Personal insults accomplish nothing. I respect GrahamCracker's opinion and respectfully disagree.
A few years ago, I stood in line at Target behind an American Indian wearing a Cleveland baseball hat and Indians jersey. Racist? Misguided? An Uncle Tom? I don't know...you tell me.
Just the other day I was at the pool and an American Indian man walks up to me and says he noticed the tattoo on my back shoulderblade. It is of the old Sioux logo (Blackhawk, if you will) with the words "NORTH DAKOTA" above it and "FIGHTING SIOUX" below it. He asked to see it close-up and asked if I was Indian. I am not and told him that I attended UND and am a fan of the hockey team. He was familiar with the school and the hockey team. His response?
A) "You're a racist pig!"
B) "Change the nickname!"
C) "Cool tattoo...I like it."
The answer would be C. The gentleman must be another uninformed commoner who needs to be told that white society is putting him down. Or maybe, just maybe, he really thought it was a cool tattoo.
While we're busy trying to wipe out the Sioux nickname and logo, perhaps we can start burning history books, too, and making sure no one knows who inhabited North Dakota before white Germans and Norwegians. I don't see how changing the nickname accomplishes anything.
