friends, enemies, frenemies: random thoughts outpost

by **phdave** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 01:14:11

Barry Jive wrote:and while i'm at it, Notre Dame's mascot is racist

explain why

by **Barry Jive** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 01:24:35

"racist" isn't the most accurate term, but

a) it's a leprechaun, which is like picking Chief Wahoo to be your "Indian"
b) imagine if you had a team called the "Dumb Polacks" or the "Cheap Jews," etc.

by **jerseyhoya** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 01:31:03

The thing is Fighting is a pretty standard mascot adjective

by **Barry Jive** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 01:35:56

Well yeah, for animals and stuff, but the NCAA forced North Dakota to drop "Fighting" from the Sioux nickname and Illinois to drop it from the Illini nickname. I'm not unsympathetic to American Indians but it's the same thing.

by **HillMD** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 01:39:52

Barry Jive wrote:b) imagine if you had a team called the "Dumb Polacks" or the "Cheap Jews," etc.

Haha, that would be awesome.

by **phdave** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 01:45:31

Chief Wahoo is a caricature of Native Americans created by non-Native Americans. The leprechaun is a mythical creature created by the Irish.

Unlike dumb or cheap, fighting has all kinds of positive connotations, especially in reference to athletic teams.

by **Eddie Jordan** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 01:57:02

If I'm running the Dumb Polacks I definitely see how much it would take to lure Coach K away from Duke

by **Barry Jive** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 02:05:56

But in this case "fighting" speaks directly to a negative stereotype of the Irish. It may not have been intended as such in its early usage but neither were the Indian names.

"Leprechaun" is used as a slur toward them, though admittedly it's far less incendiary than the depiction of Chief Wahoo as a typical Indian. I'm not saying "Fighting Irish" is as bad as those necessarily, but it's bad for the same reasons. I'm just measuring the hypocrisy of keeping "Fighting Irish" and eliminating "fighting" from the names of other ethnically based mascots.

by **jerseyhoya** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 02:09:16

But the reason it's OK is because a) the Irish American community embraces it and b) Irish didn't get effed like Native Americans did (even though we did face a great deal of discrimination back in the day)

by **Barry Jive** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 02:18:47

I think if they were just called the Irish they wouldn't lose any fans. It's literally the only reason I hate them.

by **Eddie Jordan** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 02:28:18

We committed horrible atrocities against Native Americans. Andrew Jackson was a fucking horrible person. It's pretty terrible that we make caricatures of the people we slaughtered in the form of mascots.

Would be like a German soccer team using a Jew mascot with a giant nose and a Yamaka

by **z ipper** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 06:34:13

geez you win a fight and all the sudden you're the bad guy.

by **CalvinBall** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 06:40:24

we also killed them with blankets. sneak attack!

by **CalvinBall** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 06:41:07

today is my friday. i still have some papers to write between now and tomorrow but aint no thang. cant wait until 2:20!

by **The Savior** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 07:22:27

well i'm pretty excited for the games today

by 1 » Thu Mar 17, 2011 09:03:43

for woody:

one enterprising developer has created IE6ify, a bookmarklet that processes your current page with the IE6 rendering algorithm -- or its best approximation, anyway. Drop it onto your bookmark bar, head over to your favorite site, and hit the button. Marvel as IE6ify breaks and contorts innocent HTML and CSS until it screams. You might have to hit the button a few times to make the changes more noticeable.

by **Woody** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 09:08:21

That's awesome, but curious why put that "for me"? Did I go on a rant about IE 6? I cant' remember

by **jerseyhoya** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 09:44:46

The Savior wrote:well i'm pretty excited for the games today

It's a great day to be an American

by **Houshphandzadeh** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 09:49:43

I like an Irish Car Bomb once in a blue moon

:oops:

by **Didn't I?** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 09:56:33

Houshphandzadeh wrote:I like an Irish Car Bomb once in a blue moon

I read this literally and thought you actually dropped an Irish Car Bomb in a Blue Moon.

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friends, enemies, frenemies: random thoughts outpost