NORMAN, Okla. — It’s probably about time we update our image here at OU.

I’m not talking about the frat-tastic, exclusivist, beer-guzzling, crazy preacher images. I’m actually somewhat OK with those — or at least I’ve adapted well enough not to notice it.

I’m actually literally talking about our image. That cute little covered wagon and horses with the Sooners logo in crimson. The one we take out at the football games or to commemorate ’89er day. Even the words “Sooner and “Boomer,” too. Those are names and images to which I never have adapted.

I know some may say they merely are images and symbols that represent our school and our heritage. But what exactly do they represent? What types of images are we presenting to the world?

Perhaps the school Web site can give us some clues as to what “Boomer,” “Sooner” and that damn covered wagon represent, anyway. According to the “Visitor Center” on the university’s Web site, Boomers were “those who by constant agitation tried to bring about the opening of Oklahoma to settlers before [the Land Run].” I suppose that’s correct. They didn’t, however, bring up the leader of the “Boomer army,” David L Payne.

In the years before statehood, Payne, and others like him, made repeated attempts to settle in the so-called “Unassigned Lands” in Indian Territory. Payne’s beef with the government was white people weren’t allowed to settle in Indian Territory, despite the fact other white cattle drivers were able to lease Indian land. This makes Payne’s beef figurative and literal. Oh, and also racist.

Payne was a criminal, too. It was against the law to settle those lands and they were, therefore, arrested numerous times. Payne also had a newspaper where he captured his eloquent “Booms” in print and circulated them all over the country, documenting all the “atrocities” committed against white people and how the corrupt government was fighting to protect the rights and lands of the “savage red people.” Widely considered the “father of Oklahoma,” Payne leaves a legacy of a criminal and a racist. Somehow this word “Boomer,” and Payne have become something to celebrate.

According to the Web site, a “Sooner” was a person who, during the Land Run in 1889, “slipped in to stay before the gun was fired.”

Our school Web site makes this sound so innocent, like “whoopsie, I accidently fell into the Unassigned Lands before everyone else. Guess I’ll just stay. High five!”

It seems to be a conscious effort to tame a subject that is as shady as a giant crimson elephant in the corner of a room. Payne surely would have been a Sooner, had he not died four years before the Run. Nevertheless, people with the same notions of entitlement snuck into the area and squatted before everyone else had a fair shot. They were cheaters in a game that already was an effort to cheat the Indians. That makes them double cheaters. This explains the epic symbol of the covered wagon, too. Although, a lot of Sooners were so poor they had only the clothes on their back, and maybe a pistol to shoot other Sooners, but that’s inconsequential.

These images ironically became a staple of our university and a mascot for the world to see. It seems apparent they were transformed from what they really were and what they really represented into something fun, exciting and brave.

The Sooners were people who just “slipped” by, braving the Land Run to stake their claim at the American Dream. The Boomers were those who “agitated” the government with protests and defiance, also wanting to stake their claim at the American Dream. Who doesn’t want that? It sounds nice and fluffy but, in reality, these images are brutal, peppered with racism and are about as antiquated as fanny packs.

I’ve always wondered if Native American students at OU wince a little whenever the thousands of happy college students scream “Boomer” and “Sooner” at our sporting events. I know I do.

I’m not saying those who support the chants and images are supporting racism, or they are horrible people. I, too, get lost in the ritualism of it all on occasions. But, in all seriousness, when I stop to think about what they mean, I’m slightly offended and ashamed I lose myself and forget to notice these words and symbols represent something dark and tragic about our past.

We ironically celebrate that past in Oklahoma. It’s manifested itself in various ways — it’s not just limited to our team mascots and chants. Think about our famous musical, for example.

So, for some spring cleaning this year, let’s take a moment to clean up our image. If we aren’t getting rid of the wagon and the Boomers, and even the Sooners, how about we at least acknowledge our true heritage? If we can take a moment to tell the truth — that the Sooners did more than just “slip” in, that the Boomers had various and shameful reasons for wanting to settle — we might just create some intelligent discourse.

We won’t be revising our own history into something flowery and happy anymore, but it will be the truth. And no matter how dirty the truth may be, it still is a much more virtuous thing to celebrate than lies.