My latest in PJ Media:
Given the relatively recent demise of the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians, the Minnesota Vikings should be looking over their shoulder. Western Washington University (WWU), which also has a Viking mascot, is considering dropping it because it’s colonialist and white supremacist and all that, and if they do, the NFL team may soon afterward have to play as the Minnesota Football Team for a while.
The College Fix reported Thursday that “Western Washington University may scrap its Viking mascot and is currently conducting an investigation to help make a final decision on the issue. The effort was spawned in part from requests asking the public university to remove the names of four buildings on campus due to racism concerns,” one of which is the Viking Union.
A “strong majority” of WWU’s Legacy Review Task Force recommended that the Viking Union be renamed: “The Task Force was concerned about the harm caused by asking all members of the Western community to identify with a figure that is potentially exclusive on the basis of both ethnicity and gender.” Not only is the Viking a white male, that is, a member of not one but two taboo groups, but he is an imperialist: “Furthermore, the Task Force found names idolizing conquest as out of line with the university’s contemporary values around honoring local Indigenous communities. Task Force members who did not recommend renaming in this report proposed the building name be evaluated alongside the mascot by a separate committee.”
In line with the Task Force recommendations, the WWU Board of Trustees ordered university officials “to conduct a more thorough assessment of the Viking name in the broader context of the University mascot.”
That’s great, but it’s hard not to notice that the entire mascot brouhaha, from beginning to end, is not only stupid; it’s incoherent. The Redskins and Indians were forbidden because the use of Native Americans as mascots was supposedly degrading and dehumanizing. The names had to go because they were demeaning and insulting. All over the country, teams at all levels dropped their Indian-related names in order to show their respect and regard for American Indians.
At the same time, however, teams all over the country have dropped their Crusader nickname because they don’t want to seem to be glorifying the Crusaders, which in modern myth (and not remotely in reality) were rapacious, imperialist, unprovoked attacks upon peaceful, wise, indigenous Muslim people. The schools that bore the Crusader name didn’t want to appear to be supporting such actions by white supremacists against innocent people of color, so the Crusaders had to go. And now it’s a similar situation at WWU with the Vikings: Western Washington University doesn’t want to appear to be “idolizing conquest.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
Namer says
How about they rename themselves The Eunchs or Trangenders or The Mentally Deranged. Either name would accurately reflect the people in the school fighting to change the mascot.
mortimer says
‘There is no fun in Islam. There are no jokes in Islam.’ – Ayatollah Khomeini
Now the same applies to the new, intolerant Wokist culture. No fun. No jokes.
Soon they will ban football because mostly men like it.
gravenimage says
I wouldn’t be surprised, Mortimer…
Mike says
the real issue is these children needed to the disciplined when they were children. the example just like Soros’s DA that let criminals go without consciences. same results instead of a gun now it’s a key board and a blanket with this be allowed to be posted I guess not waits of time
gravenimage says
What?
mortimer says
Historically, the Vikings were not imperialists or colonists. They were a bunch of poor Danes, Swedes and Norwegians who went on raids to bring home expensive items to their wives. They rowed up the rivers of Europe swiftly, grabbed what they could and dashed away as quickly as possible before the local gendarmerie could organize a counterattack. The Vikings were a bunch of thieves. They were not organized colonists.
The kingdoms of Norway and Denmark did, however, organize imperial ventures and those projects WERE NOT COMPOSED of Vikings, but Norwegian, Swedish and Danish soldiers hired by the king.
‘VIKING’ was not something you ‘were’, but something you DID. They ‘went viking’ … that is ‘raiding’.
‘Viking’ is a great name for a football team, because they steal in swiftly to their goal with gusto, dash and determination. ‘Viking’ was never a synonym of ‘white supremacism’, because they never were. They were impoverished thieves and traders who victimized other white Europeans and then brought their stolen trade goods from place to place to sell. They did not always come as thieves, but also as pedlars.
PRCS says
Good points to remember next Leif Erickson day.
Mateen says
If the Vikings must rename themselves, I suggest the “Wilted Pansies”.
Infidel says
Any implications of racism against the Vikings is as laughable as the accusations of racism at Kyle Rittenhouse. Yeah, the Vikings raped and pillaged, but all their victims were White, just like Rittenhouse’s were, mainly in England and Northern Europe. The people w/ the most reason to hate the Vikings would be descendants of the English, Scots and Welsh, but they’ve for 200 years ignored all that, and it’s not for a want of power
Given how islamic Minnesota has gotten, maybe they could create the Minneapolis Shababs, after the Somalian al Shabab jihadist group, in honor of Comrade Ilhan Abullahi
Wellington says
More idiocy. More eradication of Western history.
Again I ask when have American Indians apologized for all of their sins—cannibalism, human sacrifice, their own slave systems, butchery overall?
When have Asian societies apologized for their sins, whether by the Japanese who considered themselves the divine race or the Chinese who have enslaved so many (including many of their own people)?
How about sub-Saharan African tribes who have butchered and enslaved one another, a recent example being what occurred in Rwanda in 1994?
And of course, number one here is the Islamic world which has never apologized for anything even though it has a voluminous amount to apologize for? Massive amounts of slavery, the treatment of non-Muslims per warped Islamic law as the equivalent of human waste, massive destruction of Christian, Hindu, Buddhist houses of worship, et al.
So utterly tired of how the West, which actually produced the single greatest civilization of all time, is again and again the only civilization excoriated, pulled down, denigrated, etc. What a phony and hypocritical world we live in.
In any case, just one more reason why I no longer watch virtually any organized sports, none more so than the NFL which I used to admire and enjoy a great deal. Now I say to the NFL, eff you.
gravenimage says
+1
Spideyweb1 says
Bada bing +1
James Lincoln says
Back in the 1960s, my father brought my brother and I into Boston Garden many times to see the Boston Celtics – right in the middle of their dynasty. We always had good seats, right near the scorekeeper.
I remember my dad saying “you’ll never ever see basketball played like this again” – and he was right, with the great Bill Russell leading the charge it was all about the team, not individuals. And no politics.
Come to think of it, in “woke” 2022, the Boston “Celtics” evoke Irish Catholics!
They’ll be the next to go…
gravenimage says
More Mascot Madness: The Next Target is the Vikings
……………
Robert Spencer is right–this whole thing is stupid and incoherrent. Team and mascot names were picked to be fun and usually to indicate that the team is tough. Absolutely *no one* has shown that Viking names or mascots indicate a desire to raid anyone and kidnap women.
By the way, my brother recently got a 23 & Me test that shows that we have a small amount of Scandanavian DNA–given that we are mostly British, this probably came from Viking invaders. Does this mean that now, a thousand years later, I am offended by the use of “Viking” for sports teams? No, because I’m not insane.
We have serious issues we are facing *right now*–the threat of Islam most of all. But so many people are distracting themselves with this sort of twaddle. Just depressing.
OLD GUY says
There is just way to many nuts with access to the electronic media. Maybe we need to change the names of cities and states that reflect ethnic or cultures. Maybe we should take all of those words out of our language? Or how about we just stop communicating with language and written words and just grunt.
somehistory says
Those who are giving in to this stupidity, should ask those demanding that they give in to the stupidity,
“So, just who in the past…..centuries or more…should be put in to statue form to represent your million different fabrication of *genders* and other fantasies?”
And, “What names from the past will *evoke* images of representations of your fantasy of fabricated *genders* and *races*?”
Tell these lunatics that they must come up with names of individuals from past centuries…must be at least 300 years from the past…to replace those on buildings, streets, teams, etc. and that each of these must be verifiable by respected historians….from the past centuries…not the present one.
And when they can’t, just say, “No” to their stupid demands.