While I agree with your larger point about the national victimhood, I disagree with this point. Team nicknames do not need to be fierce. They originally started organically you see lots of great non-fierce nicknames from the oldest colleges/teams. For example, Sooners, Yankees, Hoosiers, Dodgers, Buckeyes, Lakers, Steelers, FTPackers, Cornhuskers, Celtics, Knicks, on and on and on. Colors were a popular choice too, Red Sox, White Sox, Reds, Orange(men), etc… there’s nothing fierce about those. Some of the best newish names aren’t fierce either, Blues, Jazz (better when they were in NO obviously), Saints, Astros, Oilers when they were around, Trailblazers, etc…
To me a nickname should really signify the place where the team is. That’s why Jazz was great when the team was in New Orleans but makes no sense in Utah. The Sooners could only be a team from central Oklahoma. Those are the best.
And give me Pelicans over generic Tigers, Jaguars, Bulldogs, Wildcats, etc… Besides, a Pelican will f*ck you up. Do not get one angry.
This is a beautiful comment. It shows that when people stop and think about how things affect others, and don’t just focus on their myopic personal experience with things, they can change. I don’t think I will ever care about the phrase ‘going Dutch.’ But if over the years it morphs into a pejorative for something negative, and it hurts groups of people (not just a single rabble rouser), I will stop using it. It is just common decency, which sometimes I think gets overshadowed by ‘common sense.’
Change the name to the “Piscataway”, the tribe that inhabited that area, actually they still do.
Show reverence and respect.
Same for the “Chief’s”. Rename them the “Comanche”.
If 75% of them say it’s not offensive, but 25% don’t like it, should the team kowtow to the minority who are butt hurt?
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Yes. Next question?
I know that wasn’t really a question, but more of a statement, so let me add an analogy. If you blast music in three people’s ears and ask, “does this hurt your ears?” If two say yes and one says no, do you go “well, it doesn’t bother most of you, so I am going to keep doing it”. Or do you just stop doing it?
I don’t need another analogy. You are the kind of person that focuses on your own personal gratification, and doesn’t think about others. Therefore, instead of letting people appreciate the ‘Gods of the North’ on their own terms, you make them resent Geddy’s siren voice. Thanks for ruining Rush for other people.
Yeah sorry, that was not a well articulated point on my behalf.
What I meant to say was, while we can use words to identify a particular subset of humanity and we can say black people or white people or brown people, when the nickname of a team is just one mundane feature of the people it’s supposed to represent, it becomes absurd. So, Washington Whitey? Can you imagine a team called the Birmingham Blacks? I’m not swayed by “tradition” because history is not clearly on the side of tradition on this particular issue. I think it should be changed, but if Native Americans are cool with it, whatever. I don’t know the answer to that, but it’s clear it’s a simple thing to rectify.
Maybe the 75% of native American Indians who support the team keeping the name are being reasonable and the 25% unreasonable?
Let’s look at it from a different perspective.
I find drag queen story time to young children offensive. Gay pride marches, especially where they have people walking down the street barely clothed in S&M bondage gear or dildos displayed, highly offensive. A lot of people feel the same way as I do.
So, using your logic, because I’m (and many others are) offended, there shouldn’t be drag queen story hours or gay pride marches.
The problem is that once you travel down the slippery slope of banning everything that subjectively offends someone, you’d have to ban everything.
In a free society, where the First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, one must tolerate those parts of society which are rough around the edges. That’s why the Supreme Court, in 1971, said Illinois Nazis could march in a highly Jewish neighborhood.
After all the hullabaloo and publicity, about 50 people showed up and the Nazi march was largely ignored.
Upper Iowa University has already taken the name, “Fighting Peacocks”, but I assume if you donate enough to have the library named after you that they would let you use it.