Washington [racial slurs] name change/local high schools

[garrow]

My urban high school was the Spartans, not that anyone cared about the athletic program. My junior? year, we became the Wolverines. Allegedly, there was a vote. None of my friends remember voting, not even the guy who briefly became the mascot.

Spartan was sort of alliterative with the name of the school, and was also the name of the school paper. I don't recall the mascot ever being mentioned before or since in any other context, not by my dad -- who went to the same high school -- or even when a friend became a coach there.

I have no idea why "Spartans" was objectionable. For the record, we are nowhere near Michigan, nor a wolverine habitat. We would've been better off as Pigeons, Squirrels, or Subway Rats.

My high school was not the Wolverines, but we had their helmet style and maize and blue as our school colors. The older high school in my town had Stanford's color scheme and are still known as the Indians to this day as far as I know.

 

[MileHigh]

My urban high school was the Spartans, not that anyone cared about the athletic program. My junior? year, we became the Wolverines. Allegedly, there was a vote. None of my friends remember voting, not even the guy who briefly became the mascot.

Spartan was sort of alliterative with the name of the school, and was also the name of the school paper. I don't recall the mascot ever being mentioned before or since in any other context, not by my dad -- who went to the same high school -- or even when a friend became a coach there.

I have no idea why "Spartans" was objectionable. For the record, we are nowhere near Michigan, nor a wolverine habitat. We would've been better off as Pigeons, Squirrels, or Subway Rats.

A junior college in SoCal was the Indians up until about 20 years ago when they switched to Wolverines. And, yeah, there isn't a wolverine within thousands of miles of the place.

 

[Tighthead]

A junior college in SoCal was the Indians up until about 20 years ago when they switched to Wolverines. And, yeah, there isn't a wolverine within thousands of miles of the place.

Red Dawn made Wolverines local to anywhere and everywhere.

 

[tonygunk]

Here's a thread from a meeting in Savannah, Missouri, where the Savannah Savages' name had been discussed.



I just don't get the stubbornness of white people to refuse changing the name. What's going to hurt you soooo badly that your racist-ass school mascot is being changed?

 

[Fredrick]

Here's a thread from a meeting in Savannah, Missouri, where the Savannah Savages' name had been discussed.



I just don't get the stubbornness of white people to refuse changing the name. What's going to hurt you soooo badly that your racist-ass school mascot is being changed?

Cause some people think the whole mascot debate and cancel culture is dumb. Did you see Tar Heels name is under fire and so is Rice Krispies. The three elves on the box are white. They also have been on the box since 1940.

 

[Songbird]

Any day now ...

 

[tonygunk]

It's dumb that some teams have nicknames that mock or reduce cultures to a mascot or fight song. If you've read the history of the name "Tar Heel," maybe you'd agree that name lionizes people who fought for the Confederacy. If we are really respecting Black Americans and Native people, that shirt shouldn't fly. It's not "cancel culture"

 

[PCLoadLetter]

The phrase "cancel culture" is just a way for assholes to pretend the real problem is the people telling them to stop being assholes.

 

[Big Circus]

The phrase "cancel culture" is just a way for assholes to pretend the real problem is the people telling them to stop being assholes.

To the extent that "cancel culture" exists (it doesn't), this is actually one of the more impactful instances of it. Usually when people use the phrase, it means "A person whose work I enjoy has retrograde beliefs/did something horrible and someone had the gall to bring it up."

 

[Batman]

Cause some people think the whole mascot debate and cancel culture is dumb. Did you see Tar Heels name is under fire and so is Rice Krispies. The three elves on the box are white. They also have been on the box since 1940.

Haven't heard much in the last month or so, but back in June there was some chatter that LSU and Missouri's mascot -- the seemingly innocent Tigers -- was racist as well, because they originated from Confederate army units that were said to have "fought like tigers" during the Civil War.

 

[MNgremlin]

We have a tiny school in southern Minnesota that merged in the early 90s. They chose the Rebels name by student vote, because there were many kids who were fans of the UNLV Rebels men's basketball team. No mascot was picked at the time, but an early clothing order came back with a mascot similar to UNLV's. Nobody said anything, and it stuck. Now a few alums are trying to get it changed.