OPINION & EDITORIAL
Chief Illiniwek and his band of brigands
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Thursday, March 21, 2002
Chief Illiniwek is an awful caricature of an idea, a stereotypical idea foisted on society as a whole by an ignorant, apathetic group incapable of seeing the wrong they perpetrate on an ancient culture. Chief Illiniwek has been at the heart of controversy for a long time, and later this week his divisive character will roll into town along with his basketball team.
For those of you who don’t know, the chief is the mascot of the University of Illinois — Champaign-Urbana’s Fighting Illini. Everything about Illiniwek is offensive to someone, although it doesn’t seem he will be going anywhere soon. While Illinois is inside warming up for the team’s NCAA tournament Sweet Sixteen game against Kansas, students and other activists who feel deeply affected by the image of Indian mascots will be outside trying to be heard.
The problem is, nobody will be listening.
This is not a new issue. People have been upset with the way Native Americans are portrayed in the public realm for years, and some changes have been made. All over the country, teams with traditionally Indian names and images have seen the error of their ways and changed. In fact, in the early to mid-1990s it was almost en vogue, if your name was “The Braves,” to change it to some innocuous (and often ridiculous) moniker no one could find fault with.
Over time, this trend slowed and has all but stopped — which brings us to the present and the current argument over Illinois and their justifiably maligned figurehead. Chief Illiwinek prances — yes, prances — around the basketball court at halftime doing some indecipherable dance and making what I can only assume are supposed to be Native American gestures. Chief Illiniwek is a student wearing full headdress and animal skins, performing those crazy crowd-pleasing antics mascots are supposed to do at sporting events. Chief Illiniwek makes me sick.
Supporters of Illiniwek and his ridiculous shtick claim he is used to honor Native Americans, so there should be no offense taken. Now, I’m not exactly the quickest person, but it seems to me the best judge of what is and what is not offensive would be Native Americans themselves.
Another argument is that detractors are blowing the seriousness of a harmless image all out of proportion. It may not be the most important thing to me, but then again no one is using “Sambo” or the “Fighting Negroes” as a name or an image to sell tickets.
The chief will probably never go away — not because the University of Illinois doesn’t realize he is the poster child of racist propaganda, but because rich alumni have pledged to pull their support if he is removed. UW has a policy of not allowing what it considers offensive mascots onto campus, so the Fighting Illini will be playing in Madison this weekend sans Chief Illiniwek. Thus, an injustice will miss its chance to be brought to the attention of the nation.
Across the country, however, something has occurred to finally catch the public’s attention in this matter.
At the University of Northern Colorado a group of students was fed up with the local high school’s mascot, the “Fighting Reds.” After repeatedly asking the school to change its name, the students decided to try a different tack. They decided to name their intramural basketball team the “Fighting Whities,” replete with t-shirts that read “Everythang’s going to be all white.”
“The message is, let’s do something that will let people see the other side of what it’s like to be a mascot,” said Solomon Little Owl, director of Native American Student Services at UNC.
This team of three Native Americans, two Hispanics and five white kids has done something the media and all sorts of well-intentioned but off-base activists were never able to do. The team has framed this issue in a way that is understandable to all.
White people may not exactly be offended by the name the “Fighting Whities,” but they may be a little closer to understanding the connotation some team nicknames may have on a specific culture. In a world where political correctness is more important than discerning the causal relationship between words and actions, this approach is a much-needed change.
Where does this leave us? As a society, hopefully more people will be more conscious of the effect symbols have on the psyche of entire groups. For me, being a journalist means I have no original thoughts, so you will soon be hearing about the new intramural softball team called the “Awful Populist Liberal Warriors.”
James P. Kent (jkent@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in economics and business management.
