Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

No Justins, No Peace

“woke” is the new caravan.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Republicans in disarray!

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

He really is that stupid.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

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Reader Interactions

169Comments

  2. 2.

    Cermet

    But I know a guy who is friends with someone who had a roommate who’s sister once dated an indian and he was fine with those sport references … .

  3. 3.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    Cleveland doesn’t wear the “Smilin’ Sam” cap any longer- it’s just a big block “C” now.

  4. 4.

    Another Botsplainer

    Dan Snyder (more likely Lanny Davis), wrote an open letter to Racist Football Team Nation about changing the name in the WaPo. Deadspin tore him a new one.

  5. 5.

    Chyron HR

    One of These Things is Not Like the Other

    Yeah, the Chinamen can’t field for shit this season.

  6. 6.

    E

    The New York Jews should have Pontius Pilate and Jesus Christ as their mascot. A long-haired guy (white guy, like Jesus was) in a bathrobe or loincloth can run around on the field carrying a cross and Pontius Pilate can chase him while the crowd imitates the motion of a Roman nailing Jesus to the cross.

    All of this would be done with the deepest respect for Jews and Christians alike, mind you.

    On the other hand, I may be a hypocrite because although I would not be caught dead at a Cleveland Indians (or Redskins) game I would totally go see the NY Jews, especially if they had those mascots. Thank you postmodernism!

  8. 8.

    Napoleon

    @Cermet:

    I live in Cleveland and I have seen people who are obviously Native American, or Central or South American with an extremely heavy dose of native blood with that version of the Chief Wahoo hat on (the older version is actually much more racist).

  11. 11.

    burnspbesq

    I wonder how this analysis would apply to some future match between Ajax Amsterdam and Tottenham Hotspur, when you have a stadium full of fans all trying to yell “We’re the Yids!” louder than the anyone else.

  13. 13.

    Belafon

    We should make this easier: Any team that has a Native American implied name should have to find a tribe that they negotiate the rights to use the name, which will obviously involve money. The Redskins have to negotiate with all of them.

  17. 17.

    KG

    Rick Reilly had a column on this a couple weeks ago. It’s not as clear cut as some people think.

    Also, just for historical reference, the team was founded in Boston, it was called the Braves because it shared a stadium with the then Boston Braves. It moved a couple years later and found a home with the Red Sox, to keep the name in line with it’s new co-tenants, it was changed to Redskins. The current logo, by the way, isn’t much different from the buffalo nickel heads.

  19. 19.

    flukebucket

    Just had the owner of the company I work for bemoaning the fact that there are only 800,000 government workers currently laid off. I asked him if he would rather it be 2 million and reminded him that unemployed people did not buy the stuff we sell. He looks at me like I am from another planet but one of these days I trust that the light will come on in his head. I honestly can’t figure out why business owners get so giddy when workers get fired or lose their jobs. They just can’t seem to figure out that we are all connected and when one gets screwed in a small and sometimes in huge ways it screws us all.

  23. 23.

    El Caganer

    I’ve wondered for some time how Cleveland was able to get Der Sturmer to create their Native American.

  24. 24.

    Ahh says fywp

    I would root for tge New York Yids, but ghost of Sandy Koufax needs to be the mascot.

    I think tgis image is brilliant, though, and Redskins is worse, we all know what the equiv word is and it aint Hebe.

    Wondering if someone will do up a Boston Paddies with a hoodlum mascot… Getting chased by an eqyally Hibernian policeman with a baton or lobbing rocks at a BPS school bus? Decisions, decisions.

  25. 25.

    Citizen_X

    Off-topic on his open thread: has anyone watched that show “Hostages?” You know, where (I gather from the ads) some subversive FBI guy takes some surgeon’s family hostage, and tells her to let the President die during scheduled surgery, or he’ll kill her family?

    Does that strike anybody as way-too-thin a metaphor for the shutdown/default plan to kill the President’s prime accomplishment?

    (Note: I haven’t watched it because I thought, “How do you stretch this out a whole season?” Its ratings suggest people agree, at least on the not watching.)

  26. 26.

    Cacti

    @flukebucket:

    Just had the owner of the company I work for bemoaning the fact that there are only 800,000 government workers currently laid off.

    800,000 are sitting at home, but it’s more like 2 million that aren’t getting paid. “Essential” just means required to show up for work without guarantee of compensation.

  27. 27.

    catclub

    @KG: The thread in LGM was pretty informative.

    “There is a difference between Warrior and Redskin” is my less than subtle gloss on it. Go read.

    Not to mention: “I can call my mother fat, but you cannot.”

    Also, naming Saints and Angels is clear theistic antagonism to atheists.

    But Sun-devils or Blue Devils did not come up, or my favorite, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. The more you think about it as mascots for a Baptist Institution, the stranger it gets.

  28. 28.

    MikeJ

    I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show with some smart assed New York Jew. I think it was the third baseman.

  29. 29.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @burnspbesq:

    Tottenham isn’t my club, but I have a ton of respect for the solidarity the fans have shown with the rest of the traditionally Jewish neighborhood.

  36. 36.

    Ahh says fywp

    Ur in b4 comment was never more timely. @Cermet:

    As for the dumbass appealing to Boston history (tge Deer Island Murdered would be a great team name, eh? Nickname the sewage? Like a punk band) given how all the Eastern NAs Ive ever met feel about it, I can’t wait for the political theater if the Redskins returned to the Beanpot (bu stadium).

  37. 37.

    raven

    I’m a born and bred Illini, lived next to the stadium in veterans housing as a child. The fight to get rid of the Chief was long and wrenching. My problem was that the argument for Chief Illiniwek was the same as the argument for the Confederate Flag. He’s been gone for a while now and, in some quarters, the conflict remains but it really didn’t means shit in my view. Stanford did it right.

  38. 38.

    ranchandsyrup

    Related list from the Onion:

    With the Washington Redskins coming under fire for having a disrespectful name, Onion Sports examines some of the most insulting monikers of sports teams.

    Des Moines Schutzstaffel
    San Antonio Late-Term Abortions
    Boston Irish Fucks
    Lexington Lynch Mob
    Seattle Slave Traders
    Phoenix Child Pornographers
    Atlanta Jim Crows
    Birmingham Whites Only
    The Jerry Sandusky Football Camp All-Stars
    San Diego Rectal Prolapse
    Detroit Black Guys Bred To Be Superior Athletes
    Jacksonville Jaguars
    San Francisco Ching-Chongs

  40. 40.

    MattR

    @ranchandsyrup: Have you seen the way he ends that column about how the brouhaha over the Redskins name is all about white reporters trying to impose their political correctness? I don’t know if I am more disgusted that he wrote it or that ESPN’s editors accepted it.

    Trust us. We know what’s best. We’ll take this away for your own good, and put up barriers that protect you from ever being harmed again. Kind of like a reservation.

  42. 42.

    Shakezula

    Hmm. Do you think maybe they’re angry, or somethin’?

    The team’s original owner, George Preston Marshall, named the team the ‘Redsk*ns’ in 1932, just months before he led a 13-year league wide ban on African American players in the NFL. Nearly 30 years after the race-based name was chosen, Marshall was forced by the league to hire the team’s first black player in 1962. He was the last NFL owner to do so.

    This needs to be repeated, often. This is D.C.’s team for Christ’s sake.

  43. 43.

    drkrick

    @KG:

    It’s not as clear cut as some people think.

    It’s not as complicated as some people want to make it. The owner of the team at that time and into the 1960’s, George Preston Marshall, refused to integrate the team until every other professional sports team in the United States had already done so. Even then, it took pressure from the Kennedy administration and Congress who were willing to kick him out of (then) federally-owned DC (later RFK) Stadium if he didn’t finally do so.

    So spare me the other potential reasons. The guy who chose the name was a stone racist. It’s a slur – if you don’t think so, go around calling Indians by that word for a couple of weeks and let me know how it works out for you. That said, Little Danny “Bonaparte” Snyder won’t change it unless the NFL forces him to do it.

  45. 45.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @flukebucket: This American Life did a report from Wisconsin at the height of the Walker recall movement and it was pretty clear, even though none of them said it, that the pro-Walker people have an idea in their head that everyone works for “the government” is some kind of ghost pay-roller. Hard to argue with that kind of emotional gut-feeling.

  48. 48.

    piratedan

    @MattR:

    http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/10/08/how-many-native-americans-think-redskins-is-a-slur/

    I think we can be just as guilty of thinking that the Native American is as monolithic as any other ethnic group, region, economic standing, social class. As always, small sample size issues and who you decide to ask and what you ask and how it is asked matters as well. For example look at any Fox News push poll, how you frame the question and on which side of the issue you stand allows each side to support their claim.

  50. 50.

    S. cerevisiae

    And speaking as a a gen-u-wine Injun I find it kind of deliciously ironic that the city with the most anti-Indian name is also the home of the Congress and BIA which have done so much to screw us.

  51. 51.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @raven:

    I attended Ottawa Hills High School. The school used a logo- up until my junior year (fall of ’81)- that was nearly identical to that of the Cleveland baseball club. Switched over to something that looked a lot like the modernized Chief Illiniwik. The school finally broke down in the late ’90s and adopted “Bengals”.

    I don’t mind pointing and laughing at my fellow high school alumni when they get bent out of shape by the change.

  52. 52.

    drkrick

    @Shakezula: Great minds. I’m told that Marshall’s history is the reason there are so many AA Cowboys fans among longtime residents of the DMV.

  53. 53.

    Gene108

    @flukebucket:

    Government workers are a net drain on the economy because their pay comes from private sector taxes and therefore the fewer government workers the lower taxes will be and the stronger the economy will be.

    /wing-nut

  55. 55.

    Napoleon

    @Shakezula:

    @drkrick:

    Something like, say, 5 years ago, the Wa Po had a story on how blacks who live in Washington and are from families that are long from the Washington area still refuse to adopt the DC team as their team. They end up instead rooting for teams like the Cleveland Browns (Jim Brown’s team), Dallas, etc., because of the legacy associated with the DC team.

  56. 56.

    scav

    The Chicago Thugs waving a really big stick. Our fans would outnumber everyones as they attend early, often and dead. Only we’d still need two teams to maintain local traditional antagonisms and neighborhood bar count.

  57. 57.

    John O

    Haven’t read all the comments, but does anyone besides me remember that insignia (I think it was the Milwaukee Braves) with howling-enraged-warrior-savage-American-Indian? Hilariously offensive, and I’m not easily offended.

    Also, the famous Pekin (IL) Chinks. (I didn’t bother to check to see if that’s the very same Roger Simon.)

  58. 58.

    Meteor Blades

    Actually, there are TWO things that are not alike on those caps. The caricatures are all vile, to be sure. And, of course, only one of the them represents a real team. But the terms “Jews” and “Indians” aren’t, in and of themselves, racist. The term “Chinamen” is. But most non-Asians today are unaware of this.

    Nonetheless, cheers to the NCAI for its decades-long efforts to get “Redskins” and other slurs of us Indians out of team names.

  59. 59.

    piratedan

    @S. cerevisiae: well I agree that a damn sight more consideration should be given to promoting jobs programs and education on the reservations than this “debate” over the name of a sports team. The disparity between tribes is very striking, even in Arizona there are “rich” tribes and poor ones based on who is close to what and what industry is close by to account for jobs and opportunities.

  61. 61.

    Jim C

    @raven:
    Let us not forget that “until 1980” (source Wikipedia*), Pekin High School’s sports teams played as the Pekin Chinks.
    ‘They changed it to the Dragons.

    *Even if the date is wrong, the fact remains that it was their team name.

  62. 62.

    MattR

    @piratedan: I don’t think they are monolithic at all. But when a sizeable percentage complain about something that has clearly racial undertones, then maybe we should be considering their opinion (even if there is a sizeable percentage who are not offended). As your article states:

    Harjo declines to estimate what percentage of native people oppose the name. But she notes that the many organizations supporting her lawsuit include the Cherokee, Comanche, Oneida and Seminole tribes, as well as the National Congress of American Indians, the largest intertribal organization, which represents more than 250 groups with a combined enrollment of 1.2 million.

    I think the more important point is that this effort is being led by actual Native Americans who are being supported by white journalists, rather than white journalists trying to turn this into an issue so they can feel better about themselves, which is the basis for Reilly’s article.

  64. 64.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @drkrick:

    The guy who chose the name was a stone racist

    He definitely was, but it wasn’t his racism that named the team. The franchise was originally located in Boston. The game was born their. The Boston club that formulated the rules for the game was called the Oneida Football Club. “Redskins” was chosen to honor that Boston tradition.

  67. 67.

    El Cid

    Conservative reaction is to get angry that they can’t also have the teams and caps on the left, in addition to the team and cap on the right.

  69. 69.

    piratedan

    @MattR: not arguing with you or even indicating that Harjo is wrong (because this has been her cause for quite some time) on this issue and while she has broad support amongst a good number of tribes it’s also worth noting that surveys that do ask people that have identified themselves as Native Americans that this is mostly a non-issue. It’s great that she has this passion, in a way I wish it was directed for a better cause, like jobs programs, educational opportunities, community outreach. Spent a fair amount of time working with Natives here in past jobs and have spent time on a few different reservations when it came to training staff for a previous job and on the whole (imho) we’ve done a pretty shitty job of allowing them to retaining their own culture and participate in the country.

  70. 70.

    MattR

    This comment from this article my be the best argument for why we should ignore public opinion on this subject.

    Michael Friedman, a clinical psychologist, said the NFL has also show an “unbelievable disregard for decades of research,” which he said has shown the use of stereotypical and degrading images have a negative affect on the people they represent, regardless of whether the image is seen as positive or not. Friedman added that their disregard equivalent to the NFL saying, “the American Medical Association has said that concussions are damaging, but we did a poll of several people and they said that it was okay.”

  71. 71.

    BGinCHI

    @scav: Far NW side, these days, but lots of Poles everywhere. I live in Edgewater and we have lots of Poles and Russians, young and old.

    So maybe N side.

    I’m sure I know which racial slur John Kass would use to name the South Side team.

  75. 75.

    xenos

    A Bangledeshi friend of mine, having just moved to the states, was thrilled to find that there was a football team named the “Bengals”. He was rather disappointed when I explained that the team was just named after the tiger, and not on behalf of the millions of Bengali people and their tough fighting spirit. Considering how those people persevere through great hardship, he thought it would have been a perfectly suitable symbol for the team.

  81. 81.

    Redshirt

    @Belafon:

    I was under the impression that Indian was in fact racist considering that most of them aren’t Indians, a completely different country.

    Isn’t it more ignorant than racist?

    Also, if you want to get semantical, “Native Americans” is fraught with negative connotations. The best way to refer to any native groups is by their tribe names. But that’s hard.

  83. 83.

    scav

    @BGinCHI: Edgewater too, only I think I’m closer to a lot of Hispanics and Honkies and who all knows what else — other side of Clark?. The Southside has Bridgeport, so the Thugs works but our problem is the sheer wealth of minority enclaves dotted about the landscape. The Chicago Miscegenations?

  84. 84.

    RSR

    @KG: um, about Rick Reilly, yeah…

    Rick Reilly’s American Indian Father-In-Law Says Reilly Misquoted Him

    http://deadspin.com/rick-reillys-american-indian-father-in-law-says-reilly-1443599450

    Last month, ESPN’s Rick Reilly came out in support of the Redskins’ name. The backbone of his argument? Father-in-law Bob Burns, a Blackfeet elder, who supposedly said he doesn’t care about the team name. Burns has written a response for Indian Country Today Media Network, and oh man.

    Here’s Burns:

    So you can imagine my dismay when I saw my name and words used to defend the racist Washington Redskins name. My son-in-law, ESPN’s Rick Reilly, completely misunderstood the conversation we had, quoting me as saying “the whole issue is so silly. The name just doesn’t bother me much. It’s an issue that shouldn’t be an issue, not with all the problems we’ve got in this country.”

    But that’s not what I said.

    What I actually said is that “it’s silly in this day and age that this should even be a battle — if the name offends someone, change it.” He failed to include my comments that the term “redskins” demeans Indians, and historically is insulting and offensive, and that I firmly believe the Washington Redskins should change their name.

    When Rick’s article came out, it upset me to be portrayed as an “Uncle Tom” in support of this racial slur. I asked him to correct the record. He has not, so I must do it myself.

    Burns closes by saying, “Let me be clear: The racial slur ‘redskins’ is not okay with me. It’s never going to be okay with me. It’s inappropriate, damaging and racist. In the memory of our Blackfeet relatives, it’s time to change the name.”

    Twisting quotes to make a person express the exact opposite of what they said is, at many outlets, a fireable offense. Doing it to your wife’s father might be even more awkward.

  86. 86.

    Lyrebird

    @Belafon: Yes and yes and yes. Been thinking that for years, but didn’t ever state it so well.

    Meantime, I’ll repeat what I said over Outside the Beltway way:

    i really recommend y’all check out the Fightin’ Whites online store, maybe even buy a t-shirt! I’m sorry the DC team has stuck in the mud so long, bc the overall point’s been made over and over and over and over… but the new NCAI campaign is great. Thank you for highlighting it.

  88. 88.

    Amir Khalid

    @Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
    Which hasn’t stayed the cops’ hand when it comes to arresting Spurs fans for saying it at Spurs matches. Spurs fans have said the Yid Army chants are traditional, and meant to show solidarity with Jewish fellow supporters; they might well mean that sincerely. But it’s still a sectarian insult, and it’s hard to justify, let alone define, an ethical or legal exception to the hate-speech laws just for Spurs fans. On balance, I think it’s better for Spurs supporters to give up the Yid Army chant.

    The law isn’t similarly involved in the issue as regards the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Redskins, but social norms have changed and those team names are now seen as racist. I think the owners should be persuaded to change those team names.

  89. 89.

    LanceThruster

    I’m not really big into spectator sports anyway, but just as in the days when there was supposed to be some connection/loyalty to the home town, I’d be more interested in athletic competitions if they were organized along the lines of the guards and cons in “The Longest Yard.”

    Talk about some great crosstown rivalries!

    Wall Street Bankers vs Underwater Mortgage Holders
    White Collar Criminals vs Blue Collar Criminals
    Godless vs Theists
    Shirts vs Skins
    Etc., etc., etc…

  99. 99.

    different-church-lady

    I don’t know how I feel about the team name, but that Cleveland logo has got to go. Not just de-emphasised like they did by changing the cap logo, but eliminated altogether.

  101. 101.

    drkrick

    @Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): I notice you didn’t address the “it’s a slur” part in the next sentence. I don’t care what the intention was in 1932 (although Marshall deserves no benefit of the doubt), it’s still a slur. It’s like white people who want to use the n-word – why are so many people convinced they lose something important by abstaining from using a slur?

  104. 104.

    Comrade Mary

    MikeJ, it’s way better than OK to these ears. I’ve been lukewarm about his recent stuff, but this just grabbed me hard.

    @RSR: Thanks — bookmarked!

    (Oh man, the whole thing is on YouTube.)

  105. 105.

    Shakezula

    @drkrick: You know, I’ve heard that story a lot, but my grandparents (and various other family members) came here right after WWII and I’ve personally never met anyone who gave that as a reason for rooting for a team other than the Skins.

    I know there was a great deal of what I think is called bandwagoning when the Cowboys were doing really well and the Skins were really sucking like a chest wound, back when I was in grade school.

  110. 110.

    KG

    @RSR: hadn’t seen that, so yeah, that’s less than good.

    At the end of the day, the name is going to get changed, the offense will be used as a cover, but the real reason is going be because a ton of money is to be made. A new name will likely mean new team colors, it’ll mean new uniforms, new hats, shirts, keychains, and a thousand other pieces of merchandise to be sold.

  111. 111.

    Haydnseek

    @BGinCHI: Oh, I don’t know about that. 6th place last time I checked the table. Something like 6 points down from the top spot. It’s early yet. Who do you like?

  113. 113.

    Fair Economist

    I’m impressed they managed to tailor the offensiveness and cuteness of the mockups to be at about the same level as that of the actual Cleveland Indians hat. Really makes the point.

    \@MikeJ:

    Without the words “Cleveland Indians” next to them, the caps look substantially more offensive. I guess I’m so used to offensive mascots I cut them a little slack.

  118. 118.

    Gravenstone

    @Ahh says fywp:

    but ghost of Sandy Koufax needs to be the mascot.

    I’m sure Mr. Koufax would be rather shocked to learn his ghost is traipsing about even as the original body is going strong.

  119. 119.

    Waldo

    @RSR: Wow. In other words: “What you mean ‘we’, paleface?”

    That really should be a career ender for Reilly.

  120. 120.

    Ms. D. Ranged in AZ

    I would propose that all Asians get lumped on the Chinese team….as they all look alike. No different than the way we don’t/can’t differentiate between Akimel O’odham and Dine…they’re all just savage injuns

    /snark

  127. 127.

    Chaoticgnome

    Is anyone else wondering if the GOP should have read The Ransom of Red Chief?

    I think whites could field a whole group of teams
    The Rednecks, the Crackers, the Wiggars, the Englishman (Their mascot would be John Cleese doing the silly walk routine, possibly with upper class twit teeth)

  133. 133.

    Haydnseek

    @BGinCHI: I do have a bit of a soft spot for Liverpool. My father’s troop ship docked there in 1944. It was his first look at England. He had a lot of nice things to say about the people he met there. Didn’t know squat about soccer, but then few Americans did at the time. I’d love to see a match at Anfield.

  136. 136.

    BGinCHI

    @Haydnseek: Why can’t this blog send us on an all expenses paid trip to a Liverpool match?

    We would report back and take a group pic and everything!

    AK could fly in from KL and meet us.

  138. 138.

    Haydnseek

    @BGinCHI: I think that’s an excellent idea! This would be the ultimate BJ meet up. I’ll be the guy with the giant photo of Steve. I would even spring for the green balloons! Cole, are you listening?

  139. 139.

    burnspbesq

    @Comrade Mary:

    Here or somewhere else on the big old Internets somebody said that the new Costello / Roots album was a disappointment.

    That was me, and I stand by my statement.

  141. 141.

    NotMax

    Drove past a tavern while in the NYC area last month that had a good-sized awning with the establishment’s name on it – McHebe’s.

  142. 142.

    hitchhiker

    In 100 yrs when all-white people are a despised minority in this country, will there be wealthy black and hispanic team owners naming their teams things like whiteskins?

    It’s only a name, right?

  143. 143.

    Haydnseek

    @hitchhiker: Nah, the team will be named the Honkies, and the fans will will have those horns with a rubber bulb on the end. The logo on the cap will be the fat smiling rich guy from the Monopoly game gathering dust in your closet.

  144. 144.

    Darkrose

    @Lector Peregrinus: The San Francisco baseball team should be the San Francisco Rednecks. The 2013 roster was a lot of Venezuelans, a couple of Dominicans, and a whole bunch of good ol’ boys from the South. Oh, and Tim Lincecum, our token hippie.

  148. 148.

    Seanly

    @Cacti:

    Well, maybe that will lighten the spirits of flukebucket’s boss!

    On the topic of sports names, I would be fine getting rid of all Native American sports names though I think Braves isn’t too bad (though the Tomohawk chop is).

    What pisses me off is when my alma mater changed from the informal name “Engineers” to the f’king “Mountain Hawks” with an expensive & terrible logo (the current one is better). Lehigh University thought that having the name “Engineers” would keep liberal arts & business students away.

  149. 149.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    There should be a Redskins hat there too. I’ve always wondered why, if it’s an honor, these cities didn’t pick an ethnicity with a significant presence in the metro area to name the team after. I mean, DC is the chocolate city, why aren’t the black folks there clamoring to be honored by calling the local sports team the Negros, or Blackskins? Honky would be fine too – there are plenty of white people here in DC but American Indians are thin on the ground.

  152. 152.

    hitchhiker

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    I’ve always wondered why, if it’s an honor, these cities didn’t pick an ethnicity with a significant presence in the metro area to name the team after.

    Because it’s not an honor. Us privileged descendants of white folk find it enjoyable to remember that WE WON — that’s the implied message of those names. Those Indians were some tough mofos, but we were even tougher.

  155. 155.

    Davis X. Machina

    @burnspbesq: And just about none of them Jewish, to boot.

    There was a thread a while back on a non-Spurs footie board I frequent reminiscing about the good bad old days before the PC police took all the fun out of football — why anyone would recall fondly standing on terraces so packed you had to piss where you stood after all the beer, I don’t know –and someone mentioned a firm composed of mostly skinhead Spurs supporters.

    That must have been a very…. conflicted group.

  158. 158.

    tybee

    @JPL:

    there was an “Atlanta Crackers” team back in the day. would that suit?

    ETA: and i see Jim C beat me to that.

  159. 159.

    tybee

    @BGinCHI:

    as an Italian friend of mine said: “Dago this way or Dago that way?”

    he also had a joke about a helicopter…

    and he gave me a raft of shit about my ancestry. and i returned the affection.

    he was a great guy.

  160. 160.

    Ahh says fywp

    Im dying and I must admit that Boston Irish Fucks is superior to the obsolete term Paddies. Also Jags suck. Too. Yknow there was a Tebow Day in Jax last mo? @ranchandsyrup:

  161. 161.

    burnspbesq

    @gwangung:

    Student referendums to pick mascots rarely turn out well.

    Exhibit A: the UC Irvine Anteaters. Zot!

    Exhibit B: the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs.

  162. 162.

    M.C. Simon Milligan

    Des Moines Schutzstaffel

    Interestingly enough, the deaths-head (totenkopf) in Germany no longer signifies right-wing but rather leftist leanings thanks to the ultras of St. Pauli FC in Hamburg.

    I guess I lucked out in the racist sporting name game throughout my life. Played sports as a Tornado (swam for that school also, Waterspouts was a pretty cool name), a Lion, a Volunteer and a Fightin’ Blue Hen (we always wanted to be called Gentlemen Hens like other schools had Lady-whatevers… and I always found it irritating when someone referred to one of the women’s’ teams as “Lady Hens” like there was some other sort of fucking hen!). Now I’m a fan of Die Knappen (old Prussian word for Miners) of Schalke 04.

    I also went to the UT Chattanooga for a while but didn’t play any sports there. They changed their name from Moccasins to just Mocs with a mockingbird as the mascot while I was there. Never quite understood that. Moccasins didn’t seem racist… although their mascot Chief Moccanooga sure as shittin’ was!

  163. 163.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Ms. D. Ranged in AZ: Cracker or Peckerwood would be fine with me.
    @hitchhiker: I know it’s not really an honor, but that’s always the excuse they give to justify the name. We’re not being mean, we’re honoring them!

  165. 165.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Redshirt:

    Needless to say, your skin is not the same as an article of clothing.

    Though it does remind me of this classic exchange from PG Wodehouse:

    “Roderick Spode is the founder and head of the Saviours of Britain, a Fascist organisation better known as the Black Shorts. His general idea is to make himself a Dictator.”

    “By the way, when you say ‘shorts,’ you mean ‘shirts,’ surely?”

    “No. By the time Spode formed his association, there were no shirts left. He and his adherents wear black shorts.”

    “Footer bags, you mean?”

    “Yes.”

    “How perfectly foul.”

  169. 169.

    JAFD

    In some alternate reality there is a city named for Sala-h ad-Di-n, in which plays a team called the Ordinals….

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