Students Call San Antonio College's Masked Ranger Mascot a Symbol of 'Mexican-American Oppression'

Student activists at San Antonio College are fighting to destroy the new mascot that was introduced by administrators last year. The activists claim that the college’s new Masked Ranger mascot should be replaced because it represents “Mexican-American oppression.”

According to a report by The College Fix, students at San Antonio College are fighting back against the adoption of a new mascot that they claim is culturally insensitive. The mascot, named “Antonio the Masked Ranger,” was introduced by the college in the fall and immediately met with public criticism.

Student activists immediately began a campaign to have the mascot destroyed. Students drafted letters and gave interviews to local media outlets to promote their cause. Many students argued that the mascot is based on offensive stereotypes, with some drawing comparisons to early Hollywood’s depiction of the “Mexican bandit.”

“What people are going to take away from this is that it’s now some kind of Latino bandit,” one student activist said during an interview with Texas Public Radio. “It kind of plays into those old stereotypes that were very prevalent in our media and Hollywood of the Mexican bandit.”

Students have circulated a petition that calls on officials at San Antonio College to suspend the use of the “ranger” mascot. The petition, which has only received 370 signatures, argues that the mascot is a symbol of “Mexican-American oppression.”

In addition to ignoring students who find having a symbol of Mexican-American oppression as a long time mascot offensive, San Antonio College has recently adopted a new mascot who is suggested to be a “masked ranger,” with the appearance of a stereotypical Mexican bandit. When the Texas Rangers lynched Mexican-Americans for refusing to give up their lands, our ancestors were often accused of being bandits and/or of committing crimes in order to justify the atrocities committed by the Texas Rangers. The mask was recently removed from the “masked ranger” but “Antonio,” as they have named him, is still the mascot.

Breitbart News reported in 2019 that George Washington University agreed to replace its “colonials” mascot after a group of activists argued that it was offensive. “The historically, negatively-charged figure of Colonials has too deep a connection to colonization and glorifies the act of systemic oppression,” GWU students wrote in a petition at the time.

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