I've been dreaming of the time when
The English are sick to death of Labour and Tories
And spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell
And denounce this royal line that still salutes him
And will salute him forever


Oh silly me, that song is ten whole years old. I guess everything is peachy now.

Historically? Participating in the dislocation and marginalization of the people already here when they arrived.

But really, in case you missed it, in the case if the Minnesota Vikings, it was primarily Scandinavian people who gave the team that name; the name came from their own culture. Same thing for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Not the same thing with PWI's that use American Indian names for teams.

Perhaps one day you'll learn that your experience =/= universal experience.

Or maybe not.

Actually, a number of tribes did do just that. And I guess you missed it that the question was actually put up to popular vote in North Dakota. The voters of that state voted 2-1 to retire the name "Fighting Sioux."

Bwahahaha. Would y'all have preferred the dude in the blue body suit? :D what did they call him? The Rebel Thing or something like that?

You are aware that there are Lakota, Dakota and Yanktoni Sioux in ND who have weighed in on this, aren't you? If the Standing Rock Sioux tribal council approved the use of the UND Sioux mascot, the NCAA would have granted UND a waiver. They didn't. Clearly the Standing Rock Sioux don't like it.

When a group of people say "We don't like the way you are using our name" then the polite thing to do is to stop.

The voters of ND agree. UND's mascot was subject to a ballot initiative. The voters of North Dakota voted it out. It wasn't a few concerned citizens. It was a majority (67%) of voters.

I don't like the way Notre Dame uses the Fighting Irish, but it's not really the same. Irish Americans don't have the poverty rates and general dispossession that Native Americans have faced. Irish Americans are currently integrated as fully white and enjoy the privileges that go with being white in America. Meanwhile, Pine Ridge is the poorest place in the US. It's just not the same.

Like MC said, the Irish themselves created that as a big F.U. to everyone. THAT'S why it's ok. It's not ok because the Irish were less oppressed. I'm sure there are still Irish people who even knowing that don't like it.

Wikipedia is not usually my "go to " source, but this is not a bad discussion of the time line, along with a picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Black_Bear

IrishLake, for some Ole Miss alumni, it may be even WORSE that the bear is also from SOUTHERN Mississippi! :p

Right. It's one thing if schools and student bodies choose a nickname and mascot that reflects their own heritage—say, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame; the Fighting Scots of Edinboro U, Monmouth College or the College of Wooster; or the Terrible Swedes of Bethany College. It's another thing when they appropriate someone else's heritage—especially when they've already appropriated just about everything else once belonging to that particular someone else.

I never saw a picture of what the blues muscian character was supposed to be. Not sure that he got that far. It was probably better than the bizarre Admiral Akbar thing!

Yes, Mystic Cat! Or self selection of the name Tar Heels, a designation that once was viewed as a pejorative term. : )

Unsurprisingly, you and KDCat distinguished the fact patterns and there is a meaningful difference. Thank you.

And I think the Frackers has a lot of potential!

Count my Irish Catholic relatives among those...they hate the mascot.

Did I read the article correctly that the school hasn't chosen a new mascot? I'm not questioning the decision to remove the Sioux as the schools mascot, but I don't understand why the banner that I saw merits sensitivity training. They used to have a mascot. It was deemed offensive and removed. If I read that correctly, they are now mascot-less. I don't see how mentioning that the mascot is gone, but they're still proud of their team is lacking in sensitivity. It did happen.

I don't disagree with the decision to remove the mascot, or any similar cultural appropriation. I just don't understand why this particular banner was so bad. What am I missing?

Animal House reference.

There is a Christian school near me whose mascot is Warriors, but they don't use it in the Native American sense. Theirs is the biblical sense, I think they may use a gladiator type helmet as their visual logo...not sure on that one.

But if the bear is named Rebel and the teams are still called the Rebels, doesn't that glorify the Confederacy just as much? I'm confused. Oh well, count yourselves lucky that it didn't change to something that was the domain name of a porn site.