The pussification of America continues - Illinois retire Chief Illiniwek

[pr_capone]

I am SICK of this PC crap. Watch out tho... the Braves and Chiefs are next.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2796923

URBANA, Ill. -- The University of Illinois swept aside the last vestiges of Chief Illiniwek on Tuesday, voting to retire the mascot's name, regalia and image.

The school will continue to call its sports teams the Fighting Illini under the resolution. Chancellor Richard Herman is to decide how and when Chief Illiniwek's name and image will stop being used and licensed to apparel makers and others.

Activists and some American Indians have long complained the chief is demeaning. Backers defend him as an honorable tradition.

The school decided in February to end performances of the chief, leading the NCAA to lift sanctions that had barred Illinois from hosting postseason sports since 2005. The NCAA had deemed Illiniwek -- portrayed since 1926 by buckskin-clad students who danced at home football and basketball games and other sports events -- an offensive use of American Indian imagery.

Trustee David Dorris offered the only dissent Tuesday among the 10 voting members.

"When you look at Chief Illiniwek and you see hate, shamefulness and embarrassment, perhaps you should sit down and consider where those feelings come from," he said before the vote.

Board chairman Lawrence Eppley voted for the resolution but said he agreed with Dorris' assessment that the chief had been a proud tradition for many years.

"Certainly my vote is not intended to dishonor anybody's memories or to deny the fact that it's been a great tradition," Eppley said.

The board Tuesday also took the unusual step of ratifying the February decision. The earlier decision came without a vote from the board, which Eppley has said wasn't needed. Nonetheless, board spokesman Thomas Hardy said voting now could blunt any legal action claiming there should have been a vote.

A state lawmaker asked the attorney general's office whether making the decision without a vote was legal.

Board members also voted down Dorris' resolution that would have directed the university to join a lawsuit filed by the last two students to portray the chief. The suit asks a judge to determine whether the NCAA could sanction Illinois over the mascot.

Board member Robert pterling told Dorris his resolution would only postpone the inevitable.

"The time has come," he said. "[The chief] bothered a whole lot of people for a long time."

Graduate student Genevieve Tenoso, a Lakota Sioux, told the board before the vote that by not doing away with the chief sooner, they helped create an atmosphere in which she sometimes didn't feel safe.

"I haven't had one single day on this campus when something didn't remind of the Indian you prefer me to be rather than the living, breathing native person that I am," she said.

WTF?!?!?!

She did not feel "safe" because of the mascot of the school??? Also, I love the "the Indian you prefer me to be rather than the living, breathing native person that I am" quote there. ****ing priceless.

[mikey23545]

I bet all the Muhammads of the world are laughing their asses off at us.

[Swanman]

Originally Posted by Skip Towne

So what are the Fighting Illness going to use for a mascot?

I know this is a losing battle trying to educate everyone in the world who is not an alum of Illinois, but Chief Illiniwek was not a "mascot". The Chief was the official symbol of the university and did a 3-minute performance at halftime of sporting events. I know it seems like semantics, but when people hear mascot they usually think of someone in a goofy costume acting like a jagoff on the sidelines, thus strengthening the case against the Chief (not that it matters now).

I hope the school doesn't replace the Chief. As far as the name "Fighting Illini", the asshat protestors want that to go as well, but they don't realize that the name has little to do with Native Americans. Illini is short for Illiniwek, the tribe for which the state was named (so if you want Illini changed, you have to change the name of the state) and the Fighting part was added after WWI because a unit in the US Armed Forces was called the Fighting Illini because they were made up of all students/residents of Illinois, so to honor that unit the school's teams were called the Fighting Illini thereafter.

[Swanman]

Originally Posted by Cochise

I wonder what the ratio is between the two?

9,828,921,834,552,529.123 activists for each 1 Native American, give or take 2.72. From my experiences at Illinois sporting events, most of the activists were either black, asian or white hippies. One thing they all had in common is that they were jagoffs that needed to do something meaningful with their lives other than protesting a time-honored symbol of the university.

[nychief]

Originally Posted by Swanman

One thing they all had in common is that they were jagoffs that needed to do something meaningful with their lives other than protesting a time-honored symbol of the university.

Meaningful with their lives? Ah, the internet.
You know what they should do? They should bitch and moan about meaningless shit on a Kansas City Chiefs message board.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by Swanman

9,828,921,834,552,529.123 activists for each 1 Native American, give or take 2.72. From my experiences at Illinois sporting events, most of the activists were either black, asian or white hippies. One thing they all had in common is that they were jagoffs that needed to do something meaningful with their lives other than protesting a time-honored symbol of the university.

I'm sure it's the cause-of-the-week crowd. It is a university after all. This week it's the school mascot, next week it will be the plight of silkworms that live in captivity, the week after that it will be dust mites who suffer cruel deaths at the hands of vacuum cleaners...

[FAX]

When, oh when, will the Chiefs get the axe?

FAX

[keg in kc]

Yeah, I mean, it's not like millions of Native Americans got wiped out, let's just shit on them too, and make caricatures of what's left of them with these "time honored" mascots.

If the logic applied here is that respecting or even celebrating the past is a form of "pussification," then it logically follows that anybody who celebrates, say, Veteran's Day is a pussy, along with any Civil War buff and anybody who's ever turned on the History Channel.

[Halfcan]

pretty lame

Run to the Hills-run for your Life!!

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

The Kansas City "Native American Individuals Who Sit Atop the Hierarchy"
is gonna be tough to incorporate into a logo.

[StcChief]

or the Chesapeake bay indigenous people

[Sully]

Originally Posted by penguinz

who cares.

Good point.
I wonder if this "pussification" includes whining about stuff like this. I'm convinced that those who use the term "pussification" whine FAR more than anyone they may be referring to.

[PunkinDrublic]

My Dad lives in Champaign and he says they've been trying to get rid of the chief for years.

[Swanman]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

Yeah, I mean, it's not like millions of Native Americans got wiped out, let's just shit on them too, and make caricatures of what's left of them with these "time honored" mascots.

If we are talking about the FSU Seminole mascot or Chief Wahoo, I would agree with you. However, Chief Illiniwek in no way was a caricature of Native Americans. The Illiniwek federation was wiped out in the 1700s by the Ottawa tribe, so one of the few outlets left to educate people about the history of Native Americans in the state was through Chief Illiniwek. Before people got "offended" by the Chief, he used to go to grade schools around the area to teach kids about the history of the state. By killing off the Chief, you kill that off as well.

FSU got away with their horrendous depiction of the Seminole tribe (Native American throwing a flaming spear into the ground) because the Seminole tribe makes lots of money through FSU, thus causing them to sign off that it's okay for FSU to do what they do. It's hypocrisy at its finest.

[Swanman]

Originally Posted by Cochise

I'm sure it's the cause-of-the-week crowd. It is a university after all. This week it's the school mascot, next week it will be the plight of silkworms that live in captivity, the week after that it will be dust mites who suffer cruel deaths at the hands of vacuum cleaners...

Part of it is caused by the causehead crowd, but the main group behind the protests is out of Madison, Wisconsin and they won't be happy until every team is named the Fuzzy Bunnies, although they'd probably find a way to be offended by that as well.

[pr_capone]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

Yeah, I mean, it's not like millions of Native Americans got wiped out, let's just shit on them too, and make caricatures of what's left of them with these "time honored" mascots.

If the logic applied here is that respecting or even celebrating the past is a form of "pussification," then it logically follows that anybody who celebrates, say, Veteran's Day is a pussy, along with any Civil War buff and anybody who's ever turned on the History Channel.

I am part American Indian and there are several teams which use my tribe as part of their team so feel free to shove that up your ass.

BTW, also a veteran and have taken part of the Veterans Day parade as well as volunteered several times at the VA and I still fail to see your "logic".

I can see offence being taken in a situations where a tribe or a single indian is made to look like a fool. That was not the case at all with the Chief.

Logic would dictate that as if in the case of the Chief where the "icon" is used in an honorable manner, then it should not be a problem. You get another school that gets their kicks by using an Indian stumbling around drinking "fire water" as their half-time entertainment... then that is where action needs to be taken.

It is simply a case of political correctness gone awry and it is infuriating. Soon enough people wont be poor but capital deprived, sick people will be health challenged, and people of color will be overly pigment endowed.

Do me a favor and learn about the Chief before you go spouting off about how Indians are made to look bad because of him.

Oh shit... I said Indian instead of Native American!