Coachella Valley High's 'offensive' mascot

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Some people will be offended by everything. They need to get over themselves.

Indeed. What a world, what a world......... *sigh*

Fans of the football club Tottenham Hotspur call themselves 'Yids', which has caused some controversy. Most Jews and Jewish organisations are not offended by this nickname in the slightest, though.

On another note, I don't hear anybody in Minnesota of Scandinavian descent complaining about the name of their NFL team, the Vikings (they've actually embraced it).

Thats why they came up with that name in the first place- Minnesota was settled by Scandanavians. Like Notre Dame's 'Fighting Irish" was largely made up of actual Irish Americans.

The issue isnt simple.

If you founded a new team would you name it "the Samurai"?

Would you name it "the Japanese"?

Would you name it "the Nips"?

It makes a difference. The first would bother only a few people. The second would be considered a REALLY strange moniker. The last would get you rightly publicly roundly condemned.

"The Arabs" is like "the Japanese". Maybe not offensive, but certainly odd.

The 'Vikings" is like the first. And so is the "the Atlanta Braves". Ancient warroriors who happened to be associated with particular ethnic groups. I have no problem with that myself.

However "the Cleveland Indians" is like "the Arabs"- a bit odd in this day and age. But not really offensive.

But "the Washington Redskins"?

Thats even worse than "the Nips". It would be like having a team called "the Slanty Eyed Yellowskins".

Maybe the name "Redskins" is now "too big to fail" as an institution, but it still an asinine name.

In all my life, I have NEVER heard the term "Nip" used before, only "Jap" (no offense to anyone of Japanese descent here). Nip could however, be misinterpreted as some as "Nipples", which would also cause problems.

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/amer ... l-mascots/ - On the note of offensive high school mascots, the #1 choice in this article is the one that started this discussion. The others will baffle you, too.

Is this actually causing controversy in the US? Or is it just one of those weird little facts that make for interesting topics of conversation?

If this is actually causing controversy, then wouldn't it be easier to rename the team to something like "Sultans", which is still Arabic? I don't care one way or another, but if it's controversial then there are easy solutions available.

Im a boomer with parents who grew up during WWII when we were fighting the "Nips, and the Krauts". The former is short fo "Nipponese"( what they call themselves), and the other for "Saurkraut"( what they eat). The Nips ofcourse were also called "the Japs". But now even "Jap" is ambiguous- it can mean "Jewish American Princess" nowadays.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 17 Nov 2013, 3:17 am, edited 2 times in total.

There is a city in North Alabama named Arab. It's pronounced with the hard "A" though. "AYE-rab", not the soft Ah-rub. I don't know if the people who live there are called AYE-rabs or Arabians or Arabites or whatever, because while some towns have a name for their citizens, not all do. I could see if their ball team was the Arabs. Because the town is Arab.

We have lots of Native American mascots down here and I haven't seen anyone say anything about it. Most people who are from Alabama have some Native blood and are pretty proud of it. We also name county's after tribes, so it's not just high school mascots. Also, mascots don't have to make sense or mean anything. Alabama is the Crimson Tide, but our mascot is an elephant named Big Al. Auburn is the Tigers but their mascot is an eagle. It doesn't make sense. Any more so than what a Nitney Lion is or a school naming it's teams after fighting roosters.

I know people get upset over the Redskins because it's considered to be a slur, and it's considered that by more than just Cowboy fans. But what's wrong with the Fighting Choctaws or the Navajo's? Whats wrong with the Fighting Irish or an actual name of a group when it's not a slur? I never really understood the offense taken over it. I'm not saying that those offended shouldn't be or have no right to be, anybody has a right to feel whatever they feel, but I simply don't understand it. There's a team called the Rebels, and I doubt seriously anybody down here would get upset if somebody named a school the Rednecks, and without a doubt most of us are.

I'm not into sports anyway, but that's just my opinion on the whole naming teams. I'm not saying they should have named their teams the Arabs, that just makes no sense, but then again, they are running out of things they can use because somebody, somewhere will get mad. Remember the family on SNL in the 70's called "The Whiners"? I'm not calling people who complain about team names whiners, ok. I'm not. I would like somebody somewhere to name their team "The Whiners" and then just sit back and see who complains, if anybody does. Again, they aren't whining, that would just be something really amusing to see happen. It would be like nobody could say anything.

Didn't know that latter fact. You learn something new every day.

Back in 1991 we lived across the street from an old lady who was called "Nip". She was American though. Irish and Cherokee and some other European bit of DNA just like the rest of us. I don't remember her first name but I know it didn't start with an N. She was in her 50's then so she seemed old and I was friends with her DIL who lived next door to her. The DIL told me that they called her Nip because when she was young she would sneak away and have a quick drink - a "nip" it was called way back then. And I'm turning 50 in April and I just called someone in her 50's old. Uh oh. Anyway, I've never heard it as any kind of a slur.

"Nips, and Krauts" was a common phrase like "Hitler, and Tojo", during the big one. And even a generation later in the Seventies- folks my college-age- usually knew (from war movies, or from their parents) of the term "Nip". In fact a British tabloid got into trouble in the Seventies when they put a pic of Emperor Hirohito on the tarmac of a london airport on his way to a state visit over the headline "Its Fall, and there's a little Nip in the Air".

Pre WW 2 china that was made in Japan will say Nippon on it.

Remember when stuff that was made in Japan was just crap? Now it's the best you can get! Saying it was made in Japan used to be an insult.

Indeed. Just look at my Nintendo Entertainment System; it's almost a quarter-century old, but the games can still be playable! (Unlike most of today's VG systems, which tend to break down after a year or two.)