FSU Seminoles and Russell Means

[Deleted]

www.thestate.com/2010/12/28/1621943/fsus-seminole-imagery-is-racist.html#RSS=sports

I agree with the writer. I don't know why face painting can't be dispensed with if the Seminoles in fact never did that. And Redskins? Come on. Nobody can say that name "honors" a "noble people."

I don't think I'm getting PC here. Rather, I just can't condone absolutism. One side says all Native American references should be eliminated. The other side says no Native American references should be considered off limits. IMO, reality lies somewhere between those polarized positions.

[aztecwin]

These kinds of things are much to do about nothing. Guys like Means just take advantage of these issues for their own gain. I have never seen uproar about names like Vikings or Norsemen. I served with Means' Cousin aboard either the USS Waddell or the USS Agerholm. He was a Chief Quartermaster. He was not at all like that and this was when Wounded Knee was big news.

[Deleted]

I don't care what Russell Means says either. However, every university asserts that its nickname is meant to honor some Indian nation yet one doesn't honor somebody by calling them by a name like Redskins which they never called themselves. Nor does one honor somebody by depicting them as stupid looking, perhaps drunken, doofuses as the Cleveland Indians have done with Chief Wahoo.

With regard to the Minnesota Vikings, you're comparing apples and oranges, Win. The actual Vikings called themselves Vikings and the manner in which the football team has depicted them is historically correct and never as dorks. (Not sure about some drunken fans in the stands but that's besides the point.)

[aztecwin]

Dec 28, 2010 13:43:04 GMT -8 @sleepinggiantsfan said:

I don't care what Russell Means says either. However, every university asserts that its nickname is meant to honor some Indian nation yet one doesn't honor somebody by calling them by a name like Redskins which they never called themselves. Nor does one honor somebody by depicting them as stupid looking, perhaps drunken, doofuses as the Cleveland Indians have done with Chief Wahoo.

With regard to the Minnesota Vikings, you're comparing apples and oranges, Win. The actual Vikings called themselves Vikings and the manner in which the football team has depicted them is historically correct and never as dorks. (Not sure about some drunken fans in the stands but that's besides the point.)

I even disagree about when things are seen as disrespectful to some rather than a caricature like Cleveland. How about the North Dakota Fighting Sioux? Is that more degrading or objectionable that the Illinois Fighting Allin? Why is one OK and the other not?

I just think that the whole issue is a waste of time.