There are better choices to be made on mascots and words

I enjoyed reading Julie Muhlstein’s recent column regarding school mascots (“As tribal-themed mascots go, should others also be dropped,” The Herald, July 2). It highlights our society’s efforts to demonstrate more respect to one another, and to improve communication. It can be difficult to let go of some traditions, even when those traditions have murky (even hurtful) roots.

In light of this, I wonder about a particular word choice near the end of the column. She stated that a local school principal’s “ancestry is Native American, Hispanic and Caucasian.” Why use the racist slur, “Caucasian”? Was this the principal’s description, or the writer’s term?

Let’s have an ongoing discussion about how we describe our origins; but maybe it’s time to retire a few more of these inaccurate and wrong-headed terms.

Michael Fischer

Everett