How some people choose to expend energy; on warpath for pseudo-Chief

I’m not a University of Illinois alumnus, so I always have trouble identifying with the people who want to view it as a holy crusade, of sorts, to fight for the image of Chief Illiniwek.

The old stomping grounds of generations of pseudo-Chiefs

 

My alma mater’s mascot/honored symbol/whatever label you try to tag it with, was a student in a Titan costume – and a cheap one at that. It wasn’t something somebody would get upset over.

YET TO THIS day, there are people who want to view it as a travesty that the university did away with the image of a white student doing what was supposed to be a sacred native dance while wearing a tribal costume that was supposed to be distinctly authentic to the tribes native to what is now Illinois.

Of course, the matter that was bringing out all this imagery? The notion that the Fighting Illini sports teams might get their butts kicked a little less viciously than they usually do.

In all, not exactly something that the real natives would have ever used such sacred imagery for. Which is the point that the non-Indian tribal people always miss when they try to defend such things as Chief Wahoo in Cleveland or the Washington Redskins football team!

The distortion of native images is so laughable. It is more ridiculous than the distortion that occurred when the hippy-dippy types of the 1960s got themselves all into the images and cultures of India.

BUT IN A comical way that no real Indian person would ever do. Just like no real person whose ethnic origins trace back to the indigenous tribes of this nation (a fake Indian, because of the fact that Christopher Columbus was not so much a discoverer of nations, but was lost!) would ever think there was anything real about Illiniwek.

Which is what makes their fight seem so trivial.

Ever since Illiniwek (I actually once met a former Illiniwek back in the days when I worked at the state Capitol in Springfield – he’s now a corporate executive for railroad interests) disappeared in 2007, there has been a group calling itself the Honor the Chief Society.

Chief as long-gone as this melted ice sculpture

They are a batch of disgruntled student types who want to think the hippy-dippy types have taken over the world from decent, respectable types like themselves! Which means they think the rest of the world should shut up and do what they tell them to do.

THEY WENT SO far as to try to register the Chief Illiniwek logo for themselves, claiming the university had abandoned it.

Which has resulted in lawsuits, legal action and attorneys getting richer and richer – because the university didn’t want anyone doing something with the logo that would have reflected negatively on the Urbana-based college.

The two sides came to an agreement this week that really maintains the status quo. They can’t create an Indian mascot and call it the New Chief Illiniwek. They can’t make any merchandise of their own with the Illiniwek logo.

They can make their own merchandise with the phrase “Honor the Chief.” Although their website and promotional materials will be required to contain the phrase, “The Honor the Chief Society is not sponsored, licensed, approved or endorsed by the University of Illinois.”

IN SHORT, THE great Illiniwek legal battle resulted in the group being treated like a pack of cigarettes – they have to have a warning label of sorts to let you know that something bad exists here.

And in return for accepting a warning label, the group will get to sell t-shirts and perhaps a coffee mug or two. Is this really a fight about merchandising?

All of which I suspect will only be purchased by people more interested in making conservative ideological statements. While the student body will shrug off the issue as a whole lot of nonsense about nothing.

Because the rest of us who attended a college and that type of experience remember the parties, the pressure of classes, the intellectual rewards and even some of the ballgames – not the student who wore a funny costume because he wasn’t good enough to actually play on one of the athletic teams.

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The Redskins used to be about Dixie; the team name will change in due time

With the Chicago Bears headed off to the Maryland suburbs that contain the stadium used these days by the Washington Redskins, we’re going to get our own earful of the controversy about whether or not the D.C. entry in the National Football League has a tacky, offensive and racist nickname.

People in positions as prominent as President Barack Obama have said they don’t approve of the term that was meant as a slur against those whose ethnic origins trace back to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

WHO SURE WEREN’T white, and to whom the phrase was meant to dehumanize them (they didn’t even have real skin like “normal” people).

So yes, it is obvious that the nickname is tacky, and if the Washington ball club were at all sensitive to the real world, they would have ditched the nickname decades ago.

But the team owners have dug themselves in, claiming that to change the name now would be to disrespect the decades of sporting glory the team has brought to the nation’s capital.

Which is stupid. But if they want to take the abuse that goes along with an offensive nickname (rather than worrying about the quality of their offensive line), then so be it. It's not a "badge of honor."

PERSONALLY, I’M NOT getting too worked up because I really do believe the day will come when “Redskins” will disappear. It will be a low-key change. And the only people who will have an objection will be those ideological twits who are determined to go to their graves defending a status quo that gave them a right to look down upon anyone who wasn’t exactly like themselves.

Do fans of 'Redskins' think they're still at Griffith Stadium

What makes me think this is the fact that the Washington team’s own history shows signs of change to the atmosphere and culture of professional football in the capital city.

This was once such a Southern-oriented team – one that took advantage of the fact that it was the only NFL franchise south of the Mason/Dixon Line and east of the Mississippi River where they marketed themselves as the South’s team.

Back in the days of the Civil Rights movement when Southerners were convinced those Damn Yankees were taking over the capitol, probably the only thing out of Washington they had use for was the Redskins. Now, they probably even regard the team as the “enemy.”

THIS IS THE franchise that was the last to integrate to include black athletes on the roster. 1962 – they even make the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies look good, by comparison.

Those teams never had Illinois-born George Lincoln Rockwell and his American Nazi Party goons protesting in support of the concept of, “keeping the Redskins white.” Which is such a ridiculous concept, if you think about it.

So many changes since then

This also is the football team whose own marching theme has been re-written throughout the years so as to tone down all the lyrical references to scalping, the lyrics written in a style as though Tonto were talking and the bit at the end where the melody of the song broke out into a line of “Dixie.” (The line about “Fight for old D.C.!” for a little while was “Fight for old Dixie”).

Somewhere in my belongings is an old vinyl record album of NFL Marching Songs from 1960 – which meant that it includes the version of the song for the Redskins as it existed back then.

TO THE MODERN ear set, hearing a Washington-song end off with the unofficial anthem of the South is bizarre. Just as I’m sure in future years, it will be equally bizarre for D.C. football fanatics to think their team used a slur as its image.

We will get to that point someday. It is inevitable.

Just as one other fact remains true. “Hail to the Redskins” may well be one of the oldest marching themes for an NFL franchise. But it’s pretty lame compared to “Bear Down, Chicago Bears.”

It doesn't have to be about 'Redskins' or Chief Wahoo!

 

Go Bears!!!!!!!!!!!! And maybe Washington could take lessons from our very own Chicago Blackhawks about how one can use native imagery in their identity without being so blatantly offensive.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't agree with publications that think they're taking a high-minded stance by refusing to acknowledge the nickname "Redskins." It exists. It ought to be reported as such to the point where we make it uncomfortable for it to be used by the team. Otherwise, it comes across like we're merely ignoring facts we'd rather not acknowledge.