| Shakespeare could wax poetic about 'What's in a | | | | it dared to have the fortitude to allow an Indian to play |
| Name?' because he didn't have to contend with sports | | | | for them. Since then, Sockalexis has been recognized |
| mascots ... | | | | as being as much of a pioneer for minority involvement |
| It's the politically-correct issue in America that refuses | | | | in major sports as the great Jackie Robinson was fifty |
| to subside. I consider myself to be an enlightened | | | | years later. |
| cyberbeing, but I contend there are just some topics | | | | Yes, the team uses a caricature of a Native American |
| that blur the bigger picture of an ethically responsible | | | | as its logo now. In fact, Chief Wahoo is perenially one |
| society, and complaining that mascots can be | | | | of the hottest-selling logos on sports merchandise. It far |
| degrading is near the top of the list. | | | | outsells the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets orginal logo, |
| A quick check of Webster's Twentieth Century | | | | which is honoring the valiant Ohio battalion that fought |
| Unabridged Dictionary defines 'mascot' as 'any person, | | | | so honorably in the Civil War. We haven't heard |
| animal or thing supposed to bring good luck by being | | | | historical societies from that great state howling with |
| present.' So, it would seem that a team mascot is an | | | | indignation that this is done by putting a green insect in |
| honorable title. Most mascots in American sports had | | | | a Union soldier's uniform. Instead, the odds are they're |
| their origins in the early 1900s. Back then, teams | | | | pleased that more of the North American public has |
| fumbled around with quaint monickers until they | | | | become aware of the Blue Jacket history than ever |
| gradually realized the tremendous marketing value they | | | | before, just as the Cleveland Indians can keep alive the |
| carried. The New York Highlanders became the more | | | | memory of Sockalexis. |
| regionally-identifiable Yankees, for instance, and the | | | | Some protestors say Chief Wahoo has 'shifty' eyes |
| Chicago Cubs took their nickname so newspaper | | | | and that makes him even more demeaning. I, for one, |
| editors could more easily fit it into headlines. | | | | never drew that connection, but if anyone else did, |
| Distinguished symbols like Tigers and Giants appeared. | | | | why wouldn't they be laughing and demeaning the |
| Unique features like White Stockings and Red | | | | Oklahoma University Sooners? After all, that term |
| Stockings evolved into the more headline-friendly and | | | | originally implied cheaters getting a jump on staking |
| spelling-special White Sox and Red Sox. | | | | claims to land being opened for settlement. |
| One of the earliest attempts at humor in | | | | There are many more examples. I simply don't see |
| mascot-anointing was made by the Brooklyn nine of | | | | Native Americans being unduly isolated in this context, |
| baseball's National League. Urban legend wasn't a | | | | and no one else involved is feeling belittled. |
| known phrase back then, but it fairly describes the | | | | The Washington Redskins originated in Boston, home |
| allusion to fans who 'dodged' trolley fares to get a free | | | | of baseball's Red Sox and Braves in the 1930s. They |
| ride to Ebbetts Field and watch the game. Those | | | | were also called the Braves back then, because they |
| 'bums' were called Dodgers, and their favorite team | | | | played in that team's stadium. However, when they |
| became christened as such. | | | | wound up getting better terms to locate in Fenway |
| Ironically, that drift toward the whimsical --- probably | | | | Park, they didn't want to confuse the paying public by |
| intended to portray sports in its proper context as a | | | | being Braves but playing in the Red Sox stadium. Their |
| divertissement of life --- may have been the root of | | | | solution made sense: they incorporated references to |
| indignation two generations later. | | | | their origins and their new game site by changing their |
| The social upheavals of the 1960s and early 1970s | | | | name to Redskins. The logic apparently didn't register |
| were certainly justified, in my view. Civil rights needed | | | | with enough fans, though, and the team soon exited to |
| to come to the fore, and the resultant improvement in | | | | the nation's capital. |
| how all peoples were perceived was a great step | | | | The point here is that the Redskins name wasn't |
| forward for mankind. Still, there's a difference between | | | | derived as a slur, but as a facilitation to distinguish the |
| significant awareness and pedantic perception in any | | | | team's new --- albeit transitional --- home. Furthermore, |
| movement. Thus, in my view, when certain Native | | | | to be fair, the Redskins organization has only used a |
| Americans first raised the mascot controversy in | | | | noble image as a symbol of the name. Washington DC |
| headlines of the time, the attention afforded was only | | | | is one of the most liberal cities in North America, with |
| due to its being sucked into the backdraft of searing | | | | its population's majority consisting of minorities. The |
| human rights campaigns. | | | | connotation of that nickname being demeaning, as in |
| Personally, I've always thought the issue had as much | | | | the Cleveland Indians case, just doesn't emerge from |
| relevance to their legitimate concerns as bra-burning | | | | its context. |
| did for women's rights. | | | | My impression, then, remains that the mascot |
| Think about it. Native Americans aren't alone in being | | | | controversy has its sole value in the publicity it gives |
| designated as mascots. In accordance with Webster's | | | | those organizations who are raising it. Pro and college |
| Dictionary definition, other persons given the distinction | | | | sports are more visible than ever in the USA, and |
| include the Irish (University of Notre Dame) and | | | | what better way is there to affix one's organization to |
| Scandinavians (Minnesota Vikings). Both of these | | | | higher 'page rankings' than making headlines in the |
| ethnic groups endured their moments of discrimination | | | | Sports section of newspapers and broadcasts? |
| in the annals of American history, too. So far, neither | | | | The matter isn't going away anytime soon. Now the |
| has mounted a protest about being characterized as a | | | | NCAA --- college sports' governing body --- has |
| good luck symbol for a sporting organization. | | | | decreed that any university with a Native American |
| Don't even try to broach the 'caricature' argument as a | | | | mascot can neither host a championship event nor use |
| reason why the Native American situation is different. | | | | their mascot in any championship event. Some schools |
| Perhaps Notre Dame uses a leprechaun logo now, but | | | | have successfully been granted exceptions, which |
| the term 'Fighting Irish' was a clear reference to | | | | makes even less sense to me. Does this mean that |
| barroom brawlers, a stereotypical low-life trait at which | | | | Florida State's Seminoles, for example, are less |
| immigrants from the Emerald Isle were perceived to | | | | demeaning to Native Americans than North Dakota's |
| be quite proficient. As to the Scandinavians, there is no | | | | Fighting Sioux (a traditional college hockey power)? |
| evidence that even one Viking was ever so dim as to | | | | How hypocritical is that? If they're contending that |
| go into battle with a set of heavy horns on his helmet; | | | | degrees of discrimination exist due to local |
| why would any warrior charge into a kill-or-be-killed | | | | circumstances, then they're admitting to a targeted |
| scenario wearing anything that could directly impede | | | | sensitivity beyond society's pale, which is discriminatory |
| his ability to win? (The image of horns came from | | | | in itself. How can such a position be rationalized with a |
| priests' drawings of Viking attacks, attempting to | | | | clear conscience? |
| equate them to the Devil incarnate, and it was Wagner | | | | Mascots, no matter how commercialized, are still |
| who popularized this image when he staged his epic | | | | nothing more than whimsical symbols. Society as a |
| Ring of the Niebelung.) | | | | whole understands that, just as it realizes the stylized |
| Cleveland's baseball team sorted through a number of | | | | violence in Grimm's Fairy Tales leaves no lasting scars |
| mascots in their early days. 'Spiders' just didn't have | | | | on the psyches of children who innocently absorb |
| that je ne sais crois of marketing sizzle. They were | | | | them. Those who claim to the contrary only risk |
| the 'Naps' for a while, in honor of their star | | | | trivializing themselves and the credibility of their greater |
| player-manager, Napoleon Lajoie. So, when they finally | | | | cause. |
| settled on 'Indians' in correlation to one of their first star | | | | Nowhere in the country do such topics remain in a |
| players --- Louis Sockalexis, a Native American --- the | | | | lighthearted perspective more than in Orofino, Idaho. |
| monicker may not have begun as a tribute to him, but | | | | That's the site of the state's mental hospital. The local |
| it has since memorialized his legacy. The evidence | | | | high school's teams are called the Maniacs. |
| indicates the term was derogatorily applied to all | | | | No one protests, unless the teams don't play hard. |
| members of the Cleveland team in the 1890s because | | | | |