Post by robeiae on Feb 2, 2018 12:10:55 GMT -5
So, there have been a number of efforts by various parties to get some sports teams to change their team names/logos/mascots across the last several decades. Most of these efforts have revolved around native American team names/logos/mascots and "southern heritage" ones. Some efforts have been more successful than others (so far). Here's ESPN (and HBO Boxing) talking head Max Kellerman on a different one:
Now, that strikes me as relatively straight forward reasoning, whether one agrees with it or not: negative stereotypes of historically marginalized groups shouldn't be used by sports teams, period.
If one accepts the above, the only question to answer is whether or not the given stereotype is negative.
In that regard, read this: www.nd.edu/features/whats-in-a-name/
My sense of the "Fighting Irish" moniker has always been consistent with the above. It represented--in a real sense--a purposeful adoption of a negative stereotype by the group in question. Really, I take "fighting Irish" as a positive stereotype of a people who have suffered and struggled, but who keep fighting, anyway. So I think Kellerman is flat out wrong. What do you think?
"Man Irish Americans are not offended, but many are," Kellerman said of the "fighting Irish" leprechaun logo and the green-clad mascot dancing around on the sidelines of the team's games.
"Should that also change? The answer is yes. Unequivocally yes. Pernicious, negative stereotypes of marginalized people, that offend, even some among them, should be changed. It's not that hard."
"Should that also change? The answer is yes. Unequivocally yes. Pernicious, negative stereotypes of marginalized people, that offend, even some among them, should be changed. It's not that hard."
If one accepts the above, the only question to answer is whether or not the given stereotype is negative.
In that regard, read this: www.nd.edu/features/whats-in-a-name/
According to historian and author Murray Sperber, the most widely accepted explanation of how the nickname settled on Notre Dame sports teams is more gradual but still dramatic. During the 1910s and 1920s, stereotypes and ethnic slurs were openly expressed against immigrants, Catholics and the Irish. The press often referred to Notre Dame teams as the Catholics — or worse, the Papists or Dirty Irish — because the school was largely populated by ethnic Catholic immigrants, many of them Irish. University leaders bristled at such descriptions, and school publications called the team the Gold and Blue or the Notre Damers.
This was also the Knute Rockne era, when the Notre Dame football team first put the small private school on the national map. Rockne’s teams were often called the Rovers or the Ramblers because they traveled far and wide, an uncommon practice before the advent of commercial airplanes. These names were also an insult to the school, meant to suggest it was more focused on football than academics.
Rockne may have been Norwegian, but he had the Irish flair for storytelling and drama. A natural salesman, he hired student press agents to tell the team’s story. Some of them began using the “Fighting Irish” nickname to characterize the underdog tenacity of his teams. They found a way to turn the derisive taunt, with its suggestion of drunken brawling, into an expression of triumph. Some students came to cherish the nickname. By owning the epithet, they transformed it into a symbol of pride. In the 1960s, the same process would be repeated for the leprechaun, which had traditionally been an English caricature of the Irish. Now, it’s the team mascot.
This was also the Knute Rockne era, when the Notre Dame football team first put the small private school on the national map. Rockne’s teams were often called the Rovers or the Ramblers because they traveled far and wide, an uncommon practice before the advent of commercial airplanes. These names were also an insult to the school, meant to suggest it was more focused on football than academics.
Rockne may have been Norwegian, but he had the Irish flair for storytelling and drama. A natural salesman, he hired student press agents to tell the team’s story. Some of them began using the “Fighting Irish” nickname to characterize the underdog tenacity of his teams. They found a way to turn the derisive taunt, with its suggestion of drunken brawling, into an expression of triumph. Some students came to cherish the nickname. By owning the epithet, they transformed it into a symbol of pride. In the 1960s, the same process would be repeated for the leprechaun, which had traditionally been an English caricature of the Irish. Now, it’s the team mascot.
