Chief Illiniwek's Last Dance

[MikeyPatriot]

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Whether or not you think it's offensive, I think the idea of a white person dressing up as a native American and performing a dance ritual during a sporting event halftime is highly inappropriate.

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Why? It's not done mockingly.
The act of imitating something else is not by default offensive. Of course, depending on how it's done, it can be offensive. But it's not inherently so.

Why in the hell would it matter what race the person is who's doing it?

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It doesn't matter if it's done mockingly or not. It's a sporting event. There's no reason to have any sort of dancing.

I don't care much for halftime entertainment in general, but if the school wanted to invite a local tribe to perform a dance, I'd be fine with that.

Also...you don't see how race matters here? Let's pretend there was a team called the Alabama Africans. Let's pretend, however ridiculous this would be in this example, that the team name was accepted as honoring people of African heritage. Would a white guy dressing up in traditional African garb performing a drum routine be appropriate halftime entertainment?

[wh1t3bread]

I read somwhere that the Peoria Tribe asked that the costume not be used anymore. At one point I think they said it was okay, and now they changed their mind (which is something that they are entitled to do). If that is the case then yeah, I don't have a problem with Chief Illiniwek being retired.

[IlliniLou]

If we get rid of the nickname fightin illini i might hurt someone. thats frickin ridiculous.
also about taco bell on green street, go to Los Amigos, its real good and get the torta el rez.
where that old burger kind was (god that service sucked), they should put a damn white castle, the nearest white castle is in St. Louis

[CrazyEyez]

The guy who wears the costume for the MN Twins probably isn't really a twin.
[img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[DrewDevil]

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The guy who wears the costume for the MN Twins probably isn't really a twin.
[img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

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These are just stupid ridiculous red herrings that have nothing to do with the debate. Do you see why?

[thirstyforwater]

ha, the Twins Mascot is a bear

[CrazyEyez]

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The guy who wears the costume for the MN Twins probably isn't really a twin.
[img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

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These are just stupid ridiculous red herrings that have nothing to do with the debate. Do you see why?

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It's relevant to the debate over whether or not it matters if the people portraying a mascot are actually the same race/heritage/occupation as the mascot.

[thirstyforwater]

I can confirm that the person who was in the TC Bear costume was not in fact a bear. I played in a mascot game with him several years ago at a Minnesota Wild game.

[Dids]

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The guy who wears the costume for the MN Twins probably isn't really a twin.
[img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

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These are just stupid ridiculous red herrings that have nothing to do with the debate. Do you see why?

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It's relevant to the debate over whether or not it matters if the people portraying a mascot are actually the same race/heritage/occupation as the mascot.

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No, it's not. It's a horrible strawman argument.

There's basically two kinds of people:

1- People who can see why this would be considered offensive, even if they don't specifically agree that it is.

2- Drooling idiots.

I'm somewhat flabbergasted that it's taken this long to realize that treating people who white america [censored] gennocided and marginiziled this way isn't ok. Hi, we stole your land, we killed a fuckload of you, and we're also going to jack your culture and make it a halftime show?

[illini43]

I agree with Did's points.

The number of upper middle-class subarnbanites here who are fighting this is ridiculous. I fit this description as well, but unlike most, I'm not getting my undies twisted over this.