Here's the latest article in this Media Frenzied Topic.. Written By Clarence Page.. A Black man who is printed in the Chicago Tribune among others..:
Slinging a racial slur? Oh, where is thy sting
Published March 17, 2002
WASHINGTON -- Sometimes offense is the best defense.
That appears to be what some innovative Native American Indian students at the University of Northern Colorado had in mind. When local activists failed to persuade Eaton High School in Greeley, Colo., to change the name and Indian mascot of its team, the Fightin' Reds, the Indian university students decided to make their point a different way.
They changed the name of their intramural basketball team from the Native Pride to The Fightin' Whities.
Solomon Little Owl, a team member who also directs the university's Native American Student Services, explained to reporters that his teammates, who include Hispanics and Caucasians, wanted to "do something that will let people see the other side of what it's like to be a mascot."
The result? A media frenzy, of course. Network television, major newspapers and radio talk shows have made the Fightin' Whities the best covered intramural squad in the nation. The Greeley Tribune says its Web site,
www.greeleytrib.com, crashed Tuesday when demand for the story soared to 29,000 hits for the high-interest local story from the usual 200 hits a day.
Yet Caucasians have proved to be remarkably resistant to offense. Quite the opposite, quite a few agree with the e-mailer who saw the new team name as an "honor" to white Americans, who apparently don't get enough credit for their many contributions to history.
"Help me out here," asked one e-mail to the Greeley Tribune, "why am I supposed to be offended?"
Within days the newspaper, the college and Little Owl's office had received so many requests for team T-shirts that the Fightin' Whities now sell their own line of sportswear at their own Web site with all proceeds going to the Fighting Whites Scholarship Fund Inc.
The items do look pretty snazzy. Each features the team logo, a wholesome-looking '50s-style head-shot illustration of a smiling white guy in a jacket and necktie over the team's memorable slogan, "Every thang's gonna be all white!"
Whether their experiment turns out the way they expect it to or not, the Fightin' Whities deserve to go to the head of the class for giving us all at least one important lesson in cross-cultural differences: It's not what you slur that counts, it is who is slurring it--and how.
After all, American teams have had Euro-ethnic mascots before, like the Fighting Irish, the Ragin' Cajuns or the Norsemen. And how about those Boston Celtics?
No, as an African-American who has heard more than my share of slurs, I can tell you that to be truly offensive, it helps for a slur to carry at least a hint of a threat.
If some Caucasians in Greeley, Colo., find little reason to feel offended, maybe it is because they have little reason to feel threatened by the Fightin' Whities name. Caucasians in, say, Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe has not made white farmers feel very welcome in recent years, might feel a bit more anxious about jokes at their expense.
Similarly, "Reds" may not sound very offensive to most, but to some Indian ears it might sound about as menacing as "Redskins," the name of the NFL football team in the nation's capital. Most Redskins fans undoubtedly mean no harm by their passivity about their team's name. If it reminds some Indians of the days when there were bounties on Indian scalps, that's just tough tomahawks, pal.
Besides, a recent Sports Illustrated poll found that, even on reservations, most Indians did not think school or professional sports teams should change their Indian names, despite the near-unanimity of activists and other busybodies--like me--who think a name like "Redskins" goes way over the top.
But it is not always easy to get non-Indians to walk a few miles in the shoes of Native Americans on this issue. Some tend to become defensive, as if they suddenly are being blamed for all of history's atrocities against the original Americans.
So I give the Fightin' Whities credit for keeping their wit about them. Humor often opens doors that battering rams fail to budge.
If nothing else, the Fightin' Whities stumbled across an unusual way to raise scholarship money. It's like the old saying goes: If you can't beat 'em, make a few bucks off of 'em.
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E-mail: cptime@aol.com
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Now, Allow me to repeat a Quote from this Article, Something that the majority of the nay-sayers have failed to miss.. What I tried to point out...
"So I give the Fightin' Whities credit for keeping their wit about them. Humor often opens doors that battering rams fail to budge."
L.Unplugged
