Editor,
Obviously, the UNM seal has to go. The seal is supposed to be an anodyne bit of branding, totally inoffensive and a brief, pleasant reminder of our fine University. It doesn’t matter if the protesters are right about it being offensive. The fact that people are protesting it means it isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do.
That said, I’ll be sorry to lose the seal. I always thought it was a useful reminder of New Mexico’s history. I’d be going about my day, see it somewhere, and think “Oh, right. This university, state and country were all carved out by rapists and murderers on land they stole from Native Americans. That conquistador probably enslaved a people, and that settler probably thought Native Americans were subhuman monsters. Man, the past is shameful. How can we be better now?”
This, incidentally, is why I think those doctored seals with the pile of bones are so funny. The seal has a conquistador and a settler on it. The pile of bones is already implied.
Still, I’m pretty sure “subtle reminder of past horrors” isn’t what people are looking for in a seal, so again, change it already.
Lawrence Allen
UNM student
