From one of my favorite chapters in one of my favorite books.
![karnythia:
deluxvivens:
the-soapbox:
thedailywhat:
Political Correctness of the Day: The state of Oregon has put eight high schools on notice — their Native American mascots have got to go. A 5-1 vote Thursday by the Board of Education gives the schools five years to make the change, or their state funding is withdrawn.
The decision came after months of emotional debate about tolerance and tradition.
“It is racist. It is harmful. It is shaming. It is dehumanizing,” said Se-ah-dom Edmo, vice president of the Oregon Indian Education Association.
On the opposing side are people like Jim Smith, the principal of Banks High School — home of the Braves — who grew up on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. “It’s a chance for us to talk about family and tradition and loyalty,” he said.
Wisconsin is the only other state with restrictions on Native American mascots. The law there requires school boards to prove that their mascots don’t promote discrimination, harassment, or stereotyping if someone complains. Regardless, Native American mascots still abound.
[newsday]
Hyper-sensitive.
It’s a little surprising to me that when you google mascots for “Zulu” that nothing comes up. Because that’s kind of bad-ass. The Zulu Warriors. That would be one hell of a mascot. Or the Fighting Samurai would be bad ass, too.
It’s all well and good to have mascots like “the fighting irish” or the “norse” or even the Celtics, but if it represents any “person of color” it has to be racist rather than taken as an homage to those people—if you’re the indians, the zulus, the pharaohs (a school does exist), the maori, and you’re out there whooping trojan or irish ass, I think that’d be awesome—and I’m WHITE.
But, alas, everything has to be looked at as “racist” rather than giving credit to these cultures for being bad asses.
Looking at things the other way, if human mascots were ONLY white people, that would be racist, too.
There are so many different angles to look at this argument that you can’t possibly win, no matter which side you’re on.
EDIT: Apparently what I said offended some, probably a lot of people. Let me say this was pretty poorly worded and it’s not how I meant to come off. Do I think it’s shitty the way some of these mascots are portrayed? Yes. Do I think we should be mature enough to realize this is not reality, and that these people aren’t like this? Yes. Do I think it’s okay? No. What I was trying to say is that I PERSONALLY think/wish we could look at it as something acknowledging that these people/cultures were strong, proud, and strong fighters—which is something every team wants to be, and that I wish we could get rid of the racist stigma that comes with it and take it as something cool like that rather than some shitty representation of awesome groups of people.
I don’t know if that makes it any better, but it’s past 12 and I’m kind of exhausted. Just know I don’t mean to offend and that this was taken way out of context and not at all how I meant it—I’m not the typical insensitive asshole american, nor am I the overly PC american who makes the problem worse by trying to fix eeevveerryyything because no matter what you do not everyone is going to be happy, but you can still be fair and not a dick.
//rambling….sorry lol
Can we talk about, again, why POC need to be made into caricatures in aid of “empowerment”?
Hell, let’s talk about why white people are so attached to this idea that they “honor” us with these mascots.
When I was 15 I left, for the first time, my very white home town and took a school trip throughout the American west. At the time I thought this was just a bunch of hooey politically correct “hypersensitivity”. Then a funny thing happened: we pulled into a Navajo gas station with our school van, the word “Redskins” in huge letters on the side of it (with a “warrior” in headdress), and began to realize just how fucked up that was. Bravo to Oregon for doing it right.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m48jjl7N051qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
Political Correctness of the Day: The state of Oregon has put eight high schools on notice — their Native American mascots have got to go. A 5-1 vote Thursday by the Board of Education gives the schools five years to make the change, or their state funding is withdrawn.
The decision came after months of emotional debate about tolerance and tradition.
“It is racist. It is harmful. It is shaming. It is dehumanizing,” said Se-ah-dom Edmo, vice president of the Oregon Indian Education Association.
On the opposing side are people like Jim Smith, the principal of Banks High School — home of the Braves — who grew up on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. “It’s a chance for us to talk about family and tradition and loyalty,” he said.
Wisconsin is the only other state with restrictions on Native American mascots. The law there requires school boards to prove that their mascots don’t promote discrimination, harassment, or stereotyping if someone complains. Regardless, Native American mascots still abound.
[newsday]
Hyper-sensitive.
It’s a little surprising to me that when you google mascots for “Zulu” that nothing comes up. Because that’s kind of bad-ass. The Zulu Warriors. That would be one hell of a mascot. Or the Fighting Samurai would be bad ass, too.
It’s all well and good to have mascots like “the fighting irish” or the “norse” or even the Celtics, but if it represents any “person of color” it has to be racist rather than taken as an homage to those people—if you’re the indians, the zulus, the pharaohs (a school does exist), the maori, and you’re out there whooping trojan or irish ass, I think that’d be awesome—and I’m WHITE.
But, alas, everything has to be looked at as “racist” rather than giving credit to these cultures for being bad asses.
Looking at things the other way, if human mascots were ONLY white people, that would be racist, too.
There are so many different angles to look at this argument that you can’t possibly win, no matter which side you’re on.
EDIT: Apparently what I said offended some, probably a lot of people. Let me say this was pretty poorly worded and it’s not how I meant to come off. Do I think it’s shitty the way some of these mascots are portrayed? Yes. Do I think we should be mature enough to realize this is not reality, and that these people aren’t like this? Yes. Do I think it’s okay? No. What I was trying to say is that I PERSONALLY think/wish we could look at it as something acknowledging that these people/cultures were strong, proud, and strong fighters—which is something every team wants to be, and that I wish we could get rid of the racist stigma that comes with it and take it as something cool like that rather than some shitty representation of awesome groups of people.
I don’t know if that makes it any better, but it’s past 12 and I’m kind of exhausted. Just know I don’t mean to offend and that this was taken way out of context and not at all how I meant it—I’m not the typical insensitive asshole american, nor am I the overly PC american who makes the problem worse by trying to fix eeevveerryyything because no matter what you do not everyone is going to be happy, but you can still be fair and not a dick.
//rambling….sorry lol
Can we talk about, again, why POC need to be made into caricatures in aid of “empowerment”?
Hell, let’s talk about why white people are so attached to this idea that they “honor” us with these mascots.
When I was 15 I left, for the first time, my very white home town and took a school trip throughout the American west. At the time I thought this was just a bunch of hooey politically correct “hypersensitivity”. Then a funny thing happened: we pulled into a Navajo gas station with our school van, the word “Redskins” in huge letters on the side of it (with a “warrior” in headdress), and began to realize just how fucked up that was. Bravo to Oregon for doing it right.
Source: thedailywhat
I feel so important when I see “reblogged you:”
(via ourgoatrodeo)
Source: boyz-have-that-onething
Republicans love carving up a system to reward those they think “earn” it.
(via karnythia)
Source: liberalsarecool.com
Source: rationalhub.com
