As if playing a full-contact sport during a pandemic wasn't wild enough, one South Texashigh school team reminded us all that things could always get crazier.
Corpus Christi's ABC affiliate celebrated the beginning of Friday night fever by showcasing two local teams. In doing so, the station highlighted a name that could almost make the NFL's "Redskins" seem politically correct: "Cotton Pickers."
"The Robstown Cotton Pickers come out before their season opener against London tonight," the affiliate's sports director, Chris Thomasson, wrote.
Undeniably evocative of America's antebellum past, social media users flooded their timelines with questions wondering why the school still uses this mascot in 2020.
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This name has been a point of contention in South Texas for a while. While several schools in the area have discontinued mascots like the "Rebels" and other confederate/racist monikers, Robstown has refused to embrace social progression.
"Robstown ISD administration has not received commentary from parents due to neighboring school districts' mascot controversy. To be a Robstown Cotton Picker exhibits a sense of pride. At this time Robstown ISD will stay focused on student needs as their priority," the Robstown Independent School District said in a 2017 statement.
Despite their statement, there are residents who insist the name is offensive. Currently, the town is a majority Latinx community that thrives off migrant work. This, along with Texas' deep history of slave culture, leads residents to feel like there are more appropriate mascot names.
"I've lived in different cities and when I tell them my high school mascot they kind of take a [sic], it's as a big surprise," a Robstown High School Alumnus Herman Rodriguez said. "We've evolved and we need to change some of that history, and this could be offensive if it's not understood, and if it's not understood how many Latinos are in this town."
