I watched Helter Skelter tonight. disturbing stuff.
excited for some turkey and chill time at mom’s place tomorrow. I should bring the laptop, ’cause I have two deadlines on monday and am starting to wonder when I’m going to be doing the writing.
and here’s something that’s been troubling me: the anti-chief crowd refers to Chief Illiniwek as a “racial stereotype.” is this accurate though? don’t get me wrong, I think it’s completely absurd to maintain allegiance to a mascot that is so divisive and the source of many bad feelings, not to mention the insensitivity of using the same logo that was used to mark places where indian scalps would be purchased–$5 for men, $3 for women and children, so the rumor mill says–along with the mockery-in-the-name-of-honor of the ceremonial dances/garb, but I simply don’t see how Chief Illiniwek is racist. Chief Illiniwek is meant to represent one particular Native American (and is it not disturbing how many supposed Native American descendents refer to themselves as “Indians”?) tribe/culture. so it’s a cultural stereotype…of the Illini culture. not a racial stereotype of all native culture. I don’t know. maybe I’m wrong. I really haven’t studied any of the issues on either side…but I certainly wish that if the people who oppose the chief were going to devote so much god-damned effort to something when there are so many more pertinent social issues, they would at least formulate a coherent and effective argument, rather than just slapping the label “racist” on it and raising a big fuss. then again, the possibility exists that they have formulated a coherent argument against the chief, and I just haven’t heard/seen it. oh, well. I’ve got more important things to do. and if I want to work for social justice, I think I’ll focus first on making sure that people have life and liberty before I start worrying about helping them to secure their dignity. did that make any sense?