COMMENTARY: It's Racist, And Not In Name Only

Argues the moderate-conservative columnist, about the NCAA's recent decision to ban colleges and universities from postseason sports play if their school nicknames or mascots use American Indian names: "We all know that the American government destroyed whatever got in its way and broke treaties with indigenous Indians that would have hampered expansion and economic development. Warlike Indians, such as the Apaches, were overrun, and so were those who were not warlike - the pastoral Nez Perce, for instance. Distinctions between Chief George of the Nez Perce and men like Geronimo, a butcher as cruel as Pol Pot, were not important. They were Indians and they were in the way. Nothing is going to change history, but we should contemplate whether some people are dehumanized so others can have what they claim is 'innocent fun.'...The NCAA had to reverse restrictions upon Florida State University that were imposed with sanctimoniousness dripping from every word. Florida State's mascot name, the Seminoles, had long been approved and supported by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. A complaint against the school, it turned out, was raised by a group of Seminoles in Oklahoma! Apparently, all Indians sounded the same to the NCAA. Distinctions are always the problem and always the goal."

I took some flack by readers for my position last month, but these mascots are racist minstrelsy. Spoken by an alumna of University of Illinois, home of the Fighting Illini. A tribe that is no longer in existence, by the way.