From Bloomberg News:
The National Collegiate Athletic Association banned the use of American Indian mascots by sports teams during its postseason tournaments, a ruling the president of Florida State University called “outrageous and insulting.’’
The NCAA’s executive committee said the organization, which governs college sports, is limiting the prohibition to tournaments it controls. It doesn’t have the power to institute an outright ban, said University of Hartford President Walter Harrison, chairman of the committee.
Effective immediately, nicknames or mascots that are determined to be “hostile or abusive’’ can’t be shown on uniforms or other team-related clothing, Harrison said. He wasn’t specific about which nicknames or logos would be affected.
Florida State President T.K. Wetherell, whose school uses the Seminoles as a nickname and Chief Osceola as a mascot, said in a statement that he would pursue “all legal avenues’’ to overturn the rule.
“The executive committee has been swayed by a strident minority of activists who claim to speak for all Native Americans,’’ Wetherell said. “That the NCAA would now label our close bond with the Seminole Tribe of Florida as culturally `hostile and abusive’ is both outrageous and insulting.”
On a day when Tony Blair, long a proponent of the most divisive and intellectually fatuous brand of multiculturalism to insinuate its way into the liberal social fabric, is taking the first very difficult steps toward shoring up the national identity of Brits, the NCAA—represented by a group of weak-willed political hacks so terrified by bad publicity that they’re willing to sell their souls to the tolerance police—is ceding control of language (and granting de facto spokesmen’s rights) to a handful of professional victims who’ve made it their mission to shriek longer and louder than the millions of others who, if asked, would likely find such semantic foolishness insulting.
The problem is, decisions like this are more than simply insulting, because they strengthen the political hand of prononents of identity politics, which in turn weakens individual rights and drives the PC culture that leads to the kind of balkinization and clash of cultures we’re now beginning to see all over Western Europe.
Quite a sad day for America, and another embarrassment to come out of our increasingly gutless academy.
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related; see also, RedState and Macho Nachos.
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update: And via ESPN, a list of the teams to be targeted.
Well, Chief Illiniwek appears to be endangered by lillylivered PC pukes. Buy your merchandise now!
I think that there is a legit diff between a team name like “Redskins” – whose equivalent would be the Washington “Blackies” – and a name like “Seminoles,” which does no more than reference – and really honor – Native American heritage.
I might not have a prob with Redskins, but parallel hypothetical examples don’t hold up.
In contrast, I don’t see anything offensive about “Braves” or “Seminoles.”
People don’t name teams after things to mock or belittle them. They name teams after things they respect. They name teams after things they admire. They name teams after things they are in awe of.
Why the fuck would anyone think a FAN would name a team after something they disrespect? Are these people so socially and culturally retarded they don’t understand the concept of being a damn fan?
Next up, some South Boston school marm is going to take offense at the supposed belligerence of the Irish and sue the NCAA to force Notre Dame to change its name and mascot.
After that, a group of irate entomologists demand UC-Santa Cruz get rid of the Banana Slugs.
They’ll have to pry my bananna slug out of my cold, dead hand, by God.
From what I am hearing on the radio today, this decree also applies to Haskell Indian University in Lawrence – a university started for, and run by, actual American Indians. Their team name, the Fighting Indians, will be included in the ban. The Indians will not be allowed to call themselves Indians.
I demand that my alma mater, Cal, drop its “Golden Bears” mascot. After all, we wouldn’t want to offend Jack Niklaus.
All this stuff trickles down until even Joe Six Pack is whining about harassment. It is poisonous.
Can we really let the Vancouver Canucks continue to insult themselves like that?
How about the “Fightin’ Ward Churchills?” That ought to pass NCAA muster, seeing he’s a genuine 100% Euro paleface.
Some modest proposals for the effected universities:
Illinois Fightin’ Illini: Oppressin’ Hessians
Florida State Seminoles: Bingo Casino Executives
Arkansas State Indians: Indians With Forehead Dots Not Teepees
San Diego State Aztecs: Blood Sacrificers of Unspecified Ethnicity
North Dakota Fightin’ Sioux: Writin’ Lilex
Utah Utes: Youths (said with a Brooklyn accent)
Being Irish and having went to Notre Dame, I lobbied for them to change their nickname to The Mighty Micks. Lobbied for free Mickey’s Beer in the dining halls too. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
Follow the money:
How much new NCAA merchandise will be sold as a result of this decision?
I’ve got a rather long and heated post up about this as my alma mater (Illinois) has played in it’s last NCAA Tournament. Jeez, you think the NCAA will ban states such as Illinois, Iowa, and …!gasp!… Indiana next? And, of course, we all know that Hoosier is a term of endearment here in the Midwest, don’t we.
Maybe the NCAA should just stop keeping score so we can all be winners like they say in their commercials. And then no one will ever suffer a blow to their self esteem by coming in second place.
Thank god the great minds of the NCAA are protecting our poor youthful athletes and fans from the corruption of money and racist boosters.
Perhaps new names for every school are in order as they undoubtedly should find Wolverines, Badgers and Gators to be too symbolic of beligerant white male war-mongering.
Instead…….
The Righteous Insurgents
The Swishing Transgenders
The Censored Dissenters
The Helpless Uninsured
The Oppressed Residence-challenged
The Stifled Peace Activists
Continue as in
The gutless asshats continue their win streak
Well, technically, they can’t even use the name of the state in the case of Utah, since “Utah” comes form the tribal name “Ute”…
Has anybody shed any light on who is on the NCAA’s Executive Committee? And who may be advising them to take this course? Nobody does something this stupid without having another motive.
Just answered my own question. It was the NCAA’s Subcommitte on Gender and Diversity Issues (figures) who submitted the recommendation to the Executive Board. Link to the members on this committee below:
http://web1.ncaa.org/committees/committees_roster.jsp?CommitteeName=GENDIV
You have no idea how pathetic the academy is. I work at a university, and I do know. However, the Churchill debacle has scared them and the admin is beginning to police themselves–only because they don’t want the public to.
Anecdote: when the Twins were playing Atlanta in the World Series, a panel of Indian activists said they didn’t want Atlanta to come to Minnesota and do the tomahawk chop. They said it was offensive, blah, blah. Then one leaned into the mike and said, “Besides, we want the Twins to win.” Everybody laughed and the series went on…
The forces of PC have been wanting this for years, and they have a big victory thanks to the NCAA. They are also going after the NFL and major league baseball.
Well, I am here to tell you that they will have to pry my Chief Wahoo t-shirt from my cold, dead body before I give in!
Last I heard, the Illini had been extinct for a few centuries now. Wiped out by their peaceful, nonaggressive, in harmony with nature fellow Native Americans…so who is offended? I guess I will have to load up on “Illini” gear before it gets censored out of existance.
See, I can understand someone being offended by “Redmen” or “Savages.” But the Chippewas?
Funny, but the last sports team (that I know of) to change their name because of pressure from the politically correct crowd was Syracuse. Until last year they were the Orangemen, after the Irish anti-Catholic society from the 18th century. Now they’re just the Orange. The fruit, not the color.
I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time until some gay group is offended by that.
Moe’s argument should be pretty convincing to normal people. Trouble is, we’re up against a crew who probably think that respecting the Seminoles for being bad-ass warriors is worse than not respecting them at all.
Does anybody remember that a couple of years ago UMass tried to change their mascot from the Minuteman to the Gray Wolf? Somehow, sanity prevailed and the Minuteman stayed. Here’s the Volokh take on it from 2003.
“Bonus for wingers”, as Rick Brookheiser might say – UMass became the Minutemen in 1972. Prior to that they were the……..”Redmen”.
Is it the academy that is gutless, or is it us? The politically correct have seized control of the academy, and run it with impunity. Witness the recent debacle at Harvard with the unfortunate Mr. Summers. When challenged about the obvious political bias they go into denial. They get away with it because we, the public, have allowed them to.
So long as we allow the politically correct maroons free reign to act as they see fit, we can only expect more of the same.
At least now we have Protein Wisdom to expose this folly for what it is.
Another Illini alum here. I believe that “Illinois” if French for Illini. What can we do about that? Maybe the top 50 or so athletic schools should pull out of the NCAA and form its own association. Let them pay their own bills. (And I don’t even like college athletics all that much.)
And, pace Dave Barry, I think The Gutless Asshats would be a great name for a band. Maybe especially a punk band or an alt-rock band.
Turing word: place. I know the place they can stick their ruling.
Maybe the Seminoles can change their name to what the Gators call them…The Semen_holes.
Three years ago, a poll was published in Sports Illustrated which found that most Native Americans don’t object to teams having names like Indians, Braves, and even Redskins (69% weren’t offended by that last one).
The money quote:
“Asked if high school and college teams should stop using Indian nicknames, 81 percent of Native American respondents said no. As for pro sports, 83 percent of Native American respondents said teams should not stop using Indian nicknames, mascots, characters, and symbols.”
Here’s John Miller’s take on the issue:
http://www.nationalreview.com/miller/miller030802.asp
So, when the so-called experts start talking about sensitivity towards Native Americans, you can assume that they are arguing from a position of ignorance.
I’m still hoping for the Fightin’ Whiteys, myself.
Actually, Babaganoosh, some students at a Colorado school already did that.
Unfortunately, their homepage doesn’t seem to work anymore, but their Cafepress shop still seems to be up and running.
Is the NCAA so confident of their monopolistic authority that they think they can dictate policies outside the sphere of their domain? I look forward to some legal decisions that will put some strict limits on their idiotic fatwa.
Let us not forget all the Americans of Greek ancestry who have to see Spart and Trojan macsots.
Oh, I forgot, they’re white. This is more of that Liberal “White Man’s Burden” view of the poor “Noble Savages”. Maybe one day they’ll wake up and see just how offensive that patronising BS is.
If we’re going to get all sensitive, what about these team names?
I, for one, am one appalled paleface.