‘We are Piedmont’s fighting Scotsmen bold and bon–!’
Wait, what?
Something didn’t sound right there. I’m at the rally, students are standing, cheering, going nuts, but I can’t get myself to start singing again. Piedmont, that’s our city, fighting, yes we fight, Scotsmen, yes, we are Scottish highla–NO!
It rolls off my tongue: Scotsmen. Among a crowd of roaring students, I could care less of the sound it produces out loud, but I keep saying it in my mind: Scotsmen, Scotsmen. It’s so hissy, so faint.
As students lined up the days before the rally to snatch their coveted Homecoming T-shirt, they noticed something different on the back. A tradition had been changed, a unique symbol abandoned. ASB decided to modify the Piedmont Fight Song for the first time, well, ever.
So why has the change come now?
Unfortunately, the word is steeped in a bit more history than just the Piedmont Fight Song. Prejudice and bigotry has caused ‘clansmen’ to associate too closely with ‘klansman’, the hooded white supremacist group that committed violent hate crimes. Besides its obvious representation of a pre-17th century Scottish warrior,the term ‘clansmen’ conjures horrifying images for many.
And this is precisely why ASB chose to change the Fight Song, According to ASB, it just made people feel uncomfortable.
But unfortunately, I’m still left puzzled. I feel changes to traditions cannot just be executed so swiftly as ASB has done. It is not all about me not liking the word ‘Scotsmen’, it is more about the process behind swapping it in.
We voted for this not to happen. Back in Spring of 2013, it was on the ballot. And over three-quarters of the student population did not want it changed. And yet, when I open up my crumpled up shirt last week, there it was, ringing through my mind. Scotsmen.
It is a touchy issue, no doubt. But ASB should have prioritized their goals with this issue. If they really thought it was so serious to make the executive decision to take it off after we had voted to keep it the way it was, then do not put it on the ballot in the first place. That’s a series of events that is waiting to garner some attention, in a bad way.
I do not stand for racism, or anything with racist connotation that would hurt someone. But we must understand that ‘clansmen’ never was intended to be racist when it was created, it was never intended to be racist in the 50’s, and it sure wasn’t intended to be racist up until this past rally.
We are in an institution of higher learning, and shirts with gestures, pictures, slogans, etc. that may be harmful to certain groups of people will most likely be prohibited with administrative action. But this term was never out to harm anyone, it’s a Scottish warrior that spurs his troops into battle, or, in our case, onto the football field.
The clansman was unique, specific. The hard ‘cl’ sound just sounded more hard and tough. It separates us from the ‘bulldogs’ and the ‘cougars.’ A Scotsman could be a thirty-year-old guy named Donald from Aberdeen. A clansman is a special kind of warrior, someone that contributes to our school’s identity. And it is devastating that we have to lose it for a connotational misconception.
Look, I probably sing the Fight Song about three times a year, and that’s at the rallies. One might question why I am so turned off by this change. I have two left before I leave. I’d like to go out as a fighter, someone who tackles challenges and problems fiercely with a unique attitude and spirit. This is what ‘clansmen’ embodies for me, and it sure doesn’t have to do with racial discrimination.
If ASB wants to take this unique emblem and impulsively switch it then so be it, but don’t undermine the process of the student voice of democracy in an election. Even if the 75 percent of voters who didn’t want the change don’t feel as strongly as I do, what’s important was that their voices were not heard.
‘Piedmont’s…Scotsmen’.
It’s a mouthful, isn’t it?
Contact Danny at dkolosta@tphnews.com
