Whitesboro alternate seal designs

The Whitesboro village seal is pictured at top left with five alternate designs submitted by "The Daily Show."

(File photo; Comedy Central video stills)

With national attention now focused on the Oneida County community of Whitesboro and its controversial village seal, Mayor Patrick O'Connor has responded with a statement on why "The Daily Show" was involved with designing possible replacement seals.

Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" provided both serious and "mock" designs of possible village logos to Whitesboro for the village's informal poll on replacing its current seal that many have criticized as being "racist" and "offensive."

The current seal includes a Native American and an early settler with the settler's hands around the other man's neck or shoulders.

The debate over the seal has been reported in media across the country. Jimmy Kimmel mentioned the controversy on his late-night national show Tuesday night.

The current Whitesboro village seal.

Whitesboro residents voted Monday night to keep the original seal. Of 212 votes cast, 157 of them were in favor of retaining the current seal.

They could cast their vote for several serious logos designed by "The Daily Show's" graphics team, or they could choose several mock designs. Those mock designs were set off from the main display, but could still be voted on.

The village has decided to set up a committee to look into possibly redesigning the seal that would still reflect its history but be less offensive to people who are calling it racist, O'Connor said.

Several of the serious images "The Daily Show" provided for the vote.

O'Connor said the village board decided it was best to cooperate with the television show rather than run the risk of " a one-sided, comedic barrage," O'Connor said.

Mayor Patrick O'Connor's statement

The village of Whitesboro seal has been called into question for decades, over the years, minor adjustments have been made, but the theme remains that of a "friendly wrestling match" between Whitesboro's Founder, Hugh White and a Native American.



This friendly wrestling match, which was a normal occurrence during that time period, is what helped foster good relations between the settlers and Native Americans. It is documented that the two shook hands after the wrestling match took place. While there were various depictions of the seal over the years, the original seal dates back to the late 1800s.



Of course, all of the media attention our village seal is getting has caused us to do extensive research into the accuracy and roots of the village seal. While the friendly wrestling match was being used as our village seal since the late 1800s, this particular depiction was a drawing from a parade float during the village's Sesquicentennial in 1963. Soon after the Sesquicentennial, the drawing began appearing as the official village seal.



While our village board has changed regularly over the years, comments surrounding the seal seem to come up every 5-10 years. With the development of social media, it's very easy to take a seal from a small town of 3,400 residents, and make it national news.



Months ago, the village board was contacted by both the Daily Show and the Nightly Show from Comedy Central. Realizing that it was inevitable that our community was going to be the focus of such a controversial issue, the village board felt that it would be more beneficial to participate in the process as opposed to running the risk of having anything and everything be said about our village, its residents, and its history in a one-sided, comedic barrage.

As a result of their participation, the Daily Show offered the assistance of its extremely skilled graphics department to create the viable choices that were to be voted on as alternatives to our current seal.



While some of the seals were clearly created for comedic relief, there were several exceptional and viable choices for the residents to choose from, including a drawing from a local resident, which was the intention of the informal vote from the very start. This vote was not legally binding as it was just an opinion poll to help us understand how our residents feel.



We are in the process of forming a committee to look at options for modifying the current seal to create a more modern, professional, and culturally acceptable option that will reflect the historic relationship between our founder Hugh White and the Oneida American Indian he befriended. We expect this to be a lengthy process, but ultimately it may include an updated depiction of the friendly wrestling match, that appears less offensive, while still representing the original encounters of our settler with Native Americans.





The history of the Village of Whitesboro seal, as written by historians:



The seal goes back to the late 1800s and depicts a pivotal moment in the founding of our town and village. When Hugh White came here in 1784, the area was populated by Native Americans. One of their favorite pastimes was wrestling. The local chief challenged our founder, Hugh White, to a wrestling match which Mr. White dare not refuse and look weak so they wrestled. By Chance Hugh White managed to win the match and gain much respect from the chief and the whole of the Native Americans and thus they were able to live quite peacefully together for many, many years. Whitesboro views this seal as a moment in time when peace was made.