Boycott the Corpus Christi Christ-Killers

Sample letter:
We, the undersigned Jewish Americans, are writing to complain about the name of this sports team, The Murfreesboro Moneylenders, and the team mascot, “Shylock.” We find it simply unconscionable that, in this day and age, such a patently anti-Semitic message could receive a hearing in the world of athletics. We insist that the team name and mascot be changed immediately.
The mascot replies:
Dear Hyper-Sensitive, Politically-Correct Bullies: My name is Tommy Townsley O’Banion, and I portray Shylock, the mascot of the Murfreesboro Moneylenders.

I represent a long tradition here in Murfreesboro of giving respectful treatment to the lost Jewish way of life, which our team has honored for over 80 years, both in the team name, and in the mascot, Shylock.
I have seriously studied for many hours the Jewish tradition of moneylending and I believe that my portrayal on the athletic field of Shylock is authentic and represents the best way to honor the Jews.
Why don’t you take up another cause instead, like gardening or saving the whales?

Pro-Shylock entry on MySpace:
If they make us give up Shylock, I’m becoming an anti-Semite.
Chicago and Illinois readers will need no introduction to the "Chief Illiniwek" scandal.
Others might be surprised to learn that, well into the Twenty-First Century, a major public university stubbornly clung to a racist mascot.
The University of Illinois today "retired" "Chief Illiniwek," a minstrel show in which a buckskin-clad, face-painted student, bedecked with feathers, danced during athletic events.
The NCAA had banned the university from hosting post-season games. Rather than give up the racist practice, the university spent 8 months appealing the NCAA ruling, until belatedly dumping the chief today.
How about a little compare-and-contrast exercise? Are you up for some fun?
A few years ago, I shared a death-penalty case with another criminal-defense investigator, like me a Jew, whose pet peave was faux-Indian sports mascots.
He was fond of telling the story of the undergraduate paper he had written on the subject.
In the paper, he asked the hypothetical question, what if these teams were paying "homage," not to Indigenous First Nations, but to Jews?
Imagine the Cleveland Kikes, he used to say.
We spent a little too much time in a car a little too small for two men who should eat more salads, driving in circles looking for a few too many witnesses who were in the wind, and we started getting a little slap happy.
By the fifth ride out to the fringes of a decrepit Southeastern steel town in search of a fella known as Do-Dirty, what might have been merely in poor taste and only faintly amusing had become, to us, delicious, transgressive, unbearably hilarious.
It became a contest. Who could top the most obnoxious thing the other had just come up with?
The Houston Hebes? The Bensonville Bagel-Eaters? You get the idea.
Actually, during the decades-long struggle to get rid of the chief, a lot of willful white people didn’t, or couldn’t, get it. For them, here’s a slightly different tack.
The chief’s defenders claimed that the white frat boy* under the face paint and feathers "seriously studied" American Indian culture and intended the display, not as hateful mockery, but as a "show of respect."
Fine, let’s say it’s so.
With the "seriousness," "study," and "respect" in mind, let’s make it about Jews again.
Let’s say the team isn’t the Corpus Christi Christ-Killers, it’s the Honolulu Hasidim. Let’s say the mascot, as image or icon, printed on t-shirts and so on, is Baal Shem Tov, in profile, hat, beard, side curls, and all.
In a respectful way.
And let’s say that the on-court performer, call him "Besht, the Pious One," takes hours to prepare: Dressing meticulously, perhaps even meditating, praying –- yes! praying –- davvening, resolving to remove from his mind all worldly concerns that will hinder him from focusing on G-d.
And then he bounds out onto the basketball court and begins to whirl.
At this point, can there still be a debate about this?
How long before the economic boycott had closed the entire university?
Compare and contrast.
Instead of the Tomahawk Chop, do the Torah Tip: Stand, place your upturned palms together in pantomime of cradling the Book, and bow from the waist.
Your team is not the Redskins, it’s the Schnozes.
The mascot you adore is not cruelling demeaning to an ancient, diverse, dignified civilization still recovering from an episode of genocide, it’s … oh, wait, yes it is. The University of Illinois finally did the right thing. How can anybody not see that?

*Okay, I can't prove that part.

Tags: University of Illinois, Urbana, champaign, UIUC, Chief Illiniwek, Illini, Fighting Illini, racism, white supremacy, anti-Semitism, racist mascots, American Indians, Native Americans, First Nations, genocide.

Comments

[The Continental Op]

When my sister attended Brandeis, we used to joke that their teams should be called "The Fighting Hebrews". It was funny because it's counter to stereotype.

The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame are sometimes help up as an example by those who wish to assert that the "Fighting Illini", "Fighting Sioux", and their tomahawk-wielding kin are not racist. Indeed, some accounts of the origin of the Fighting Irish nickname suggest that it was originally applied as a derogatory reference to the school's Roman Catholic affiliation. Perhaps if an historically American Indian school called its own team the Fighting Indians it wouldn't be offensive. (Interesting sidenote -- the Potawatomi Indians played a role in founding Notre Dame.)

Anyway, I'm very glad to see that Chief Illiniwek is no more. It makes me feel like less of a schmuck rooting for the U of I.

[Stein]

I went to a high school, New Trier West, whose team was the Cowboys. Our sibling school and rival, New Trier East, had a team called, you guessed it, the Indians. When the schools merged we got to vote on a new team name. Any guesses? The "Trevians." Not making that up. A "Trevian" was a Germanic barbarian under Roman rule in Trier. (Karl Marx was also from Trier, but The New Trier Marxists wasn't allowed on the ballot. That's a post for another day.) At least there are no protests from forest-dwelling, nature-worshipping insurgents against the Roman empire, but, if there ever are, they'll be welcome to blog here at T.P.S.M.

[TallSkinny]

Good riddance to that Little Red Sambo.

The propriety of ethnic or sectarian stereotypes is determined, not by outsiders, but by the sensibilities of those within the stereotyped group.

We don't really give a damn about "Fighting Irish" because we're rich and powerful (but some of us do get touchy when such stereotypes are employed with British accents, because we are oppressed in the U.K.)

Native Americans objected to the chief. End of story, and to hell with the frat boys.