← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Centinel
Thread ID: 7471 | Posts: 8 | Started: 2003-06-19
2003-06-19 05:47 | User Profile
[url=http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FBC_OLE_MISS_MASCOT?SITE=FLPAP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT]http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F...EMPLATE=DEFAULT[/url]
Jun 18, 4:18 PM EDT
Ole Miss Mascot Colonel Rebel Out of Job
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) -- Mississippi will sideline its Colonel Rebel mascot this football season, taking another step to distance itself from the South's Confederate past.
Ole Miss officials have said they want a more intimidating mascot than the Southern gentleman with his cocked wide-brimmed hat, snow-white goatee and cane.
The school will not have a mascot until a suitable one is approved.
Athletic director Pete Boone said there are no plans to change the school's longtime nicknames "Ole Miss" or "Rebels." The school has been toying with a Colonel Rebel change for about eight years, he said.
In the last decade, Mississippi has been steering its image from the Old South by phasing out symbols that some say are racially divisive. Confederate battle flags, once pervasive at football games, have been banished and "Dixie" has been dropped as the school's unofficial fight song.
But unlike the Rebel Flag and "Dixie," there has been no outcry to oust Colonel Rebel.
Boone said changing Colonel Rebel has more to do with modernizing Ole Miss' image than vanquishing Confederate symbols from campus.
The private Ole Miss Loyalty Foundation that supports sports has spent $30,000 for the New York-based Phoenix Design Works to study Colonel Rebel, Ole Miss lettering and logos.
School officials have said it is unlikely a replacement will be set before the basketball season or possibly next year.
2003-06-19 05:56 | User Profile
Ole Miss officials have said they want a more intimidating mascot than the Southern gentleman with his cocked wide-brimmed hat, snow-white goatee and cane.
How 'bout him?
[img]http://www.mugshots.org/sports/oj-simpson.jpg[/img]
2003-06-19 11:34 | User Profile
*Originally posted by Centinel@Jun 19 2003, 05:47 * **
Boone said changing Colonel Rebel has more to do with modernizing Ole Miss' image than vanquishing Confederate symbols from campus.
**
Oh, of course it has nothing to do with vanquishing Confederate symbols, just like the Virginia Boy Scouts incident. Why don't they just say it:
"Confederate symbols are racist, bigoted, divisive, intolerant, exclusive, insensitive, demeaning, abhorrent, cruel, and crude."--Robin Berry-Winfrey, dean of students at Mississippi.
2003-06-21 01:43 | User Profile
A nice non-offensive, politically correct mascot. OK, let's make a list of all of the characteristics it needs to have:
Ambiguous gender (non-sexist) Not an animal of prey (non-violent) No guns/warriors/indials Nothing too patriotic (can't offend the immigrants) If it speaks, it should be in some bastardized form of English Nothing too white in color (non-racist)
Anything else?
2003-06-22 00:19 | User Profile
How about the slug?
2003-06-22 02:20 | User Profile
*Originally posted by Cracker of the Whip@Jun 21 2003, 18:19 * ** How about the slug? **
The slug is a clear racial epithet against Americans of African and Mexican descent. It plays right into the hands of evil white devils who want to characterize people of color as lazy, slow, and unbathed [slimy].
How about a nice half-black-half-mexican crossdresser? Ambiguous gender, not white, no pesky ideals about freedom rights, not patriotic (towards America anyway), speaks highly bastardized English--if any at all--and is a walking advertisement for gay rights at the same time!
2003-06-22 02:30 | User Profile
Originally posted by Cracker of the Whip@Jun 21 2003, 22:19 * How about the slug?*
already taken....the banana slug is the mascot of UC Santa Cruz
2003-06-23 13:02 | User Profile
*Originally posted by Drakmal@Jun 21 2003, 20:20 * ** How about a nice half-black-half-mexican crossdresser? Ambiguous gender, not white, no pesky ideals about freedom rights, not patriotic (towards America anyway), speaks highly bastardized English--if any at all--and is a walking advertisement for gay rights at the same time! **
Go hang around the MTV studios for a while. You'll find more of those than you could ever want.
EDIT: Or teach Richard Simmons to speak Ebonics and you've got it made.