Eric Zorn points out the obvious if the Chief represented another ethnic group
Chief Illiniwek must go.
The University of Illinois should not "honor" American Indian culture in a way that would be unthinkable to "honor" African American culture, Jewish culture, Latino culture, Asian culture or just about any other culture.
No institution with an ounce of sensitivity would paint a white man in blackface and have him perform ceremonial tribal dances at sporting events in honor of The Fighting Africans, dress a gentile like an Orthodox rabbi and have him dance the hora at midcourt in honor of The Fighting Hebrews or otherwise attempt to pay such clumsy tribute to other peoples.
The problem is that the Chief isn’t a clumsy tribute, it isn’t a tribute to the Illini Tribe. It is college custom divorced of any meaning from the Illini tribe or any native American group.
As humorist Jim Mullen once wrote on the subject, "some people sure are touchy about being cheated out of their land, their culture and their dignity."
The land is gone, the culture is in shambles mostly–for those that have visited reservations–life isn’t pretty. Can’t we at least defend their dignity?
Admittedly, this isn’t the worst case, the Washington Redskins run away with that, but it is not acceptable.
To bring up George Will’s favorite example of how such issues are not just political correctness, around thirty years ago Pekin in Central Illinois still called its high school team the Chinks. Can you imagine a white student running around with eyes taped to appear narrow and reenacting some sort of Chinese warrior? Societies evolve, the premier public educational institution in the State of Illinois should be leader in that evolution. Let’s find a way to celebrate the Illini Tribe, not make them caricatures.
its people like you taht are the reason for no more indians