Thoughts on the Salem City Seal, the work of the City Seal Task Force, and the steps ahead of us

This post is based on the comments I gave at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, August 4th. I'm hoping that by sharing these thoughts in the committee meeting, as well as in this post, people can understand the perspective that I bring to the discussion on the City Seal. Notably, this is the first and likely last time I will use our current seal in any newsletter or social media post. Believe it or not, many people in Salem don't know what our seal actually looks like, and I hope folks can appreciate that I am invoking it here to add that much-needed context to my thoughts on it. Without further ado, here are those thoughts.

I want to start off with a couple of things. I have read both the published City Seal Taskforce Report, as well as the “Minority Report” / dissenting opinion that was provided to us by the Clerk. I learned a whole lot about the mercantile history of Salem, and that was really cool. I want to make clear that I’m not here to debate anything in these reports, but I do want to share how I’ve processed all of this information and used it in my decision making. 

Based on the information from these reports, I believe that when our seal was designed and adopted that it was not done with malicious or racist intent. I hear the argument that city leaders took pride in how Salem merchants traded with other communities, especially in contrast with many European merchants. There is more to that history, the source of Salem's wealth in the 1830's, and some of it is pretty messed up. I do have concerns that the design of our seal doesn’t acknowledge that, in what is effectively a lie by omission. I think it's fair to question that, but I really don’t think that’s the most important thing going on here, because as legislators, we also need to think beyond the historical context of the seal and consider the impact that it is having on our community now.

We’ve heard from our Asian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community about the impact, and it's pretty straightforward, so allow me to reiterate what happens when we have a stylized character, representing an entire ethnic group, as the official symbol of our city. People who are not educated about this topic, have misinterpreted the symbol and instead of viewing it as a means to honor the city’s historic mercantile relationships, take it as a cue that our government legitimizes hate against members of our community. That reality exists outside of the historic examination on the origins of our city seal. Misunderstanding or not, this is happening to our AAPI community here in Salem, and I do not believe that you can address that kind of willful ignorance with education, because the kind of ignorance that we need to address is the kind that resorts to violence. We need to take this seriously. I could tell you firsthand how dangerous it is to have our government legitimize hate against a specific portion of the population, and again, the original intent matters less than the contemporary reality that our residents are living.

I am grateful for all of the work that the task force, and the community has put into this.

Much like our history, this topic is a complicated one, and as usual people on both sides of this issue are right, even if they’re talking past each other a bit. So, that sort of begs the question... can we find a compromise here? Can we acknowledge and address the real-life experiences of our constituents, and create a path forward to evolve our seal in a way that respectfully honors our city’s history and legacy.

That is certainly something that is easier said than done. There would be a budgetary cost associated with a seal change; we should quantify that, and use that to make informed decisions. In that context, what does the cost of re-designing the seal look like? What does the process of re-designing the seal look like?? How would we ensure that the values of our community factor into a new design? How do we respectfully honor our city’s history and legacy? I don’t have an answer. I know we’re not starting from scratch, because again, a lot of great work has been done on this by members of the Task Force, and I want to specifically thank them for their service. I know it wasn’t easy.

I voted in favor of accepting the recommendation from the Task Force and to move ahead with a process to change the City Seal. I hope the comments above help people understand my reasoning, and I want to emphasize that I value the feedback from the public about what they like about our existing seal. I believe that there is room to honor our history in a new seal, and I look forward to a thorough process, centered on engaging with our community to design a suitable replacement that all of us can feel proud of.

The next step in this process is to return the topic to the full Council at our next meeting in September, where a final vote will be taken to determine if the seal will be changed. Thank you for taking the time to read this and understand my perspective. This is a big decision and not something that I have taken lightly.