Quinn McCusker, Jan. 13, 2005

(Opinion: strongly pro-Chief)

            Progressive Resource / Action Cooperative (PRAC) is a group of students and faculty whose sole purpose is removing the University of Illinois mascot, Chief Illiniwek. The group wants the Chief removed because they say he is racist. Their proof? None. Why? He's not racist.

    I thought I'd send them a letter outlining how the average person feels. I'm a little tired of people, usually college students/professors, telling me how to feel and think. This is a typical situation: A very small minority of students is offended by something. The rest of us are racist or prejudice, but we're just too stupid to notice it. Here comes the almighty and all-knowing student organization, armed with the moral high-ground and cultural absolutes, to show us the error of our ways. After they leave, we will thank them for saving us from certain damnation. Were we really stupid enough to put a white guy ... A WHITE GUY ... in an Indian ...oops... Native American hat? That is the most dehumanizing thing ever. We must send everyone who is guilty of backing this thoughtcrime through political re-education. Everyone is to write a 10,000-word apology, receive 1,000 lashes and attend ethnic sensitivity training. If you fail to comply, you will be sent to the Ministry of Truth where you will be tortured ...I know, this is a little much.
        Anyway, before you know it, University of Illinois and Big Ten traditions are changed forever. No one benefits besides PRAC members who will, someday, sit back and recall their college years. The years they went slumming by attending a school stupid enough to call themselves Illini. They will look back with a sense of pride that the University of Illinois became so enlightened by PRAC after over 100 years of not knowing any better. The world is a much better place now.

Dear Progressive Resource / Action Cooperative (PRAC):

       Let me open by saying I think your group sucks. But, I would appreciate it if you could answer a few questions. Please try not to respond in the typical way by dismissing me as "racist" because I dare to disagree with political correctness on a college campus.  

1. If your concern is issues facing people of color, aren't there just a few slightly bigger injustices in the world right now you could spend your time fighting? How about setting up a rally to protest the U.N.'s and America's continuing apathy and inexcusable inaction regarding the genocide in the Sudan? Here's a web site for you: http://www.darfurgenocide.org/

2. By calling Chief Illiniwek "racist", without him first having any negative characteristics in anyone's eyes, aren't you race-baiting to incense others, and quiet dissenters, lest they be called racists? NO ONE agrees with you? (Let's be honest. 100 people at a rally? I saw more people rally outside McDonald's when they got rid of the McRib.)

3. Is this race-baiting cheapening the meaning of racism by associating it with something everyone considers to be a loveable sports figure? Won't this overly-broad definition of racism make people roll their eyes when they hear the word "racism" and not listen when it really matters? Sort of a "Christ, here we go again" attitude? (I'll answer this one for you ...you absolutely are.)

4. Isn't using a certain ethnic group for a mascot a positive thing? People, especially children, love and respect their teams’ mascots. Growing up Irish, I loved the Celtics and the Fighting Irish. None of the non-Irish in my elementary school had teams named after their heritage. Wearing a Notre Dame hat was special to me because one of the best (at that time, anyway) college football team in the country was named for my people. It also made me proud to hear about other things Irish that a normal 10-year-old would find impossibly boring, i.e. how St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Couldn't you apply the same logic to Indians, and others, taking an interest in Indian culture as a result of seeing an Indian figure portrayed in a positive light?

5. Who hates their mascot? NOBODY HATES THIER MASCOT. Nobody except, maybe, Marquette Students. Should've stayed the Warriors. What the hell is a Golden Eagle anyway? Illinois is next if you jerks get your way.

6. How is using an Indian mascot a racial stereotype? In every other instance where people use the word "stereotype" when speaking of race or culture, it is associated with NEGATIVE aspects of the race / culture at issue (Irish fight a lot because they're drunks). What is negative about a traditional (arguably, but solid attempt) Indian head dress? The only negative thing I could possibly take from it is that Indians wear funny hats. Oh no.

7. Do you think you are further marginalizing the most marginalized people in American history? Do you want to shove them completely out of the American spotlight and psyche to the point where the only opportunity Americans have to even think of Indians or their culture is when they're yelling "blackjack!"?

8. On the same token as #6, how can Chief be said to "dehumanize" Indians when this may be the only exposure (that's another sad story) people get of Indian culture, thus making Indians very real and very human? Though it is a pathetically small aspect of Indian culture, I'm sure it will cause more people, especially children, to take an interest in the topic ...at least more people than a bunch of white-guilt, self-righteous elitists wasting their time painting slogans on sheets, who possess the gall to call the rest of us racist.

Lighten up and get a real cause.

Sincerely,

Quinn M. McCusker
Wisconsin, '00
via the web.