Villagers to vote on 'offensive' seal featuring image of white settler 'strangling' Native American
Upstate New Yorkers will hit the polls Monday to vote on whether to change an off-putting village seal that depicts a white settler strangling a Native American.
Whitesboro officials kicked off the New Year by sending out postcards to the village's 3,000 residents, alerting them of the vote.
"There's been this nationwide controversy" over the logo, and "it was time to put it to the residents," Whitesboro Village clerk Dana Nimey-Olney said in a phone interview on Friday.
"There's no better way to be a democracy than that," she said.
Surrounded by the town's name, the round logo at the heart of the controversy shows two men grappling against a grassy horizon. The man with the upper hand, so to speak, has chalk-white skin and flowing hair. His mouth is clenched in determination, and he is wearing tan garments.
On the left is a white man with long, dark hair, who is dressed in a brown-coloured top, trousers and shoes. He has an aggressive expression on his face.
His rival appears to be a dark-skinned and bare-chested Native American man wearing just trousers and a feather in his close cropped hair.
The Native American man's face presents a look of despair as his white adversary chokes him into submission.
Whitesboro officials say the seal has evolved over the years so that the settler's hands are on the Native American's shoulders and not his neck.
Officials sent out postcards to the village's 3,000 residents at the beginning of the year, advising them of the vote.
Village clerk Dana Nimey-Olney told the Huffington Post there had been "nationwide controversy," adding that it was "time to put it to the residents".
She added: "There's no better way to be a democracy than that.
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