Washington school ‘bans mural of unofficial Thor mascot from walls, claiming image of Norse god would be racist and sexist’

Diversity chiefs in Washington state accused a student council of promoting white supremacy by suggesting that a mural of the Norse god Thor, wielding a hammer, could represent their school team.

Students at Mountain View High School in Vancouver offered a mural of the god, whose name translates to “thunder,” to decorate a wall in a recently renovated building as a senior gift.

His team is nicknamed ‘The Thunderers’ and there is already a statue of Thor at the school’s main entrance.

But the AI ​​image they came up with horrified the district’s equity office, which demanded that the god be removed or accompanied by women and people of color.

“They had a problem with the image that was not inclusive from a racial and gender point of view, in addition to defending an image of pure colonization, white power, white supremacy and they even went so far as to say that it alluded to racist anti-black images in the south,” said student council member Tara. KTTH.

“Basically, they told us that maybe we would understand their perspective when we are 40 and have more life experiences like theirs.”

School officials near the Columbia River have adopted their “thunder” identity, running a Thunder Success Academy, a Thunder Crew, and Thunder Mentors.

So the senior student council didn’t expect a backlash when they suggested the god of thunder for their new mural.

They used their AI talents to produce a classic image of the deity wielding his hammer on a mountaintop amidst lightning.

“We were really excited to have the mural, we thought for spring break,” Tara said.

‘But then we had to go around the district several times to make sure that the image we were permanently putting on the walls was something they agreed with to represent our school.

But after submitting their design, they received an email from the Evergreen Public Schools district administrator demanding to know if students had been surveyed about the design.

He reminded them that ‘We are a system that strives for inclusive representation and our Title IX and Gender Inclusive Schools commitments require us to create a neutral and diverse representation of the ‘Thunder.’

He asked the artist for some “other mural options” and offered a suggestion that they “remove the person (Thor), make the hammer bigger, and rotate it so it hits the center of the mountain.”

The council members were brought before district staff, including the equity promotion specialist.

Council member Ava said they were told that “without context, our image could be taken the wrong way,” suggesting it could promote white supremacy.

Students were asked to be “aware that the image, although not problematic, is something that could become controversial.”

Tara said it was “a very awkward position for a group of high school students.”

“Realistically, as a student, if I’m walking down the hallway and I see this picture on the wall, that’s not going to be the first thing that comes to mind,” Tara added.

‘The first thing will be like, ‘This is my school mascot on the wall.’ And it looks very good.”

‘We find it extremely disturbing that those who benefit from white privilege use ideals of equity to silence a predominantly female, ethnically and racially diverse and democratically elected body for daring to speak truth to power.

He said the suggestion that adding women and people of color to the image of the Norse god would be ridiculous and “has nothing to do with the school.”

“It was very obvious that if we proposed something like that, it would be very obvious to the entire student body and to anyone who knew anything about Mountain View that it was just to meet a diversity quota,” he added.

Dailymail.com has contacted Evergreen Public Schools for comment.