Friday, August 08, 2008

I stand corrected

You Be The Judge

OK, so I exaggerated. There are a few Native Americans left in Wisconsin! (See previous post and comments). I still doubt the Indian-themed motels I passed are owned by Native Americans. As for the casino, well I figure the first peoples need to take revenge on us "white folks" after all the years of oppression and displacement.
I'm just remembering all the fights over whether Indian names and mascots for college ball teams were insulting. I was at Stanford shortly after the school changed its team nickname from the Indian to the Cardinal. The decision was based on the impression that the use of an Indian name and mascot was disrespectful to Native Americans.
The University of Illinois retired its Chief Illiniwek mascot in 2007. Not all Native Americans were opposed to the mascot but the Chief retired anyway. I was amazed to discover in researching this bit of most-important American history, that Chief Illiniwek has a MySpace account. I guess it is nice to know that some fans are truly in touch with their inner children.
So I guess the logic goes, football team mascots are out, motel names are allowable. Or nobody has gotten around to suing for being tacky yet.

4 comments:

Kathe said...

Hayley's school is still battling the mascot issue.

JL said...

In Wisconsin, I have yet to hear about ANYONE being sued for being, as cityfolk put it, 'tacky'.

How dare you accuse us of tackiness for our cheese shack/fireworks shops!

How dare you think beer and shotguns don't go together!

How dare you accuse my county newspaper of being 'tacky' for printing, IN A FREE PUBLIC PAPER a 'LOST CAT' ad announcing, Black and White cat, answers to 'Moolie!'

Oh, God.

I'm a recent arrival from Chicago, and you know what, this place is so tacky it just all gets lost in the swirl.

Take care...

Ouch. That'll larn ya to come to Wiscahnsin. Or even Mwawkee...

Unknown said...

I never said all of Wisconsin was tacky--just the Dells. And I'm speaking as someone who goes to the waterparks on occasion.

JL said...

Nah, it's all pretty tacky. Trust me.

;)