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