Washington school ‘bans mural of unofficial mascot Thor on walls claiming image of Norse God would be racist and sexist’

Diversity bosses in Washington state accused a student council of promoting white supremacy for suggesting a mural of the hammer-wielding Norse god Thor could represent their school team.

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

The team is nicknamed ‘The Thunders’ and there is already a Thor statue in the main entrance of the school.

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

“They had a problem with the image not being racially and gender inclusive, and perpetuating an image of pure colonization, white power, white supremacy, even going so far as to say it alluded to racist anti-black imagery in the world. to the south,” student council member Tara said KTTH.

“We were essentially told that maybe when we are in our 40s we will understand their perspective and have more life experiences like they did.”

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

The student senior council did not expect a response when they proposed the god of thunder for their new mural.

They used their talents with AI to create a classic image of the deity wielding his hammer atop a mountain amid bolts of lightning.

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

“But then we had to go around the neighborhood a few times to make sure the image we permanently hung on the walls was something they agreed to represent our school.

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

It reminded them that “We are a system committed to inclusive representation and our obligations under Title IX and Gender-Inclusive Schools require us to create a neutral and diverse representation of the ‘Thunder.’

Asked about some ‘other options for the mural’ from the artist, the suggestion was made to ‘remove the person (Thor), enlarge the hammer and rotate it so that it hammers the center of the mountain’ .

The council members were presented before district staff, including the equity development specialist.

Councilwoman Ava said they were told that “without context, our image could be misconstrued,” suggesting it could promote white supremacy.

The students were told to “bear in mind that the image, while not problematic, is something that could become controversial.”

Tara said it was a “very uncomfortable position for a bunch of high school students to be put in.”

“Realistically, if I’m walking down the hall as a student and I see this picture on the wall, it’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 pretty cool.”

“We find it deeply disturbing that those who benefit from white privilege would use the ideals of equality to silence a predominantly female, ethnically and racially diverse, democratically elected body for daring to speak truth to power.”

She said the suggestion that adding women and people of color to the Norse god statue would be ridiculous and “had nothing to do with school.”

“It was very clear that if we put something like this in place, it would be very clear to the entire student body and to anyone who knows anything about Mountain View that this was just to meet a diversity quota,” she added.

Dailymail.com has contacted Evergreen Public Schools for comment.