We have been discussing the dropping of mascots and team names due to claims of cultural appropriation and insensitivity. The latest school to do so is Marist College which is dropping the upstate New York school’s longtime mascot “Shooter the Fox.” Marist Athletic Director Tim Murray said that “Unfortunately, in our culture today, there is a negative stigma to that term ‘shooter.’ And I just didn’t think it was appropriate for us at this time to perpetuate that term.” However, Shooter would often appear at basketball games to “shoot” baskets. Now “Shooter the Fox” will be called “Frankie the Fox.” Does this mean that we will change the lexicon of basketball to drop references to “shoots?” Marist students can now be described as taking a Frankie for a basket.
Murray however set the standard quite low: “if our mascot creates any issues with any person, it’s not worth having that nickname.” Really, any person? What if PETA objects to the Fox? Is that now the standard? Anyone objecting will force a change regardless of the conflict with historical or objective meaning.
What do you think?
Communists conduct biased, incoherent cultural revolutions to consolidate power.
Resolute people don’t let terrorists win.
We are the fighting “Jellyfish”!
“if our mascot creates any issues with any person, it’s not worth having that nickname”
They don’t even try to be reasonable.
Maybe they should just change the Fox’s name to Shootie McShootface.
FraidyCat the Fox!
This sounds too much like Franken the Fox
I think the college president found himself an athletic director who will roll over and play dead without being asked.
This is a very strange story. From the WaPo:
“Earlier this year, Marist College’s media department posted an April Fools’ news release jokingly saying it was going to switch out its mascot Shooter the Fox for Gary the Groundhog. Seven months later, however, at least a part of the joke has become reality, but the reason is far from funny. Citing the increasing frequency of mass shootings and gun violence across the country, the upstate New York school’s longtime mascot Shooter the Fox quietly became Frankie the Fox this weekend.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/11/14/growing-gun-violence-leads-new-york-college-to-change-mascots-name-from-shooter/?utm_term=.051bb7accdce
The April Fool’s “joke”:
“The college plans to take simple initiative that would result in turning Shooter the Fox, the current school mascot, to “Gary the Groundhog,” since the school is heavily saturated with groundhogs on campus.”
http://sga.marist.edu/news/Marist%20College%20Drops%20$15.2%20Million%20to%20Get%20Rid%20of%20Shooter%20the%20Fox
They should have actually made the move to Gary the Groundhog. It is more fitting. Groundhogs are pests who live underground in a safe burrow. Pests with safe spaces.
One day when the world is perfect, we will finally have team “A” play team “B”. But don’t worry team “C”, the game that “A” and “B” play wont count for anything so you will still feel safe and not intimidated. But I guess in a perfect world even using letters would be racist since why use English letters? Maybe all mascots and names should be just random pixels that a computer generates. The program for the random generator would have to be designed by a interracial panel of programmers though, since we wouldn’t want any smart white privilege only programmers showing their obvious bias in random pixel generation.
More vapid slacktivism.
The ceaseless parade of complaints about words being violence, or the “violent connotations” of a mascot’s name, have led me to the conclusion that those in charge of higher education in this country are insufficiently acquainted with actual violence.
I’m still calling a spade a spade.
People with comfort zones need to be locked up on mental wards.
Knox College is in Galesburg, Illinois. Their mascot name was Siwash. They changed it for some reason. I do not know what a Siwash is or was.
Derogatory reference to Amerindians of the Pacific Northwest coastal region.
Thanks for da clarification.
Well, the legend is that Bombers was actually named after a WWII bomber the city raised money to buy for the war effort. (this is debated) But since the Manhattan Project’s Hanford facility was nearby, I suppose a mushroom cloud makes sense.
Even large chemical explosions produce mushroom clouds.
Obviously
Marxist College
It’s another degenerate residue of what was once the Catholic college system.
What do you do with the que stick in the game of pool?
David Benson – cue sticks make handy weapons in bar fights. You break them in half and grabbing the lower staff, they have a nice whip-like effect on your opponent. You don’t have to get as close in as you do when fighting with broken beer bottles. Much like having an extended police baton.
Spoken like a man with practical experience.
bfm – the police are not going to get there for 10-15 so it is every drunk for themselves. 😉
“What do you do with the que stick in the game of pool?”
Ummmm … I believe you stroke it, as in Minnesota Fats stroked the que with precision.
Now where is that fox?
“if our mascot creates any issues with any person, it’s not worth having that nickname.”
Doesn’t Frankie the Fox belittle or even ridicule all the Franks, Francis, and Franklins of the world. Of course it does.
It is absolutely essential that you change the name Frankie the Fox to prevent further harm and emotional distress from damaging the many Franks and Francis who have done so much to support Marist.
Good luck finding a new inoffensive name for the fox.
Agreed! And Frankie is the nickname for the Pope, so “Frankie the Fox” is obviously anti-Catholic! Lol!
I think the person or people complaining should have to write a 500-page paper explaining exactly how they were ‘triggered’ and how it is going to significantly impact them. This is just PC rum amock again.
What do I think? I don’t want to ever hear the word “appropriate” again. What is it even newspeak for at this point? It’s lost all meaning. Is this the backdrop that creates the perfect stage for a “great orator”? Doesn’t nature abhor a vacuum? And “uncomfortable” who talks like this? Who even thinks they have a right to be comfortable in the first place? I don’t know anyone who talks like this let alone cares about these things.