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Growing up in a small town in central Illinois, I never questioned the mascot of Pekin High School. I did not go to Pekin High, but my high school in Morton was only a few miles from Pekin, my marching band marched in the town's parade every year, and my family often shopped at the Pekin Mail. The Pekin athletes and students called themselves "The Chinks." Somehow I never took offense at this. In fact, I did not think twice about our frequent trips to roller skate at "The Chink Rink" in Pekin. The pointy hat and slanted eyes atop a pair of roller skates had made perfect sense to me until I realized that there were real people these images and words demeaned. It dawned on me that as much as one might say a term is meant to denote a valued tradition, it carries important connotations for others.
In the spring of 1983,1-like so many other high school seniors-waited with anticipation for my college housing assignment. I was excited to have been accepted to Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. I was intrigued when the letter arrived listing my roommate's name, address, and phone number. His name was Maurice Yao-Tze Lee and he was from California. I had never met a Chinese American in my small town. I phoned Maurice, and based on our conversation, looked forward to meeting him in the fall. The first Chinese American I met on my dorm floor was Ted Hao-Yi Chen who turned out to be my suitemate. As I remember it, Maurice and Ted knew of Pekin' s mascot and laughed about it. As I got to know Maurice and Ted during that year, my view of the world was enlarged and I began to take words more seriously.
While Pekin High school changed from "The Chinks" to "The Dragons" in 1980 (Holly, 1995), it was not until March 2000 that the controversy over the mascot of Wheaton College was resolved. The school would no longer call its students "The Fighting Crusaders." As early as 1978, students and faculty members began to ask: How could a Christian institution so committed to evangelism be so cavalier in offending those whose ancestors were victimized by the Crusades? Many...