What's in a name?

There was a lot of talk in recent years about team nicknames. Is the Cleveland American League Baseball Team being disrespectful of Native Americans by using the nickname Indians and having a logo with an Indian caricature? Is the University of Illinois being disrespectful by calling their teams the “Fighting Illini” and having Chief Illiniwek do a traditional dance on the basketball court at halftime? Was the Washington Professional Basketball Team really promoting violence in the nation’s capital by naming their team the Bullets? (Sure they were, so let’s fix the problem by changing the team name to the Wizards. That shouldn’t cause any issues in a city that is predominantly African American.)

We (as a country) basically commit genocide and then want to use “Indians”, “Braves”, “Redskins”, “Fighting Illini” and say that these tribes and people are being “honored”. Perhaps we should have honored them from the beginning by not taking their land, attacking them for no other reason than they had what we wanted and making them basically a Third World Country when they were, in fact, a great nation.

Even the team names a little closer to home can come into question. Dem Rebels can be viewed as a politically incorrect name, especially with the sabers on the logo (coupled with the fact that in the original Rebel logo, from years ago, a modified version of the Stars and Bars) and that somehow the Rebels support racism and slavery. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rebel was the first (and only) word that came to mind when I put my initials together (REB). Certainly I was in a hurry to come up with a great name and get away from the colossal mistake of the Electric Eels from 1984 (Full name: BEN T’s ELectric Eels).

The decision makers on whether a mascot or team name is offensive should be the group that the team name represents, NOT the US Government, PETA, Oprah or any other group trying to get their name in the papers.

Personally I think that alcohol and guns should be outlawed and NEVER used. But then I don’t drink and am not into firearms. If those two items were to be outlawed – no skin off my nose, I wouldn’t even miss it. But if someone came along saying that Fantasy Baseball and Red Licorice are bad for society, I would be picketing, sitting in, and fighting THE MAN any way I could think of. Point is, the people doing most of the bitching about team names and mascots:
A) Aren’t from that ethnic group,
B) Don’t have much intelligence, and
C) Don’t care if the mascot/team name goes away because they are not tied to it.

College football, baseball, professional football and any other organized sports group should sit down with leaders from the groups whose names, nicknames, culture is being used and find out if the leaders and their nation/society/people are offended. If they are, change the team nickname. If they aren’t, use the nickname and everyone else shut the hell up.