NCAA to rule on use of Indian Nicknames

[Vlyrock]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=678&e=16&u=/usatoday/20050516/sp_usatoday/ncaapondersfutureofindiannicknames

The governing body will conduct the first in a series of summer meetings next month and could decide by August whether it can and should impose a ban on Indian imagery, which critics charge is demeaning and even racist.

Ultimate responsibility falls to the NCAA's highest body, the 17-member Executive Committee, which meets in early August.

Whether the association will or legally must continue to yield to individual campus discretion - as the NCAA does on such matters as minority hiring - is uncertain. Targets range from Florida State (Seminoles) and Utah (Utes) to lower-division institutions with particularly provocative nicknames: Southeastern Oklahoma (Savages) and Carthage, Wis. (Redmen).

[texag005]

Ok, Redmen and Savages... maybe a little harsh, I can maybe understand something with that, but seminoles. I mean seriously it's just a type of Indian. So are they saying that if i was studying about Indian tribes in Florida history, that if I said there was a tribe and they were the seminoles, i would be using racists terminology. That's just a little obsurd if you ask me.

[Vlyrock]

I agree...I wouldn't necessarily say that the name Seminoles is racist, but possibly the way they embody him in the seminole that rides the horse and the students doing the tomahawk chop to drums...that may be offensive to Indians.

I personally don't see anything wrong with it, but I have heard arguments that it's a stereotype and portrays Indians in a negative light. It'd be like having a black person as your mascot with suspenders, afro'd hair, and him doing some kind of booty dance, eating collared greens. Or a white guy with a white t-shirt, pits all stained out, 2 teeth, holding hands with his sister to represent the Whities. These are ridiculous examples (and I'm exaggerating to far extremes to make a point, not trying to be racist) but the examples are using one image to represent an entire race of people...just like Florida State's Seminole, etc.

[Slotback]

This issue has been so overblown by the oversensitive that it has gotten old.

[polish]

This issue has been so overblown by the oversensitive that it has gotten old.

I agree, if you remember when the Braves played the Indians in the World Series, was the last time it was a Major issue.