The University of Dakota’s college football team is nicknamed ‘The Fighting Sioux’ and, unsurprisingly in these politically correct times, the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) has taken great offence. The college fought back, and recently won a three year reprieve for the nickname. The condition is that the tribes must accept it. So, where does this leave the NFL’s Washington Redskins? The term must be the Native American equivalent of the N-bomb.
Cash may be the key – the Redskins are the second most valuable sports franchise in the United States, behind only the Dallas Cowboys, although you have to wonder where the money went after their abysmal 2006 season. Washington finished bottom of their division, with five wins and 11 losses. Perhaps the lawyers were eating up all the money?
The team’s signature song, Hail To The Redskins, is remarkable in itself. Watch out for the casual appropriation of scalping in the lyrics.
Hail to the Redskins
Hail Vic-tor-y
Braves on the Warpath
Fight for old Dixie
Scalp ’em, swamp ’em — We will take ’em big score
Read ’em, weep ’em, touchdown – we want heap more
Fight on, Fight on — ‘Till you have won
Sons of Wash-ing-ton. Rah!, Rah!, Rah!
News Hour tends to celebrate examples of the politically incorrect, but something about the tone of this sits uncomfortably with us. Still, does turnabout make fair play? A high school Native American basketball team was set up with the title ‘The Fighting Whites’, using a 1950s businessman as a mascot. The problem was, the whities loved it, embracing the slogans and merchandise either as college kitsch, or a reminder of a time seen by many as a golden-era: the 1950s, when domestic bliss reigned, men smoked pipes and women loved it. (Or so they say.) One can’t help but feel that the mascot might have been more effective were it actually offensive to white people. Perhaps the American equivalent of a lager lout?
Of course, the problem with turnabout is that it’s harder to offend a majority.
News hour, with Jerry Caesar 