Posted on 03/16/2002 4:07:20 AM PST by JohnHuang2
DENVER (AP) - The idea started among some University of Northern Colorado students as a satirical commentary on a local high school's American Indian mascot.
The students named their intramural basketball team, made up of American Indians, Hispanics and whites, ``The Fighting Whities.'' They printed up jerseys saying ``Every thang's going to be all white,'' with a caricature of a middle-aged white man.
``The Fighting Whities,'' however, have taken on a life of their own.
More than 1,600 e-mails have flooded into the university in Greeley, north of Denver. Some say it's about time that a white person is made a mascot for a sport team. Others complain the idea as perpetuating yet another racial stereotype.
``It's obvious some of the people are taking it the way it's not supposed to be taken,'' said team member Jeff VanIwarden.
Team members have gotten phone calls from around the country and invitations to appear on television. They were mentioned by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show on Tuesday. The American Indian Movement has weighed in supporting the name.
The team chose the name after it couldn't persuade nearby Eaton High School to abandon its nickname, the Fightin' Reds, and the American Indian caricature on the team logo. The students say the logo is offensive.
The school superintendent denies the logo is derogatory and called the group's criticism insulting.
Some e-mails said the mascot image should be even more derogatory than a middle-aged white man with a tie.
``Some people online were saying that the mascot should be ... a fat guy with buckteeth kissing his sister,'' said Tom Crebbs of Oakland, Calif., who heard about the idea and started his own Web site selling spin-off shirts, hats and mugs.
Others, like Michael Gonsalves of New York, disagreed: ``If you are fighting against a perceived injustice, is the proper recourse to go out and do the very same thing?''
With all the publicity, the team plans on printing new T-shirts. VanIwarden said they will have a message condemning racial stereotypes to dissuade people from making light of the shirt.
On the Net:
The University of Northern Colorado: http://www.unco.edu
The American Indian Movement: http://www.aimovement.org
That's the funniest part of the whole thing. The fools didn't see it coming.
Can't YOU all see that "WE" are being USED........(against each other)
A bad black man, is no worse than a bad white man. Put all the colors you want into it.
A bad Jew is no worse than a bad Christian.
When after thousands of years do "WE" finally wise up, and put the people that use "US" against each other in their place?
YOU, have accepted their "lies" and reduced yourselves to a "commoditiy" Something to be regulated like corn or oil.
How bad does it have to get, before "YOU" realize what YOUR CHILDREN will have to SUFFER?
Rich and Poor has worked forever,
Whitie and Blackie has worked since our Civil War.
Face "IT" everyone wants to feel "WORTHWHILE".The BEST way to beat HUMAN RIGHTS, is to keep us SEPARATED.
The BEST WAY to be EQUAL is to not accept the LIES.
As much as everyone wants to have control, we have to surrender to Him.
I didn't realize North America stopped at the US/Canadian border. Thanks for the geography lesson.
Isn't that the point? I've got zero "sports interest". Never been interested in sports (other than stuff like hunting, fishing, and the year or so I thought I'd somehow be able to have a career as an SCCA type rally driver), but I always thought the whole idea of a mascot was based on stuff like pride and admiration for the "reality behind the image".
I mean, has anyone ever had mascots with names like, "The Fleeing Cowards" or "The Rousting Gestappo" or "The Stormin' Bolsheviks" or "The Drunken Bums" or...
They pick mascot names to play off the perceived strengths and positive attributes of the RL counterparts, right?
So when they pick a parody mascot like "The Fighting Whites", are they surprised when people laugh with them? The irony is that not only are they "laughing with them", but the "them" that erected the mascot ain't laughing themselves, unless I've missed something.
It would be like the NOW nags having a "comedy show" (yeah, feminist humor = definition of oxymoron) where they tell "man jokes" through typicaly clenched teeth with jaw muscles rippling with anger, and the guys who show up to listen end up falling in the aisles lauging their asses off.
Ah, sweet irony.
"Demonstrating absurdity by being absurd."
Where have I seen that guy before?
Oh right:
Looks like "The Fighting Whites" is a stroke of sub-subgenius, nyuk nyuk! (I guess they'd have heap big trouble if they included a pipe, eh?)
If the NEA is going to teach victimology they could at least get some of the facts straight.
These dolts need to rent a copy of Martin Mull's "A Short History of White People in America" and watch it repeatedly until they catch the clue.
Here's a hint: no one was ever offended by watching that movie, but I think everyone who saw it laughed their AO.
A few years ago the MSU college newspaper ran an article about the situation in South Africa. The article made repeated references to "African-American South Africans". I am not making this up.
Some people never learned to laugh at themselves. Growing up Jewish, I heard the funniest "Jew jokes" from other Jews.
Ethnic humor that is not rooted in contempt can be pretty funny.
Bingo. The flip side of that PC axiom is that if "The Fighting Reds" had been thought up by an Indian group, they would have been sent to re-education camp until they'd demonstrated a suffient degree of self-criticism.
Don't forget the International Favorite, "Yanqui!"
Or a functioning sense of humor.
"Whities! The Breakfast of Comedians"
Given the current snit these idiots are having over being frustrated by their success, it might be appropriate to ask, "Hey, who pissed on your Whities?" :)
Kinda hard to torture people with your PC pedantry when it's so darn funny!
He said the couple, as parents of a half-Anglo, half-American Indian son, felt uncomfortable mingling with townspeople at school events, especially at ballgames where the large-nosed Indian caricature was the prominent team symbol.
"It was offensive in it's own way," said Little Owl, 29.
I have a friend who lives in New Mexico. He's Indian, and every time I see him I point out that if I took him to the Bronx, I could pass him off as Jewish and no one would be the wiser.
What's so offensive? It's funny making light of stereotypes. These sourpusses need to contemplate Lenny Bruce's speech on the topic. If they succeed, they'll be accomplishing the very thing they claim to detest.
I think that's what should be done. Replace ALL Indian mascots with White mascots and see what they have to say about that.
That's fine for fantasy land, but coming back to reality, what does he do if instead of being offended by it, they're amused by it?
Suggestion: instead of trying to get "them" to feel like he feels, he might want to try to get himself feel like "they" feel. Now wouldn't that be something.
But nope, can't have any humor in PC-ville.
I'm of the opinion that you can judge the mental health of a "movement" by seeing if it has a sense of humor.
When was the last time anyone saw any feminist/islamist/etc., etc., etc. with a sense of humor?
There's nothing wrong with calling a citizen of The United States of America an American.
If there was, it would be just as wrong to call a British Subject (or to put it another way, a citizen of The United Kindom) "English".
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