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
... ``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 ...Is this supposed to offend me? to teach me a moral object lesson? All it does is make me laugh hysterically.
I'm sure some enterprising person will produce a batch of bootleg shirts. Since the graphic is all over the net, you could make iron-on transfers with special paper on an ink-jet printer
The Beavers!
It's getting funny. They want to see the new cheerleader uniforms.
I'll add "paleface" and "gringo" to that bump.
Man, talk about getting something started. No one could justifiably say anything about the shirts, since they were printed and sold by another minority.
OTOH, nobody ever accused the NAALCP of embracing concepts such as logic, fairness, or balance ... or equality.
But that's not a Whitie...that's a REDneck!
BWAAAAAAAAAAH!
(I'll take the Whities AND the points for a hundred.)
Like mascots were chosen as something to be ashamed of! Schools and teams choose mascots they can respect, admire, emulate. No insult or pejorative was ever intended - duh. More than 80% of Native Americans understand this and see no insult in traditional mascots. Just another hysterical lib non-issue.
There was an interesting program, I think it was Discovery Network, which proposed that the current Native Americans were not the first homo-sapiens to arrive in this hemisphere. Some archeologists have uncovered evidence that there were groups which preceded them (I think from Polynesia), and which were gradually slaughtered by the newer (i.e., our current) "Native Americans." Remnants of this original group fled farther and farther south, and the scientists found their genetic descendants down in Tierra del Fuego.
If true, this puts a damper on the Politically Correct depiction of the kind, peace-loving, gentle Native American tribes being wiped out by the EVIL Europeans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.