The cartoonish Oregon Duck mascot is offensive to ducks everywhere, but the University of Illinois’ Chief Illiniwek is really offensive to American Indians because, well, humans have feelings.
So, more than 40 Illinois students, in a nod to the protesting gurus here in Eugene, took to their administration building Thursday in protest of their mascot. It was an actual sit-in. Good for them. Bravo.
Recently, our own rabble-rousers got all snippy-snappy when the athletic department scheduled men’s basketball games against Illinois in 2004 and 2005. They referred back to a widely ignored resolution, drafted by law students in 2002, that asked Oregon’s athletics department to not schedule games against teams with offensive mascots.
The debate is more stupid than Jessica Simpson with a can of tuna. The Illinois protest is legitimate because those are the people who have to live with a white guy wearing face paint and dressed up as a chief.
But this is their issue. Like America imposing democracy on the world, we here in Eugene feel it necessary to impose our hippie-inspired views on the country. If we see American Indian mascots as offensive, then darn it they’re offensive. So we’ll take a stand, and not schedule games against teams that use them! And nobody will notice! Yay!
I’m going to get blasted here for being too conservative, for writing against change. But I like change just as much as the next protester.
I just think there are more serious things than mascot issues. Anybody who knows anything about sports knows that mascots are silly and stupid. They jump around and clap a lot. They’re more of a distraction than anything else.
And, most important, they honor people and places. Mascots aren’t chosen to piss people off, they’re chosen to appeal to many (gotta sell merchandise!)
Look at some of the mascots around here. The Portland Trail Blazers honor early explorers. The Seattle Mariners and San Francisco 49ers honor the West’s sea and gold trades, respectively. The San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer honor the Richter scale.
According to an Illinois investigation of the issue, the Chief Illiniwek mascot was first chosen to honor Illinois tribes, and the first costume was crafted on a reservation. The costume has changed only five times, and each time a new costume is donated by members of a South Dakota Sioux tribe. The Chief’s dance at halftime was originally inspired by actual tribal dances.
Many people have argued that the mascot has changed over the years as our society has changed. Now, they argue, our progressive culture calls for progressive mascots. That’s how you get politically correct — but boring — mascots like the Toronto Raptors and the Colorado Avalanche.
I don’t think we need more progressive mascots, we just need a more open-minded approach to examining mascots. We need to realize that they aren’t meant to offend and only meant to honor.
And we need to stop trying to force the issue. We need to let the Illinois students run their own protest. They’ve learned from the best: us. And they’re ready to shake things up in Urbana-Champaign.
We shouldn’t try to shake for them.