Time to retire Colonel Reb to the home for incorrect mascots. He can play checkers with Chief Noc-A-Homa.
I hope that is Colonel Reb waving goodbye. (Stan Carroll, The Commercial Appeal)
Whenever I stray into education issues that touch on sports, I regret it almost immediately because sports fans are highly wired in both senses of the word and quick to bile.
But I think this New York Times story about the angst at the University of Mississippi over its Colonel Reb mascot is interesting and worth reading.
As I have said with recent blogs on the demon high school mascot in Warner Robbins, I don’t get the mania around costumed characters. I am not one of those folks who runs to get my photo with the Disney characters or the Chick-fil-A cow. At a football game, I could just as easily ignore a grown man jumping around in a gopher costume or a tiger’s. Doesn’t matter to me. (BTW, am I the only one who finds the plasticine Burger King king in the commercials creepy?)
But Ole Miss doesn’t have a cute animal as a mascot. It has a Confederate soldier. And the university, anxious to shed any remnants of a racist past, wants the old coot gone for good.
I agree. Send Colonel Reb to the old mascot’s home, where he can reminisce with other politically incorrect mascots. And then Ole Miss students can stop worrying about the mascot and concentrate on graduating in four years. I think we all would be better off as a result.
According to the New York Times:
After many years of complaints about the racial insensitivity of having a man dressed as a Confederate soldier as the symbol of a university where 14 percent of students are black, Ole Miss is pulling the plug on Colonel Reb this football season.
The white-bearded, cane-toting mascot — think Mark Twain crossed with Colonel Sanders — has not been the Rebels’ official team cheerleader since 2003. But his image is ubiquitous on fan merchandise, including T-shirts, Confederate flags and corkscrews.
This summer, Ole Miss announced a ban on the sale of any items with his image. And in coming weeks, the university is expected to hold a student-run election to pick a new mascot.
It is part of a longstanding plan to recast the university’s image, still tarnished by its reputation for racial strife in the 1960s, to signal that it is more tolerant and diverse. Confederate battle flags were discouraged from football games years ago, and “Dixie” is no longer the unofficial fight song.
But whether Colonel Reb too should go, and what might replace him, has divided fans.
“Over. My. Dead. Body,” said Mack Allen, 36, an alumnus and technology analyst from Memphis, who wore a T-shirt to a recent football game that read, “Colonel Reb — Loved by Many, Hated by Few.”
A group of fans called the Colonel Reb Foundation said it had gathered 2,000 signatures on a petition against any new mascot and plans to deliver it to the chancellor, Daniel W. Jones, and newspapers across the state. It also paid for the costume that Mr. West was wearing.
Like controversies at other colleges involving team names or mascots of American Indians, this started as a dispute about the university’s core values.
But it has raised a new question about whether having no mascot at all hurts school spirit and the football team. In a campus referendum in February, 74 percent of students voted in favor of creating a new mascot rather than remaining mascotless.
“We’re the only school in the Southeastern Conference without one,” said Ellison Brown, 21, an African-American junior from Jackson. “These are new times, we need a new image. But we also just need a mascot.”
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36 comments Add your comment
Proud Black Man
September 20th, 2010
1:08 pm
Oh jeez! Look for the usual bunch or bigots and tea (insert the name that cannot be mentioned) to come forth with “its not hate its heritage!” Do you mind if I take a pass on the discussion Maureen?
chillywilly
September 20th, 2010
1:33 pm
Any black athletes that play or played for Ole Miss need to have their heads examine.
Mike
September 20th, 2010
1:58 pm
What actually is the point of a mascot?
Maureen Downey
September 20th, 2010
2:07 pm
Proud Black Man, Be my guest. Maureen
Teacher
September 20th, 2010
2:33 pm
UGH! Are you people ever happy with anything? This blog is filled with some of the worst hatred and stupidity that I have ever seen. I would hardly call it a discussion on most occasions.
Sounder
September 20th, 2010
2:42 pm
Oh boy… here we go…
Dr NO
September 20th, 2010
3:06 pm
“racial insensitivity of having a man dressed ”
BAH. Change this change that, Hope and change. I hope you all see where this Hope and Change mess has gotten us. Lettuce just hope this change of Mascot doesnt yield the same dismal results.
Lottie Dah
September 20th, 2010
3:08 pm
Lets see No Rebels, No Indians ~ How about an overweight Black Person and an overweight White Person walking together across the field together holding hands eating Fried Chicken together ~ Oh Hell Stop ~ There’s a Colonel on the Box !
Dr NO
September 20th, 2010
3:23 pm
No more RaceTrac convenient stores because RaceTrac could make one think of NasCar, which has Racetracks, and is a WELL KNOWN racist organization chock full of bigots and cracker.
OH NO…No more crackers either/Saltines…Im offended damnit.
No more eskimos pies…The eskimos are our frontline against Russia so God knows we dont wanna offend them.
Chocolate pie…Oh hell…chocolate could be misconstrued with “people of color” did I say that right?
What “mexican restaurants”? Well darn…so much for a decent, ESCUSE ME “mexican food” guess its off to taco bell.
and
and
and…
Dr. John Trotter
September 20th, 2010
3:26 pm
I guess that I am a little crazy…at least that’s what I have been told. But, I don’t have any problem with the Washington Redskins, the Ole Miss Rebels, or Chief Noc-a-Homa. But, then again, I am a average white man…Southern born and raised. My children are racially mixed, and I am sure that they do not share the same appreciation for Confederate history as I do, even though their great, great, great grandfather, Robert A. Alston, was the Chief of Staff for General John Morgan with Morgan’s Raiders.
It’s a difficult issue, and I believe that Ole Miss has refrained from passing out the Stars and Bars (the St. Andrew’s cross) to the fans. Perhaps the ones whom we should ask how they feel about Col. Reb are people like Dexter McCluster who starred at Ole Miss and is now starring for the Kansas City Chief. (Last time I checked, most of the players on Ole Miss’s football and basketball teams are overwhelmingly African American.) I don’t know, Maureen. For someone like you who grew up in New Jersey, this is a no-brainer, but for Southerners like me, it’s much more difficult. Perhaps there are current-day dandies living in New York City who resent the name Knickerbockers. Perhaps the University of Idaho should not be called the Vandals. Perhaps some current-day vandals who rob and steal for a living resent this mascot. What about Vikings? Didn’t they plunder, pillage, steal, and rape? The Packers? Isn’t this stereotyping blue collar meat-packers in Wisconsin? The Cairo High Syrupmakers? Isn’t this too stereotypical? I know that Stanford University quit being the Indians a few years back and became The Cardinal (a tree). Hmm.
West Georgia University quit being the Braves, and now they are the Wolves. O. K. What about the Atlanta Braves or the Cleveland Indians? Columbus State University started off as the Rebels, and when I was four or five years old, my cousin was a Rebel cheerleader, and I was dressed up in a Johnny Rebel uniform and taken to the basketball games as the mascot. But, in the Columbus-Jordan parade (an annual event for the oldest, continuous high rivalry in Georgia…since 1905), I got out of school early in the 5th Grade and donned a Devil’s outfit (for the CHS Blue Devils) and was put in a cage and paraded down the old Fourth Avenue in Columbus. Some may perhaps wish that I were still in a cage today. LOL. Note: My family were die-hard Jordan Red Jackets (except that my mother graduated from CHS but she later “repented”!).
Columbus State’s mascot has been the Cougars for the last forty years or so. The school did not collapse because the mascot changed from the Rebels to the Cougars. But, Ole Miss? I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem fittin’ to hear that UGA or BAMA are going to play the Ole Miss Hurricanes or the Ole Miss Boll Weevils. I think that we are a little too squeamish about nicknames, but I could be wrong. When Frederick Douglass High School was founded in Atlanta in the late 1960s (when the Atlanta schools were undergoing huge desegregation), I think that the politically correct folk got some notion that the school should not be called the “Abolitionists” (a perfect nickname!) because it may have offended some white students and parents. So, the school’s mascot is the Astro. The Astro? Yep, the Douglass High School Astros.
Just my thoughts before heading to lunch…KFC, all you can eat, baby! What say ye?
Chief Noc-a-Homa
September 20th, 2010
3:28 pm
Political correct put big chief out job. Big Chief have no teepee for squaw and little injun. Pale face toss Big Chief and squaw and little injun out on ass. Big Chief drink fire water and shoot firestick. Pale face have DFACS come take away Big Chief Squaw and little injun.
Now Big Chief alone with no teepee, drink firewater, eat worms, live in gutter and awake cover in Big Chief vomit when sun high in sky.
Warrior Woman
September 20th, 2010
4:00 pm
This is political correctness run amuck. Colonel Reb is apparently not a problem to the students, including the athletes, that knew about the school mascot and chose to go to Ole Miss anyway. For those that know the history of his tenure at Ole Miss, this is just another incidence of Daniel Jones running roughshod over the students and alumni.
Angela
September 20th, 2010
4:28 pm
Teacher
September 20th, 2010
2:33 pm
UGH! Are you people ever happy with anything? This blog is filled with some of the worst hatred and stupidity that I have ever seen. I would hardly call it a discussion on most occasion.
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Well, Teacher I think not! I totally agree with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WE lost our way
September 20th, 2010
4:34 pm
Why do we care about Ole Miss. We have enough problems in our universities to worry about. UGA rated #1 party school,Athletes in trouble off campus,AD arrested losing his job. GT robbers holding up students, dorms not safe and shooting every night near campus. But no we have to worry about Colonel Reb. Silly-Silly- Silly!!!!!
grifter
September 20th, 2010
4:35 pm
hmm, yeah. maybe because the honorable Southern Gentleman General John Morgan OWNED< BOUGHT, and SOLD, OTHER FREAKIN HUMAN BEINGS. Think about it slingblade, maybe you'll finally understand why its offensive.
EnoughAlready
September 20th, 2010
4:43 pm
Oprah’s show is about Education today. So far it’s been an interesting discussion.
November
September 20th, 2010
4:51 pm
You know, I’m a Southerner and damn proud of it…..so we had a little skirmish a few years ago and my ancestors were called “Rebels”…..so what?????? and leave the “Ole Miss Rebels Mascot” alone!!!!!!!!Maureen, it’s a “White Southern Thing”…….you wouldn’t understand. Political Correctness at it’s absolute worst.
Vindicated
September 20th, 2010
5:03 pm
It’s okay for them to be the Rebels or DogFighter as far as I’m concerned. Don’t expect me to send my D-1 kid or my money there.
MyBad
September 20th, 2010
5:39 pm
Seems there’s a movement at Ole Miss to have the lizard-like Admiral Ackbar of the Galactic REBEL Alliance – “It’s a Trap!” – (Star Wars Ep. 6, Return of the Jedi), selected as the new mascot. This would at least allow them to theoretically keep the REBELS nickname, only now with Galactic implications instead of Southern ones.
Ole Guy
September 20th, 2010
6:40 pm
Are attention spans and “keep your eye on the ball” focus that easily deflected? When you pack the kid off to U, is he/she going to lose sight of the primary purpose for being there in the first place…simply because of pc gone awry? I don’t know how many of you go back to the 60s…popular singer Ricky Nelson’s “Garden Party” contained an apt verse…”You can’t please everyone, you gotta please yourself”. Sounds self-serving? Maybe so, but the theme, as I have always practiced, is “keep your eye on the target and press on”. While others may not be in agreement with your methodologies…TO HELL WITH EM! I run my life the way I run my life, and if that includes totin a replica of symbologies of yore, SO DAMN BE IT!
We bend over backward trying to avoid the mere possibility of offending others, be it in commercial advertising, religous acceptance, or sports/collegiate “mascotry”. When are we going to learn to simply keep our eye on the ball…focus on the objective, and not become so damn distracted by the superflous?
AJinCobb
September 20th, 2010
7:00 pm
Social standards change over time, and this tends to upset social conservatives. When I was young it was perfectly fine for male employers to speak to female employees in ways that wouldn’t be tolerated now. The South is conservative, but Colonel Reb will go, sooner or later.
Regarding “Chief Noc-a-Homa”’s contribution, I used to live in the northwest, in a town that was over 50% native American. There aren’t many native Americans here in Atlanta, of course, because the Cherokee were marched out of here on the Trail of Tears, long ago. So most of you people think native Americans are just characters from a story book and that Chief Noc-a-Homa stuff may seem like harmless fun. You have no idea how insulting it is to real native Americans. Their ancestors were here first, they were invaded, conquered and mistreated and here in the 21st century people are still treating this history like a joke?
Sped Red
September 20th, 2010
7:46 pm
I agree with Dr Trotter-politically correct has done more harm than good. It has made us afraid to laugh at who were are and we are nothing without humor. Wish NY Times would do better research. The Col. is dressed as a southern landowner. No self-respecting REB would be caught dead in a navy blue coat.
Lee
September 20th, 2010
7:56 pm
Ever notice how the pathetic politically correct pathogens preach “tolerance” but are the most intolerant of those who do not ascribe to their narrow-minded view of the world?
Colonel Reb has been the Ole Miss mascot since the 1930’s and if left up to the student body and alumni, probably would remain the mascot for another eighty years. But no, they are going to have to give up their traditions just to prove how tolerant they are to the very folks who are the most intolerant.
Makes perfect sense to me.
V for Vendetta
September 20th, 2010
8:29 pm
Would there be an outcry if they were the Ole Miss Nazis? I’m against political correctness as much as any individualist, but, since Ole Miss is a public university, they have to take other things into consideration. No Nazis means no Confederate Rebels. A similar comparison can be made between the stars and bars and the Nazi flag.
As a born-and-raised Georgian, I can understand this. It’s not that hard.
Proud Black Man
September 20th, 2010
8:40 pm
As a born-and-raised Georgian, I can understand this. It’s not that hard.”
So can I but alas we are in Georgia and too many posters think denial is a river in Egypt.
another comment
September 21st, 2010
2:07 am
I grew up in the Western Part of New York State about 20 miles from the Seneca Indian Nation Reservation, my High School was and is named the Iroquous Central High School, They are called the Cheifs. The Iroquois are part of the Seneca Tribe. Also close by was West Seneca High School, East Senecs High School, Lackawanna, Cheektowaga, all Indian name. Of Course, a big part of the the New York State History we learned was learning about the Seneca Nation, The Huron Indians, The rich legacy of the Native Amerian Tribes that settled New York State, they were never relocated out of New York, like Georgia.
My daughter, on the other hand at her school where white kids are in the less than 20% are a minority, is extremely limited on clubs she can join. She can not join the Proud and Black Club, She can not join the Asian Club. Now what would happen if she wanted to start a white club or as the kids mockingly call her everytime they talking about the Nazi’s, the perfect Aryan, because of her blonde hair and blue eyes. So where is the discrimination for her. Doesn’t anyone see the issue with BET aka Black Entertainment Television, UNIVISION, CNN ESPANOL, . No one would dare have WET or BBET Blonde Blue eyed Televion. Enough is Enough.
LaLaLa
September 21st, 2010
8:07 am
How about the Fightin’ Catfish? Modern Mississippi’s answer to Charlie the Tuna – reflecting both the laid back recreational fishing on a lovely Mississippi morning and a major economic driver for the agricultural economy. Cute and fierce logos are equally possible and it is likely that besides sports merchandise, local food companies will be able to capitalize on the name. Since mascots are really for “$chool $pirit” in the greenest sense, this would be a perfect mascot.
Dr NO
September 21st, 2010
8:47 am
Why not an Ole Ms Nazi, we have a Facist in the Whitehoue.
Dr NO
September 21st, 2010
8:49 am
another comment
September 21st, 2010
2:07 am
“She can not join the Proud and Black Club, She can not join the Asian Club.”
WOW…what an opportunity. You should find a really slimey attorney and turn him loose. You are looking at a major discrimnination lawsuit and could turn a nice profit plus disband those discriminatory clubs.
V for Vendetta
September 21st, 2010
8:54 am
Dr. NO,
No, we have a wannabe communist in the White House. It’s different.
Proud Black Man
September 21st, 2010
9:55 am
“No, we have a wannabe communist in the White House. It’s different.”
Please list any Marxist policies that President Obama has instituted. Also does the 4000+ dead killed in Iraq, Bush’s war, not bother you?
Proud Black Man
September 21st, 2010
6:31 pm
crickets…
proud white woman
September 23rd, 2010
12:46 am
re: Proud Black Man @ 9:55am-try the healthcare program. It is socialistic in nature.He rammed it thru with no regard to what the majority of people wanted. His “distribute the wealth” comment said it all. He is a problem, and would be a problem no matter what color his skin is. I don’t give a rats fanny what color the man’s skin is. He is bad news all the way around. Don’t even get me started on the fact that he acts as if the citizens of this nation are too stupid to come in out of the rain, and that he apologizes to everyone for America when it is not needed, alienates allies, and generally has very little going for him in the protocol dept. It is nearly 1 am, so I will get a more detailed list of his socialistic nature when I can actually keep my eyes open a little better.
As for your little comment at the first part of this conversation, yeah, it is about heritage and not hate. Why is it that you can be proud of your heritage and I can’t be proud of mine? Not everything about the South was bad. Colonel Reb is a mascot. Leave him alone. You don’t have the right to not be offended and neither do I. The problem is, I realize that the world does NOT have to bend over backwards to please me, that I can live and let live…wish you’d try it sometimes, because I sure get tired of reading your hateful tirades where you play the race card every time you turn around. Does it get tiring playing the victim all the time?
Philosopher
September 23rd, 2010
8:42 am
Ummm…I think we were talking abour college mascots, here. Could you please save your political soap box for the appropriate blog?
Proud Black Man
September 23rd, 2010
11:48 am
@ Proud White Woman
“It is socialistic in nature.He rammed it thru with no regard to what the majority of people wanted.”
It passed through the House and Senate in accordance with the Constitution that governs the republic bigot. I presume that you feel the same way about medicare and social security then two-faced tea (insert the word that cannot be mentioned.)
“As for your little comment at the first part of this conversation, yeah, it is about heritage and not hate.”
If that’s the case why no mention of the slaves that supported your heritage in ANY rebel literature? Go to Hades you chlamydia infested racist.
Joey
September 24th, 2010
11:41 pm
Good God! Education in this state sucks and we are talking about mascots and people who get uptight over the least little non-pc utternace. I expected better of you Maureen. How about keeping your eye on the ball!