight between ethnic groups and heritage. There are no winners in online wars.

But more importantly, it’s not going to help. David Brooks’ recent column on symbolism in the New York Times (“America is Facing 5 Epic Crises All at Once”) points out that in all the good that is coming out of our pain right now and how we’re learning about injustice in our own country, our zeal to embrace symbolism over real change is also a symptom of our problems, rather than a solution. It is an easy path to feel in control or better about ourselves in most cases. We are all on this easy path at the moment.

So let’s talk about the hard path. The best thing that came out of this debate is looking into the Inuit people. And sadly their biggest challenge is not American idiocy on Facebook debating if a town of 2,000 should change their mascot…it’s climate change. This manmade disaster is more deadly to their way of life than anything they have ever faced. Their proud traditions of hunting, trapping and living off the land are literally melting beneath their feet. If you do anything for this debate, I encourage you to find a way no matter how small to fight climate change. We have to start now.

Otherwise in a couple of years, the people we are trying not to offend with a small gesture of replacing a small town’s mascot will look really useless and cynical. It’s already starting to feel that way. And like most of 2020, that’s pretty sad.

Links worth looking into:

NPR on where the word Eskimo comes from: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/04/24/475129558/why-you-probably-shouldnt-say-eskimo?fbclid=IwAR1YANTQg3LNeuLgZiaY5YuxWMeAfm5YuPcTuLEXm11Ngvwzdn3B1XPABC0

MPR on some history of the Finns in Northern Minnesota: http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/199706/10_losurem_finnpoor/index.shtml

David Brooks’ on our 5 Crises and symbolism (New York Times, June 25, 2020): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/opinion/us-coronavirus-protests.html

Links on Climate Change and the Inuit people:

https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/its-time-listen-inuit-climate-change

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181102-what-can-i-do-about-climate-change