I am only just now getting around to writing about it, but it’s a good thing to finally see the “honorable tradition” end. If only the University would’ve had the good sense to use this as an educational opportunity. So many people, and I was one of them for a while, fail to grasp the insidious nature of this particular type of racism. The Chief presented a flat, stereotypical representation of a people that, however “noble” or “honorable,” perpetuates a static and inaccurate view of what it meant and means to be Native American. this has nothing to do with political correctness, this has to do with persistent ignorance that leads many well-meaning people to be incapable of grasping the full depth of the individuals of an entire race of people. And about the vocal minority oppressing everyone else, but is important to keep in mind that just because an idea is popular does not mean it is right. But the truth of the matter is that the real deciding factor in this issue was money, not right and wrong. The NCAA, which possibly feared lawsuits or was pressured by some lobby, handed down their ruling and stick to the important parts of it. The University’s main reason for keeping the Chief was to keep alumni money, but as soon as it was clear that there was no hope of being in the playoffs, they canned the Chief to have a shot at hosting the playoffs. It was clearly just a matter of time, but if they would’ve gone to the playoffs, they would’ve bought more time to keep the alumni happy (and the money coming in). So dollars got the job done, and now the ignorant folks are going to hold on tightly to their dollars and naive conceptions. And the University probably won’t even get to host the playoffs, those poor bastards.
In other news, Canada was nice this weekend. What I didn’t realize was that we would be in the French section of Montreal—Laval—which is the French part of Quebec, which is the French part of Canada. So it was like 10% English-speaking or so. I learned quickly what it was like to be in the minority language group. In Japan, at least, I consistently had a translator. This was not always the case up north. I imagine I’ll spend all of my time in Nicaragua with a translator, too. Anyway, I had a nice time even though it wasn’t quite what I expected. And now I’m going to bed.