When Political Correctness Backfires

Adam Whetham

Adam Whetham

Sophomore
Jan 11, 2011
140
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Grand Forks, ND
I claim no side to this issue, even though its my home town, I've never gone to the university. I could care less either way it goes.

But in a weird twist. The NCAA made some rulling saying that Native American mascots were "Hostile and Abusive" and has made the local university in my area (University of North Dakota) change it in order to not have any issues in college sports and what have you.

Now the local tribe is annoyed the NCAA is making them change it and is suing the NCAA.

So, how does one offend someone, when the one supposedly being offended is offended someone thinks they're offended?

I think this whole scenario is downright amusing.

One of the Fact Sheets the local Tribe has released.

http://legacy.grandforksherald.com/pdfs/20111101_Lawsuit_Fact_Sheet_Final.pdf
 
Re: When Political Correctness Backfires

I love it. Sort of a glitch in the system?

Never mind the demagogue behind the curtain.
 
Re: When Political Correctness Backfires

John Roberts said:
I hope the Sioux kept mineral rights, lots o' erl and gas in them thar black hills..

The NCAA money is chump change...

JR
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John, isn't that the truth.

The western part of North Dakota has so much money, that the strippers are making 3-5k a night!

I have some friends out there that have more money then they know what to do with. So many jobs out there now that the hardest thing to find is a a place to live.
 
Re: When Political Correctness Backfires

We've got a mining boom here in australia; people in far north parts can earn stupid amounts of money. Like 200+ a year for basic jobs like driving trucks. One fast food outlet had to restrict it's trading hours because it couldn't get enough staff at over $50K a year to flip the burgers.

That said, you can rent a normal sized house for ONLY $2,000 per week ! So if you were making $50K a year, you'd need 3 other housemates and you'd only just pay the rent.

Andrew
 
Re: When Political Correctness Backfires

It's a shame there are lots of potential jobs related to that politically incorrect industry hanging in the balance of political machinations.

I can't even estimate how many jobs but a large bunch in several states just from a pipeline down from canada that is not being welcomed. BP finally got their first permit to drill in the gulf since the spill... but many rigs that were down there left dodge when the drilling stopped. Several of those were $1M a day operations or on that order.

Then there is a ripple effect on the economy if we can get energy prices lower that will help all industries.

Finally, if we can start pumping enough oil to affect the marginal world supply we can break the hold the middle east oil cartel has on prices and really cut energy costs, for the whole world... Libya and Iraq are already ramping up.

But what am I thinking, these aren't green jobs so not PC.

JR

PS Oz is rocking , they even use robots to drive big earth movers for surface mining with guys sitting at a computer screen hundreds of miles away driving the heavy machinery. Oz is supplying a lot of the raw material that China turns into finished goods.
 
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Re: When Political Correctness Backfires

Having grown up in the American Indian community and been the subject of racial slurs and derogatory insults as a child and through high school, I have to agree with the NCAA. The fact that the tribe has succommed to the societal equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome and now believe that racially abusive language is something to be proud of is only proof positive of the depths to which American society has so totally ruined the culture and societies of the native inhabitants of this land. You can (and I do) say the same thing about the use of the N word in the hip hop and urban culture.
 
Re: When Political Correctness Backfires

Justice C. Bigler said:
Having grown up in the American Indian community and been the subject of racial slurs and derogatory insults as a child and through high school, I have to agree with the NCAA. The fact that the tribe has succommed to the societal equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome and now believe that racially abusive language is something to be proud of is only proof positive of the depths to which American society has so totally ruined the culture and societies of the native inhabitants of this land. You can (and I do) say the same thing about the use of the N word in the hip hop and urban culture.
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So which part is derogatory, "fighting," or "Sioux?" Are you saying that the use of "Fighting Sioux" as a mascot is the cultural equivalent to the "N" word? They did fight, bravely, and they are Sioux. Let them speak for themselves, and let the NCAA listen.

In scanning the document that Adam linked to, it appears that the Sioux are struggling (in a good way) to preserve their culture and rights within the legal system that's been handed to them. In this imperfect world, I can think of, and have seen a lot worse ways of responding to injustice than what the Spirit Lake Tribe is displaying in this document. If the "Fighting Sioux" language was truly racially abusive - believe me - the Sioux would be the first to let us know.

Grant
 
Should we also change the name of my city? I may not be full blood but I say the only harm in creating a law about word usage is towards the people its abusive to. First off making it wrong reinforces the discrimination and its all about the tone. So all you politically correct jocks FYI there ain't nothing correct about politics.

Sent from my ADR6300
 
Re: When Political Correctness Backfires

Grant Conklin said:
So which part is derogatory, "fighting," or "Sioux?" Are you saying that the use of "Fighting Sioux" as a mascot is the cultural equivalent to the "N" word? They did fight, bravely, and they are Sioux. Let them speak for themselves, and let the NCAA listen.

In scanning the document that Adam linked to, it appears that the Sioux are struggling (in a good way) to preserve their culture and rights within the legal system that's been handed to them. In this imperfect world, I can think of, and have seen a lot worse ways of responding to injustice than what the Spirit Lake Tribe is displaying in this document. If the "Fighting Sioux" language was truly racially abusive - believe me - the Sioux would be the first to let us know.

Grant
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Hello. Outside perspective here: When using a depiction of a human from a minority as a mascot you automatically exaggerate a few traits about that minority to make the mascot represent the things you are trying to say about your team. Like you said, the Sioux were fighters, so a team might want to identify themselves with that one trait. But any person or people is more complex than a cardboard figure, so you're doing them a disservice by making them mascots. Mascots are one step away from pets.

I can't possibly imagine having an Australian Aboriginee as a mascot for a team there, Aussies, correct me if I'm way off.

PS: I know Vikings are used as mascots also and I think people would object to that also if there actually was still a Viking culture around. That culture is extinct so us decedants sometime like to identify ourself with some of their traits and I guess that's "great", even if the better traits they had are largely unknown. Here, some people go to ball games wearing dinky plastic Viking helmets, but I object since the Vikings weren't very nice people when it comes down to it, so to me it's like Germans wearing swastikas to a ball game 1000 years from now. I hope something like that never happens.
 
Re: When Political Correctness Backfires

While I'm tempted to just say enough already, grow a pair and move on, words and images do have consequences as they affect impressionable masses, who are hollow vessels waiting to be filled with nonsense (like the current political mud slinging and class warfare).

OTOH people who believe they are smarted than the masses want to control the messages in hope they will control the masses. (I am breaking one of my own rules here by presuming to know the motives of others, but since I am not naming names I give myself a pass).

Did anybody notice http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-02/..._1_islamic-law-bfm-charlie-hebdo?_s=PM:EUROPE French magazine office burned out due to cartoon. While a bit of a stretch cultures are often in conflict and some take that more seriously than others.

IMO wearing viking hats to a sports game is pretty harmless, certainly preferable to those horns, while swastikas are closely identified with a pretty dark political movement. I am more concerned about the derivatives of that political movement that are still around (like the Bathists in middle east and neo-nazis in the west).

I remain a strong advocate of free speech, but appreciate that this speech is not without consequences. So people are free to speak, but are still responsible for the consequences of what they say (fire in a theater, libel, inciting violence, etc). It is the nature of having so many lawyers in our culture that so many perceived injuries will be pursued for redress.

JR
 
Re: When Political Correctness Backfires

Jordan Lahr said:
Should we also change the name of my city?
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Yes.

I may not be full blood but I say the only harm in creating a law about word usage is towards the people its abusive to.
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Doesn't matter if you are full blooded or no blooded. It's about respect and reverence for those who died before you trying (and in this instance failing) to protect their culture, history and way of life. The "Sioux" people never called themselves, "Sioux". They called themselves, Lakota, or Dakota, or more specifically Oglala, or Miniconjou, or Hunkpapa, or any of several others. "Sioux" originated in the ignorant and hate filled speech used by the people who were trying to (and succeeding) in committing genocide up that particular group of people. Yes, the term "Sioux" has some etymological evolutionary similarities as the N word, and my Lakota friends (people who are full blooded and did grow up on the Reservation, and carry the language and oral history with them today) absolutely hate the term. The fact that people from this culture have come to often refer to themselves by the term "Sioux" is a sick and twisted trick payed upon them by history.

Again, just more proof of the low depths to which the native inhabitants of the Americas have been ground and pulverized into all but the finest of dust in order to have them and their culture swept away by the winds of history. It would be better to have the last traces of American Indian genetics, history, culture and language dissappear forever, than to only keep it alive in such a derogatory manner as sports mascots.
 
Re: When Political Correctness Backfires

A friend of mine said a few weeks ago that we just change it to the fighting Bohemians, Fighting Swedes, or Fighting Norwegians. Seeing as that's what most of the ancestry is around here. The NCAA doesn't seem all that offended by the Fighting Irish, so we should be cool there in his mind.

His logic as skewed as it is (he's a supporter of the nickname) does hold a small bit of merit in the fact that the Irish were persecuted when they came over here. Though not anywhere close to the amount the native american tribes were.

Having friends from the Spirit Lake tribe, most are also divided. Most of the younger crowd has no issue with it. I would assume its because they have grown up with it their whole life. Where as the older generation has pro's and con's to both sides. But mostly con's.
 
Re: When Political Correctness Backfires

For today's absurd political correctness report, in CA bug huggers and fish huggers are fighting each other over preserving fish or the bugs they would endanger if reintroduced to their habitat.

The apparent argument against the fish is that people enjoy fishing, while it's hard to enjoy bugs the same way. Any behavior that is fun, must be bad, and prevented..

JR
 
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