NCAA right to hinder use of abusive names

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They're howling in Tallahassee over the NCAA's ruling that prohibits 18 schools with Native American mascots to display "abusive and hostile" imagery at NCAA championships and barring schools that refuse to get rid of such imagery from hosting championship events.

The Florida State Seminoles, they argue, have a good relationship with the Seminole tribe of Florida and the school has permission to use the name.

That position, however, conveniently overlooks the "tomahawk chop" chant that fills Doak Campbell Stadium during each Florida State home game.

That, folks, is racist, and that is the point of the NCAA's action.

Native Americans have, for decades, protested the use of offensive imagery and names and did what they could to get schools to change. But they have met considerable resistance along the way from those who claim, without backing from the Native people, that the nicknames, mascots and logos are intended to honor the tribes and aren't plundering cultures that have been brutalized for hundreds of years.

So, the NCAA had to step in to stop the use of those images and mascots such as Illinois' Chief Illiniwek at events the national college sports sanctioning body can control. In doing so, however clumsily, it is attempting to create a ripple effect to force the 18 schools to change their mascots or imagery or both.

Those who oppose the NCAA's ruling say that it is political correctness run amock. But they miss the point entirely.

Many Native people see the images and mascots far differently than do sports fans and alumni. They find the imagery and mascots racist and offensive. That alone should be reason enough for institutions of higher learning to eliminate them.

Similarly, those who raise Notre Dame's use of the Fighting Irish as a justification for Native nicknames miss the point. First, Irish is not a race, it's an ethnic group. But more to the point, the Irish didn't care for being used as a mascot in the 1920s, when Notre Dame introduced the nickname. So there's really not that much difference on the offensiveness level.

The other argument against eliminating the nicknames might be the most ridiculous of all — that the names shouldn't be changed because of "tradition."

 Anybody remember what Stanford's nickname was prior to 1972? It was Indians. But it was changed to the Cardinal, the only name anyone knows for Stanford now. That was about the same time Oklahoma retired "Little Red," its patently racist mascot that has not been missed.

More recently, St. John's went from Redmen to Red Storm, with no appreciable change in support for the school or its athletic teams.

Put simply, it is time for colleges and universities to retire offensive nicknames. The NCAA's action is pushing that process forward.