Mascot settler colonialism: Linda J Kuckuk, The Persistent Voice of the Colonizer: Troubling a Mascot’s Settler-Colonial Past, MA dissertation, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, 2024 | settler colonial studies blog

Mascot settler colonialism: Linda J Kuckuk, The Persistent Voice of the Colonizer: Troubling a Mascot’s Settler-Colonial Past, MA dissertation, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, 2024

16Aug24

Abstract: The legacy of settler-colonialism permeates American culture. Remnants of westward expansion remain in our societal divides, political differences, environmental inequities and economic inequalities. Conversations about decolonization, gentrification, and other ongoing practices that precipitate and uphold colonialism are notably found in literature, art, social structures, icons and symbols. Mascots that rely on stereotypes or caricatures can contribute to negative perceptions and reinforce discriminatory attitudes, making it necessary to reevaluate and change representational practices. In this analysis I apply historical, textual, and visual methods to explore Cal Poly Humboldt’s mascot Lucky Logger and identify how this character is a “persistent voice” by way of the object’s own history and of the history it reflects. As a rendition of the American mythic hero Paul Bunyan, Lucky Logger is a remnant of Manifest Destiny and inseparable from this mythos. Further, I compare Shing Yin Khor’s graphic novel The Legend of Auntie Po, a counter-narrative, to the legacy of white male superiority inherent in Paul Bunyan tales and by extension in Lucky Logger. I argue that Cal Poly Humboldt’s mascot perpetrates “the persistent voice of the colonizer” and does not represent the values of a Polytechnic University within the California State University system.

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