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NCAA - "nicking ourselves to enfeeblement "
Page forward to Page 16 at the link. Reprinted in its entirety. When Teddy Roosevelt helped assemble a bunch of cowboys and others to fight in the Spanish American War, they did not get called the Cowardly Cusses or the Horseback Hobos. The name that stuck was the Rough Riders, and we all know why, donât we? The name suggested toughness and heroism, the qualities that Roosevelt, other military men and the public hoped the soldiers would exemplify on the battlefield. Sports teams operate the same way. When organizers pick a nickname, a logo and a mascot, they are not aiming to insult the team. They are usually seeking out a symbolic way of suggesting the virtues they hope will be manifested in the games the team plays. That intention is one reason it is so incredibly silly that the NCAA is going to war against the use â by some university teams â of American Indian nicknames, logos and mascots that it considers racially âhostileâ and âabusive.â You are soon going to have to get those nicknames off uniforms in post season tournaments, the NCAA says. You wonât be allowed to show the logos. Let one of those mascots prance across a basketball court on such an occasion, and there will be serious penalties to contemplate. The ban doesnât apply to the regular season, itâs reported, because the NCAA doesnât think it has the authority to enforce it Is that a clue? and it doesnât apply to football games because there is no post season NCAA football tournament. But a committee that recommended the changes would like to see all American Indian nicknames disappear in all NCAA competition. What? The wool blankets didn't go far enough? Now the names hafta go, too? According to an Associated Press story, the committee says schools should imitate Wisconsin and Iowa by shunning games with teams that call themselves Seminoles, Chippewas, Braves, Indians, Fighting Sioux and the like. Whatâs that? A sarcastic chuckle? One is due because Wisconsin and Iowa are among those states â almost half the total â that are named after Indian words and sometimes tribes. If you are going to say the University of Utah cannot have âUtesâ on uniforms in future NCAA tournaments, as the NCAA does, why allow âUtah?â Both words refer just as surely to the same Indian tribe. And why would the simple use of a tribeâs name be regarded as hostile or abusive, anyway? I will grant there might be a couple of team names that are objectionable, such as the Southeastern Oklahoma State Savages, and that some mascots may overdo it. Yet most of these names, logos and mascots are no more disrespectful than references to America as the land of the free and the home of the brave. What we have are simply romantic, adulatory generalizations, which are not so horrible. Even when the mascots seem warlike, the evocation isnât of bloodshed, but of daring, defiance and valiance. Holding these images in mind is not a way of saying a whole people is thus summed up. It is a way of referring to a strong, positive impression out of our history. Florida State, which wants to keep its Seminole name in all games, is said to be considering a suit against the NCAA. I donât blame the university, but canât help thinking that here we Americans go again, nicking ourselves to enfeeblement over petty matters. It too often seems that somewhere, in the vast social change of recent decades, we Americans have misplaced our common sense, thereby opening the doors to would be morality dictators who consistently make false analogies to real issues. There are indeed real issues facing Indians in America today and there are real solutions. Cracking down on nicknames is not one of them. Posted by: Bobby 2005-08-09 |
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