Word: mascot
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Even more aptly, the UMass mascot is a Minuteman. Were all Revolutionary-era Massachusetts residents soldiers, violent dispensers of rebel justice with rifles drawn and bayonets affixed? Of course not. Yet no one complains in these cases, because the subjects belong to the culturally-dominant ethnic group...
Florida State has earned an exemption because its Seminoles nickname and mascot is endorsed by that selfsame local tribe; North Dakota’s Sioux have issued no such pardon. But an accurate threshold can not be express approval. What then of the Bears, a perennial Dartmouth opponent? Does Brown have the consent of our ursine friends? You think I’m kidding...
...human level, though, how about the USC Trojans? Descendants remain of ancient Ilium, sacked by the Greeks many moons ago (dirty trick that horse was, huh?), and old King Priam. Have they been consulted about the school’s mascot Traveler, a white horse with an armored warrior astride? That militaristic imagery certainly depicts residents of Troy in a potentially hurtful...
What about Notre Dame? That venerable institution has a leprechaun as its mascot and the Fighting Irish as its athletic nickname. See the similarities? I didn’t think so—it’s okay to caricature the Celts because they’re white...
...nomadic Plains people, under the heading “fighting,” or the extraction of visual generalizations from group names, did Harper consider the Big Green men’s hoops team’s first two opponents in 2006, George Washington and Massachusetts? The GW Colonials mascot is a presidential look-alike in a powdered wig and breeches. Is the implication that all American colonists were white and wealthy? Because that belittles the poor artisans and black slaves...