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What’s so bad about being a mascot anyway?
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Mascots are a great and wonderful thing. Every sports team and college has a mascot. Heck, so do most countries. Mascots are a symbol that every person belonging to a certain group can identify with. Here in Boise we are particularly proud of our Bronco. Canada gets misty eyed at their maple leaf and what is more heartwarming to Bostonians than a Patriot? Of course, let’s not forget the most famous mascot around these days, the Fightin’ Whites from Greeley, Colorado!
Yes my friends, you heard me right. The Fightin’ Whites. A University of Northern Colorado intramural basketball team has named themselves the Fightin’ Whites in protest of a local high school’s mascot, the Fightin’ Reds. The Fightin’ Whites have as their mascot a middle aged white male with slicked back hair saying “Every thang’s gonna be all white!” The team’s name has already been turned into a more aggressive slang of “The Fighting Whities.”
The basketball team is made up of Native Americans, white folks, and Hispanics. As mentioned before, they are protesting the name “Fightin’ Reds,” which is a mascot for a local high school. They tried unsuccessfully to get the high school to change their mascot to something a little less racially divisive. Members of the team have said that their goal is “to raise awareness of the issue of painful cultural stereotypes.”
There is only one problem with all of this. Everybody thinks this is funny! The name “Fightin’ Whites” is not offensive to us white folk. In fact, I, along with over 1,600 other people, have already contacted this team about T-shirt orders.
Part of the reason I think this is so great is because we white people finally have something honoring us. Whoever thought a middle aged white guy was good mascot material? Most mascots are depictions of people or things that we respect and fear. For example, a bear. When people see a bear charging at them, they get scared because the bear might bite them or claw at them. Heck, now we have people getting afraid of white people in collared shirts. Yes, you watch out, buddy, here comes a white guy and he’s holding a pencil! Do you really want some of this?!
Perhaps what is best about this whole thing is the way in which it has backfired.
Part of the goal was to show white people how it felt to be paraded around as a mascot. The idea here being that white people use names such as Redskins, Braves, and Chiefs as their mascots while never considering how it feels to be a Native American. So, these students figured that they would name their team after white people and make fun of a stereotypical white guy to show us insensitive white folk how it feels.
Well, guess what? We love it! We think it’s great. In fact, these guys must have really upset the crowd that thinks these Indian mascots should be done away with. Think about it. How many times have we heard “How would you like it if you were the subject of a mascot? It is degrading and insensitive, you racist, bigot, homophobic, hate-monger!” Now I can say with certainty how I would feel about it. I feel honored and I think it’s great. It’s about time that somebody honors the white man for all of his accomplishments instead of blaming him for everything.
This is not the way these anti-Indian mascot people wanted us to feel like. They wanted us to be insulted, outraged to the point that we would gather our pitchforks and rip down anything that anybody might find offensive in our town. They wanted us to say, “We apologize to every member of the First Nation for the racially insensitive way we have been honoring you and your culture. Instead of honoring you by making mascots of your people and thereby making our children learn of your people so they might better understand you and we you’ve been chosen as a figure to represent us, we will instead destroy this mascot and never think of you people again. This will be the only way to heal the wounds that have been created.”
Now that my race is the one being ridiculed, I will offer some advice to all other minorities that have been ridiculed. My advice to you is to recognize your differences with other cultures and laugh about them. Here is what we white males face everyday of our lives. We dress like crap. We have no rhythm and cannot dance. We’re rigid and non-athletic. Heck, we even have a movie about how bad we are at sports. (Remember “White Men Can’t Jump”?)
Do we white folk get upset about this at all? No. We laugh about it because it’s true. We see how ridiculous we must be to other races and cultures and we find it funny. Laughter is the best medicine. Perhaps we could make greater strides in bringing cultures together if we would allow people to point out that others are different and sit down with each other and laugh about.
Jerel Thomas
