A Politically-Correct Mascot: NCAA-Style
a post written by Luis F. Hess
Posted Friday, February 16, 2007 @ 4:10 PM
Is it that long-ago that the powers-that-be that oversaw sports, such as the NCAA and NBA offices, were only concerned with fair play, that athletes were held accountable for their actions on the field and off the field as far as the law was concerned, and the only thing to truly worry about was that every team had a roughly equal opportunity to recruit and create a team based on skill and ability and not steroids? Judging from today's headlines, one would believe that those times have truly passed.
Take for example the pressure (i.e., sanctions) that the NCAA has placed on the University of Illinois for having a mascot that offends less than 10% of the state's population. What could be so offensive that the NCAA would bar the university from holding any type of postseason events (e.g., a college bowl) on its own campus until the mascot was changed? Could it be a mascot that carried a sandwich billboard with vulgar, racist, or otherwise normatively repulsive comments or writings? Perhaps a sexually harassing panda? The answer: None of the above.
Instead, the NCAA sanctions were related to the appearance, and the use, of Chief Illiniwek. This particular mascot, depicted by students as a person dressed in buckskin cloths and feather hats, was found by native-american groups to be offensive to their sense of dignity or respect. How was it offensive? Was the mascot chased by cowboys and liquor store owners during games? NO. Was the mascot ever hanged or set-on fire as a means of gaining laughter from the audience at the expensive of the mascot's credibility? NO. What happened was that the mascot was used as a means of celebrating the heritage of the university and the state to the indian tribes that used to inhabit the area and, as far as the average student was concerned, the mascot was meant to strike fear into the hearts of its opponents (which did a very good job judging by the basketball team's record a couple of years back).
The larger point being is that NCAA should concern itself with what it was originally created to do - be an enforcer of fair play and conduct. Deciding what is and is not offensive, especially when it comes to a mascot that was created ALMOST A CENTURY AGO, is a judgement that the NCAA board wasn't created for. If that's the case, when do we start drawing the line of where the NCAA can interference on behalf of groups that it doesn't represent (i.e., the american-indian groups that complained about the mascot were groups that didn't belong to the university itself. Thus, by what standing can the NCAA side with this group)? If PETA finds the use of animal mascots offensive (e.g., Bevo of the University of Texas, the Eagle of Boston College, the Bruins of UCLA, etc.), will the NCAA step in and force these schools to drop their mascots for a non-offensive mascot? What if dropping the mascot is offensive to everyone else? Or is this simply the tyranny of the minority?
Lets hope other schools are able and willing to stand up to this over-arching authority. Otherwise, we may see the day that all universities scrap all mascots just to satisfy everyones demands and sensibilities.
UPDATE: Illinois students try to fight back; University Board President says no. Cites fear of offending people who don't attend university as reason for not standing up to NCAA sanctions. Students respond by announcing a search for a backbone replacement amongst possible donors. More news at 9....
UPDATE II: One university president has a spine; no duplicates available for other universities yet. Notice that animal-rights groups are already pushing to eliminate politically-incorrect mascots from univerisities. Told you that it would occur. Apparently sooner than later.
UPDATE III: Moves to eliminate the words "fighting" and "Irish" from Notre Dame. We don't want to offend the Irish now, do we?
UPDATE IV: Become politically-correct at these universities or face re-education by the NCAA!
UPDATE V: Political correctness and mascots stretches down to the high-school level.
RACISIM ALERT - Liberal academics say "If you don't believe the same way that we do, you're racist."
In all seriousness, is there any way to use stem-cell research to grow backbones for administrators in order to stand up against tyrannical over-reach by the offensive (NCAA and liberals alike) police? I'll donate my first pay check to research if it gaurantees a spinal-cord for these administrators.
Labels: free speech
http://newsbuckit.blogspot.com/2007/02/ ... style.html
