Racial mascot debate at Boone County High School

Boone County High School Rebels, meet the Anderson High School Redskins. The latter, after years of protests from their school community, changed their racist mascot and replaced it with Raptors. And just like the east side Cincinnati Anderson High School did until 2021, traditionalists in Boone County are holding on to their offensive, outdated school spirit symbol by a fingernail. Sadly, this is always how these school based changes happen, drip by drip, until the old holdouts are finally drowned out by the more modern, principled voices from within.   And it’s fitting that at Boone County High School the most articulate voice from within is a young African American writer and comedian who now lives on the West Coast after graduating from the school in 2005. Recently, Akilah Hughes went before the school’s decision making board and appealed again (they’ve faced similar requests before) that they drop their mascot that harkens back to slavery and even the KKK. Akilah Hughes. Photo provided And make no mistake, Rebels isn’t used at the school because of the old Rebel Without a Cause movie as some defenders claim.  When the school agreed in 2017 to finally phase out its Mr. Rebel caricature, a...