At the University of Northern Colorado, an intramural mens basketball team has adopted the mascot, "Fightin' Whities," in protest of a nearby high school's mascot, the Fightin' Reds. Members of the team say that the high school's mascot, a defiant, crooked-nosed Indian wearing a loincloth, is offensive to American Indians.
Dan Ninham, a member of the Oneida Nation, has called the Fightin' Reds mascot "one of the most blatantly racist mascots in the country," and high school officials have refused to discuss the concerns in committee. So, while keeping their official team name of Native Pride, the intramural team has continued its protest by adopting their own alternate, public mascot, complete with a clever slogan.
The intramural team, made up mostly of American Indian players but not without Anglo or Hispanic representation, made T-shirts featuring a caricature of a middle-aged white male accompanied by the slogan, "Everthang's gonna be all white!" These shirts are available for sale by e-mailing fightingwhities@hotmail.com, with all the profits going to an undetermined Native American cause.
This is where the movement goes wrong. By adding humor and irony to spur the movement, they have brought attention to the legitimacy of their own cause, but the act of marketing the movement with clever T-shirts made available to the public is a misguided move. What these shirts do, more than anything, is take attention away from the real issue. Will this cleverness bring about change? The realistic outcome will be a throng of eager consumers, a majority of whom won't get the point, but will have a clever T-shirt/conversation piece.
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