An abuse of authority

[SuperScout]

Racist Paternalism at the NCAA
By Andrew Cline

The National Collegiate Athletic Association's executive committee -- comprised of 14 white men, two white women, and three black men -- decided last week that 18 university and college nicknames were "hostile and abusive" to Indians. The nicknames and mascots may not be displayed on any team uniform at any NCAA postseason tournament starting next February. It was a new milestone in condescending liberal racism.

The committee members were the sole arbiters of what was "hostile and abusive" and what was not. Among those not allowed a say in the matter were, ahem, Indians.

After NCAA busybodies spent time snooping around Tallahassee, Florida, to gather evidence for their case against Florida State's use of the Seminoles nickname, the Seminole Tribal Council voted in April -- unanimously -- to affirm the tribe's support for the university's nickname and mascot. Nonetheless, come August the NCAA decreed FSU's use of the name "hostile and abusive." Those silly Indians, they obviously don't know what's good for them.

Also banned is the nickname of the University of Illinois -- the Illini. "Illini" was the name of the tribal confederation that once ruled the land now called Illinois. It is the root word for the state name and the name of its people, Illinoians. It is hard to see hostility in a name the white people use to describe themselves, but the NCAA sees it.

University of Illinois basketball jerseys say "Illinois," not "Illini." In its eternal wisdom, the executive committee will allow jerseys printed with "Illinois," but not ones printed with "Illini." What will committee members do when they learn that "Illinois" is French for "Illini"?

Allowing jerseys to bear the French name for the Illini tribal confederation, but not the name the confederation gave itself, is the logical end point of multicultural sensitivity. One wonders whether the University of Illinois student newspaper -- The Illini -- will be allowed to cover future NCAA tournaments.

Indiana University, whose athletic teams are called "Hoosiers," escaped the NCAA's nickname ban. But Indiana's jerseys don't say "Hoosiers." They say "Indiana," which means "Land of Indians."

By the way, the NCAA is headquartered in Indianapolis -- "City of the Land of Indians." How embarrassing.

The NCAA has banned the University of North Dakota's "Fighting Sioux" nickname. "Sioux" is the name for a confederation of smaller tribes, including the Dakota. If UND removes the "hostile and abusive" "Sioux" name from its jerseys and replaces it with "North Dakota," it will still have a tribal name on its jerseys. Obviously, the NCAA executives have not thought their plan through.

The University of Oklahama's football team wears jerseys sporting the university's team nickname: Sooners. Sooners were people who illegally occupied land confiscated from the Indians. (They got there "sooner" than the law allowed.) The university's basketball team wears jerseys bearing the state name: Oklahoma. "Oklahoma" is Choctaw for "red people." Both of these names are OK, while "Seminoles," approved by the tribe, is banned. Go figure.

A thought to consider: If Cherokee Parks becomes a college basketball coach, or Dakota Fanning plays a varsity sport in 2012, will announcers be permitted to mention their names on air?

A college referee I know wonders whether Billy Packer and Greg Gumbel will be allowed to say "Fighting Sioux" or "Seminoles." Play-by-play certainly will be clumsy if nicknames cannot be used.

All of this nonsense is born of the notion that when white people adopt the name and likeness of red people, it is an act of racism, an assertion of racial or tribal superiority. After all, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, a historically Indian institution, was allowed to keep its "Braves" nickname. Yet white people usually are not being condescending by adopting Indian names or mascots.

Athletic teams wish to associate themselves with qualities valued on the field of play: courage, valor, strength, endurance, bravery. Hence they choose names and mascots they believe emblematic of those qualities: Sioux, Vikings, Seminoles, Celtics, Bears, Tigers, Yankees, Pirates, etc. No one names his team the Pigeons.

To the NCAA executive committee, unencumbered by reality, the actual intent behind the nickname's adoption does not matter. All that matters is how others might perceive it.

The best reaction to this fear of offense, of course, is to let individual institutions work out these disagreements on their own. Instead, the paternalism that comes from intellectual superiority has overruled common sense. And so 19 white and black university and college executives have told countless Indians what is best for them. It is the very definition of racist paternalism.

I hope each of the 18 institutions affected by this policy makes every NCAA tournament next year. And I hope they wear their uniforms, unaltered, and force the NCAA to drag their players off the courts, fields, tracks and mats. Bureaucratic bullying is easy when it can be done with the stroke of a pen. When it has to be backed up by brute force, it becomes a lot more difficult to justify.

[Bill Farnie]

Ah I can see it now ?. The NFL football team the New York Giants will have to change their name because it offends ?vertically challenged? people.

This is just plain stupid

[reconeil]

Multiply your: "This is just plain stupid" by about a THOUSAND TIMES,...and such paints a pretty-fair picture of how quite biasedly-absurd and/or stupidly panderering to every living and breathing thing on earth (American Citizenry excluded), that America has LIBERALLY-DICTATORIALLY become.

Damn,...Conservatives are finally the total winners and in charge for-a-change,...and liberal nuts and/or ACLU still call-the-shots on most everything.
Won't such a Nationally Stupid & Nationally-Suicidal Naivete' which most everyone on earth ridicule, ever end? It's getting downright embarassing, and especially in discussions with foreigners FROM WHEREVER.

Hell, even people from Fiji or Tahiti must think most of We Americans are and act exceptionally obedient to even the strangest of dictates, as if nothing more than a large herd of easily manipulated or easily controlled sheep?
Sure seems so to me,...and has for quite some time.

Neil

[SparrowHawk62]

There is no limit to stupid, it's boundless in oh so many ways.....

[PHO127]

Upon returning from VN for the last time I was talking to my Dad about the political stupidity running the VN war. He made a very profound statement which I vividly remember.

"We will never be defeated by a foreign power, we will defeat ourselves"

I don't know if he originated it or read it somewhere but I am certain it will come to pass

[Advisor]

Wonder if the NCAA has in-house sports teams? If they do, they ought to rename 'em to The Turkies, The Slugs, The Omnipotents, The Pontificators..

[39mto39g]

unfortunetly the NCAA doesn't have to be physical when it comes to post season play and there orders to NCAA teams. All it has to do is say your team (your school) doesn't get its share of TV revinew if it doesn't comply and Your team (your school) will forfit any Division titles. Presto, the school alumni breaks and NCAA wins what ever it wanted. Including changing the schools nick name.
This is not only happening in Colleges but all the way down to JR high schools.
Like any burocratic entity, the NCAA will continue and the teams and schools will follow what ever the NCAA wants. Anyone wants to not comply---see ya, Your out of here. next.

Ron

[urbsdad6]

What everyone has said!!!!!!!!!!!!

Doc Urb

[82Rigger]

Gov. Bush: "It's Ridiculous!"



TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Gov. Jeb Bush criticized NCAA officials on Tuesday for their decision to penalize Florida State for using an American Indian nickname and symbols, saying they instead insulted the university and a proud Seminole Tribe of Florida.

The NCAA's finding that the school's Seminoles nickname is "hostile and offensive," instead of honoring American Indians has the opposite effect, the governor said, because the tribe supports the school's use of its name.

"I think it's offensive to native Americans ... the Seminole Indian tribe who support the traditions of FSU," Bush said on his way into a Cabinet meeting. "I think they insult those people by telling them, 'No, no, you're not smart enough to understand this. You should be feeling really horrible about this.' It's ridiculous."

Meanwhile, attorney Barry Richard, who successfully led the legal challenge on behalf of Republican George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential recount in Florida, has agreed to represent the school in its case against the NCAA, Florida State President T.K. Wetherell said Wednesday.

"We recognize this is an emotional issue in Florida, and in other parts of the country there are people who feel just as strongly being opposed," NCAA spokesman Bob Williams said Tuesday. "We believe this decision was made on sound ground legally though as I said before there is an appeal process in place."

The school's board of trustees are scheduled to meet Wednesday in emergency session to discuss elements of its formal response to the NCAA.

The university has until Feb. 1 to make a formal appeal to the NCAA executive committee.

Florida State, Illinois and Utah are among 18 schools with an American Indian nickname or logo that will be prohibited by the NCAA from displaying them in postseason events, starting in February.

The nicknames will not be allowed on team uniforms and mascots will not be allowed to perform at games, the NCAA announced Friday. Cheerleaders and band members will also be barred from using American Indians on their uniforms beginning in 2008.

The costuming and rigging of the school's symbols, Chief Osceola and the Appaloosa horse, Renegade, are designed by the Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida.

Bush said he fully agrees with Wetherell, who will sue the NCAA if their decision on the use of Seminoles is not rescinded.

"How politically correct can we get?" Bush asked. "The folks that make these decisions need to get out more often."

"If you have the Seminole Tribe and Gov. Bush on your side, how can you go wrong?" Florida State University Vice President Lee Hinkle said Wednesday.

Bush said the NCAA must have better things to do that sit around worrying about the nicknames adopted by its member institutions.

"You know what they ought to be worried about? The graduation rates of most college athletes," the second-term Florida governor said. "Maybe if they had some suggestions on that, that universities could apply and could implement, they could be doing a service to all of us."

Williams noted that student-athletes, on the average, graduate at a higher rate than the average student.

[SuperScout]

Perhaps the best way to combat this politically correct abuse is for the alumni of each of the offending schools to flood the NCAA with protest mail, both snail and email, and completely swamp their administrative and cyber staff. And if anyone can find a newspaper reporter who even remotely seems to still have a pair, pump him full of data and let him run with the story. With enough light of truth shining on the dukes of hazardous play, they might, just might get the message of what absolute buffons they truyly are, and change their ways.

Or maybe it's time to form a different organization other than the NCAA? If enough schools got together and formed one, then informe the NCAA that they're history and subsequent complaints from them can be applied to the vertical urinary rope process, what could they do but more muttering and whining?