NCAA and sport mascots.....

[HardWorkingDem]

Here in IL the NCAA's action against offensive Native American mascots is a pretty big story.

Recently Salim Muwakkil wrote about his surprise about how more black athletes and other blacks don't seem too concerned about this topic.

Here is an interesting column he just wrote.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2346/

[SammyBlue]

1. Which one? The Fighting Illini?

Elaborate. What is it? What's the mascot?

[HardWorkingDem]

2. That and others.....

The two right now are The Fighting Illini and the Bradley Braves. But the Bradley Braves is getting a lot of ink right now. The NCAA just rejected their use of "Braves". Though Bradley University did change their mascot image some time ago.

[MarsThe Cat]

3. it's not so much the "Fighting Illini"...

as it is Chief Illiniwek.

the Chief WILL stay.

[mduffy31]

4. The Bottom Line...

Is that this is all about money. Does anyone else see it as suspicious that all of the big time schools have "permission" to use their names, but the smaller schools that may not have the money to fight they don't get to use their names. It is utter bullshit.

[SammyBlue]

5. This is much ado about nothing.

Honestly, people are over sensitive about his. The Redskins are offensive. The Chiefs and Braves aren't.

Naming your team after a tribe isn't offensive. It wasn't offensive when it happened, it isn't now.

Honestly. Here, we have High School teams named the Aztecs, the Apache, the Navajo.

What's next? City names? County names? I live in Pima County (named after the Pima indians) Phoenix is in Maricopa County. There's Cochise County, Navajo and Apache County.

Give me a break. Since when did naming teams after tribes become offensive.

This is fake liberalism at it's worst. . .censorship of the offensive. I said it earlier. . .I'll say it again:

Conservative censor things they deem obscene. Fake liberals like you censor things they deem offensive.

Where is it written you have the right not to be offended? It doesn't.

Suck it up and get on with your life. Choose your battles.

And I'm Indian. My mother's Tuscarora.

[Broken_Hero]

6. I agree with you...

I'm haida, from SE alaska, my wife is half keetowah band cherokee, and the mascot issue, really makes no sense to me, or my wife. I can see the point of it though, and i do agree some of the mascots should be renamed, but to have it as one of our priorities? HELL NO! We have lack luster IHS clinics, we have high leves of diabetes, alcohol abuse, FAS babies, poverty..man, the list goes on and on...i think we, as a nation (both native, and non native) need to get our priorities right...lets fight the greater evils, instead of nit picking the mascot issues...

I went to school at Haskell, in Lawrence KS and this issue was always a hot button issue in all of my classes, and i couldn't understand why. Especially learning about our high levels of drug use, and all the things i mentioned in the above paragraph....

I'm for renaming the mascots, but its at best, the last thing on my list of issues that need to be taken care of within the indian commmunity, the lack of respect, and humanity within the IHS Clinics is something on my top three list of native american issues...