There is a high school in Oklahoma that calls their athletic teams the “Redskins”. No, really — all the national debate about offensive sports team names sailed right on by them, and after years of public discussion elsewhere, it took until 2016 for McLoud, Oklahoma to stop and debate whether their name is inappropriate.
They had a public discussion, and then the school board voted to keep an ethnic slur as the proud label for their football team.
But that’s not all! Let’s abuse American Indians who argued against the name!
Bella Aiukli Cornell, a 14 year old Native American girl and a citizen of Choctaw Nation, gave a testimony against the name and mascot of the McLoud High School Redskins in December, at a school board meeting. A male peer, and a racist, yelled
get off the stage, squaw!
Nice to know the rot extends to all ages.
We’ve got a lot of history,said Albert Baldwin, 74, a life-long resident of McLoud.I don’t know anyone around here that objects to being a Redskin. If there is, I don’t know about it.
That is simply the perfect explanation for this phenomenon.
“We’re honouring you, you [slur redacted], so shut the hell up and stop making me feel bad for being a racist piece of crap!”
Because “we have always done it that way” is a piss poor reason for not changing (which is why quality systems work, as they require constant reexamination of all your initial reasons). But bigots can’t/won’t give up their bigotry.
They would have only had to change 4 letters to name the team “…necks” problem solved. Preceeding it with a flashy letter ‘B’ would also work, but it’s a bit surrealistic.
I hope that eventually they are ashamed of their choice. They have plenty of time.
I’ve seen the most virtulent, visceral reactions come out of people when they perceive that their sports are threatened.
Andrew @4, Yep, a prime example of tribalism at its worst.
Yeah, we’ll abuse and threaten anybody who dares to object so everybody is fine with it
Nerd @2:
Yup. I found myself on a related story about Columbus Day vs. Indigenous People’s Day and found this quote:
The same tired excuses.
They should rename themselves the ‘palefaces’.
“We’ve got a lot of history, said Albert Baldwin, 74, a life-long resident of McLoud. I don’t know anyone around here that objects to being a Redskin. If there is, I don’t know about it.”
I’m pretty sure Bella Aiukli Cornell objects.
How about the McLoud White Privileges?
@9 tezcat:
Yup, really, given that opposing voices were presumably speaking at the same goddamn meeting and the meeting only happened because people objected, that asshole’s response basically translates to “lalalala, I’m not listening!”
Unfortunately, it’s not just Oklahoma. My daughter goes to a public school in Michigan with the same mascot name. And tradition is the excuse given here too.
I’ve lived here for just over four years now and still have a hard time believing it. A neighboring school is named the “Indians” and another, the “Patriots”, which bugs me for a different reason.
My high school football team was named Indians too. And we had a gigantic figure of an American Indian man just outside the football field. I’m not sure how much of that depiction was even accurate and what specific Indian culture he was supposed to represent. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was all based on stereotypes.
I have the feeling that no one dared.
At the high school I attended so many yonks ago its now part of the prehistory of prehistoric times, the “theme” was, for some reason, Scotland. I vaguely recall the teams being called the “Highlanders”, but may be mistaken. As far as I know, none of that, on its face, is considered racist — and it’s perhaps an interesting question why not? (Privilege? Stereotype is not brown / “other” skin-tone? I’m wrong and it is racist?) — but what bugged me about it at the time (and ever since) is I don’t see the point / rationale of the choice. (The school was also, at the time, quite new, but despite that I have no idea who decided, or why.)
If you what to honor a local community, then in this particular area there was a superb choice: Basques. There was a large local Basque community — and several great restaurants — who’d been in the area for quite some time, were very much a part of the civic society, and basically a well-liked community. So why the feck Scotland?
As far as I know (albeit I may be mistaken), there never was much of a First Nations community in the area, so a non-racist attempt at honoring the original locals would be almost as contrived as Scotland.
re 14:
I’m sure he’ll try to wiggle around with the grammar: “…being a Redskin”, is a little different than “…being called a Redskin”, or “…claiming to be Redskin, when not”.
So no matter how many objections to the name he hears, he will always say “no one has ever objected to BEING a Redskin”. Completely dismissing the meaning of the objections.
..
sorry, this reaction inspired a bit about the rebranding of Village Of Whitesboro, NY: defenders of the racist image claiming it is merely represents a significant part of their heritage and how they became accepted by the original residents (indians), that it was just a simple wrestling match, etc etc etc. Not realizing that an image that requires so much verbal explanation to wash it of its racist impression, should probably be rethought, to present a less racist image requiring shorter explanations. One proposal was a picture of the two racially depicted arms, the hands clasped, about to engage in arm-wrestle. Easy two explain the two leaders engage in a wrestle to determine occupancy of the village.
Repeatedly heard, “tradition”, “heritage”, “history”, “everybody HERE knows the story behind the image”. Not accepting that the image is for people outside the village to see and get an instant impression of the character of the village. It is not just for residents, but public.
I her they’ve decided to “refresh” the logo, remains to be seen their new version of it. here’s hoping…
nevermind DC “eggball”, || My local team just lost the AFC championship, so Superbowl is irrelevant this year. /snark
Hmm, in a state with one of the highest populations of indigenous peoples (9.0%), but he just doesn’t know about it. And 6.3% of business in Oklahoma are owned and operated by indigenous peoples, but of course it makes perfect sense that he doesn’t know about it.
My high school team was the Royals. Our mascot was a white man wearing a crown.
I don’t even remember if our high school *had* a mascot, but our team was called the “warriors”. We were divided into “tribes” (like Hogwarts houses) named after the local First Nations, and we often had a First Nations elder address the school at assembly. But most of us remained pretty much completely ignorant of First nations culture. We may very well have had a totem pole outside our school, despite the fact that totem poles are generally a West Coast tradition, and we were in Alberta.
Sink me, I actually remember my HS team name – the Roadrunners.
Where any of the opposing teams named Wile E Coyotes?
Were, not where.
Now notices there’s nothing under his feet and enters an accelerating freefall. The landing is prematurely interrupted by several projecting ledges, each of which breaks with a blf-shaped hole. Attempts to climb aboard one of the descending pieces of ledge merely flip it around, and increasingly frantic attempts to climb aboard cause it to spin faster and faster. As a result, when contact with the ground is made, it acts like a revolving mechanical shovel / bucket train, and digs a deep hole. Eventually, the dirt and rocks stop flying out of the hole, and after a surprisingly few moments, an obviously worse-for-the-wear blf climbs out. Then the remaining ledges land, pounding him back into the ground.
Kids! That is why you don’t make speling mistaks!
Oh, shite—
Why not indeed. Highlanders were perceived as fierce warriors; they were also subjected to cultural (and sometimes attempted actual) genocide. Celts were considered an inferior race.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances
blf:
No idea. Never have been into the team sports. I doubt it, though, which is a pity.
After much debate Bedford Road Collegiate, a high school in Saskatoon’s public school system, changed its team name from the Redmen to the Redhawks in 2014. Apparently the name originally was just a reference to the school colours, but an “Indian head” became the logo in the ’60s. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/bedford-road-replaces-redmen-name-with-redhawks-1.2663223 The high school I went to, Evan Hardy Collegiate, also in the public school system, uses the Souls name, with an outline of a foot in yellow as a logo. The teams of the Catholic system Holy Cross High School are the Crusaders, but I haven’t heard any widespread call to change that name.
Up here in my neck of the woods, one of the local high schools was — still is — the “Raiders”, but back when the school was renovated (and brought up to code), they changed their mascot from “red guy in a war bonnet” to a generic-looking bird of prey.
We also renamed “Indian Street” to “Billy Frank Jr. St“, and there has, apparently, been discussion about changing WWU’s mascot from the Vikings to… something else? (It’s my understanding that the Vikings were well-travelled people and not nearly as, ah, homogenous as we’d like to think.)
Today is Australia Day, proud white flag-weaving day where we say “get over it” to Aboriginals who dare complain.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/jan/25/would-you-like-to-try-these-delicious-racist-snacks-with-your-australia-day-barbie
As the descendant of Highlanders (from the clan that bore perhaps the worst of the English oppression), I can’t say that there’s been much discrimination against Scots or Scots-Americans in the US. Radford University in VA has “Highlanders” as a nickname, and I’m pretty sure it’s widely seen as a tribute to the local Scots-Irish population. Certainly not on par with Redskins.
Our high school nickname was the Minutemen, which commemorated the only notable event in town history.
Wile E. Coyote would be a great name for a high school. Their nickname, of course, would be “The Super Geniuses”.
High school was the hornets, allegedly the name the local patriots had called themselves back in the revolution when they terrorized the loyalists (but the symbol is the insect). University had been the Indians from 1930 until 1972 though some reactionary alumni try to keep it going. Current name is ‘Cardinal’ the color.
I can see some leeway for a school that has an ongoing connection with the people whose name is being used (e.g., a school on a reservation) but only a handful of schools are in that situation. Redskins falls outside the pale in any circumstance.
i know of several native high schools in New Mexico and Arizona that call their teams the Redskins. Are they racist? How about the logo for Notre Dame? I know many Irish who don’t care for that stereotype.
I get why people want to change these names, but it isn’t simple.
Nick Danger #30
Yes.
Why not? It’s just paperwork.
My favorite mascot is the one for San Francisco State University. They have yellow crocodile-looking animals known as the Golden Gators. This is closely followed by the New Zealand men’s basketball team, who, based on their famous All-Blacks rugby team, is known as the Tall-Blacks. Wish more teams has a sense of humor about their names.
Re: redwood @ #32…
What? Not the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slug? The students voted that one in over the objections of the administration.
He actually said this after having watched a series of people state that they objected to being called a redskin. Amazing.
Erp@29: I will forever be disappointed that the Board of Trustees overruled the student vote to name the team the Robber Barons.
Again, my foreign perspective leaves me bewildered about why this would be an issue. It sounds like hyper-sensitive political correctness to me. In Australia, we have a football team called the Raiders whose mascot is a viking with a horned helmet. No locals of Norse extraction would think to complain. Various women’s teams are called the “Matildas” (a bushman’s swag) or “Jillaroos” (a female stockman), and no one thinks these are stereotypes. Our wheelchair Rugby team are called the “Wheelabies” (a play on “Wallaby”), and everyone thinks it a hoot.
Maybe you need to realise that offence can be taken even when it is not meant, and that in such cases it’s entirely appropriate for those who have inadvertently given offence to judge whether those taking offence are even the party who are putatively maligned.
We’ve just celebrated Australia Day here in Australia. 100% of the “outrage” over white settlement is confected and is rarely even expressed by Aboriginals.
PZ, you sound surprised that a high school team would still be called the Redskins – looks like at least at the end of 2013 there were still 62 high school with that as a mascot. I think the whole concept that it’s racist has been in the zeitgeist only for a couple years due to Dan Snyder, so I’d expect the process of first coming to the decision and then rebranding would take several years.
#31 / Chigau: Well, it’s more than paperwork. It’s essentially a rebranding, so there’s all kinds of stuff that would have to be reprinted, repainted, etc., etc. Certainly not an impossible amount, but definitely more than just a stroke of a pen.
#36 / Nathan, what if you had a team called the “Abos” (or whatever a slur for Aboriginal people would be; I’ve only ever heard that in the Philosopher’s Song sketch, and apologies if it is )? That would be a more parallel example.
Just for Nathan Zamprogno @36 (though off-topic for this thread):
On this Invasion Day, I am angry. Australia has a long way to go.; and Stan Grant on racism and the Australian dream. That second link is especially good listening, and I advise you to do so – you might learn something about that “confected “outrage”” over white settlement. Good luck!
Those are either not marginalised groups, or are being used by the marginalised group themselves. That is very different from the majority group using a racial slur, against the objections of the group to which it refers.
@36
Your viking comparison might have a bit more teeth if Australia performed multiple acts of attempted genocide against the Norse.
My high school was named after a Union fort nearby, and the mascot name was “The Federals.”
I’m not sure if any southerners/states-right advocates got offended, or if I should care if they were.