Minuteman faces P.C. onslaught

[XPav]

http://www.masslive.com/news/republi...2610178622.xml

For Freedom!

[Jim F.]

Just change the name to "Minuteperson" and the atheletes to "Minutepeople".

This type of stuff always annoys me. One of our local high schools had to change their name from "Black Knights" to "Knights" because the term "black" wasn't poltically correct. Apparently, the black knight is considered evil, and since it is the word "black" that makes "knight" evil, it was deemed to be racist.

Yay P.C.! Eventually all our teams are going to be named after vegitables or something. The Ralston Cherry Tomatoes!

[Mastema]

The university I attend changed our mascot from Cossacks to Seawolves last semester. Far as I know it's because some vocal people didn't like being associated with a Russian warrior. Now we're Seawolves. And very much located inland, also.

[dwinn]

I think it's more about merchandising than anything else. If it was allowed, every team would have two names, three logos, and nine different jersey color combinations.

[XPav]

My high school was the Raiders. We had an indian mascot, we changed to an armored knight mascot. I think that Native American mascots and names should be changed, but yeah, this Minutemen thing is just a little too much.

Reminds me of the Southpark episode where they replaced all the guns in all the Spielberg movies with walkie talkies... including Saving Private Ryan.

[Supertanker]

My school did sort of the opposite. A couple years ago they joined the Big West, and then replaced the goofy cartoon highlander bear mascot (Scotty) with a Grizzly bear in Braveheart war paint. Pics of Scotty are hard to come by, but you can see both forms here.

[Squirrel Killer]

My school did sort of the opposite...Pics of Scotty are hard to come by, but you can see both forms here.

I don't know which is worse, they're both terrible logos:

Too small:


Too scary:

[Because They Are Hirsute]

Long ago my high school's athletes were known as the "Fightin' Quakers," which is the best goddamn sports name ever, since the central point of Quaker doctrine is pacifism.

[Reeko]

I went to the University of Louisiana - Lafayette, home of the Ragin' Cajuns. The school sometimes gets grief because 'cajun' doesn't represent the many black people who live in the area. So here, it's not that the group is offended, it's the people who aren't included that are offended.

[Jason McCullough]

Just change the name to "Minuteperson" and the atheletes to "Minutepeople".

This type of stuff always annoys me. One of our local high schools had to change their name from "Black Knights" to "Knights" because the term "black" wasn't poltically correct. Apparently, the black knight is considered evil, and since it is the word "black" that makes "knight" evil, it was deemed to be racist.

Yay P.C.! Eventually all our teams are going to be named after vegitables or something. The Ralston Cherry Tomatoes!

Um, but isn't Black Knights racist then?

Hypo: the phrase "the evil Black Infantry" brings up some wierd connotations.

[Brian Koontz]

Just change the name to "Minuteperson" and the atheletes to "Minutepeople".

This type of stuff always annoys me. One of our local high schools had to change their name from "Black Knights" to "Knights" because the term "black" wasn't poltically correct. Apparently, the black knight is considered evil, and since it is the word "black" that makes "knight" evil, it was deemed to be racist.

Yay P.C.! Eventually all our teams are going to be named after vegitables or something. The Ralston Cherry Tomatoes!

Um, but isn't Black Knights racist then?

No. Knight is a Christian term, and a Black Knight is a Heathen Knight... an Unholy Knight so to speak. It has nothing to do with ethnicity.

Though there's perhaps something wrong with celebrating religious intolerance... ;)

[Dirt]

"My high school was the Raiders. We had an indian mascot, we changed to an armored knight mascot. I think that Native American mascots and names should be changed, but yeah, this Minutemen thing is just a little too much."

I think that that is representative of the Crusaders that invaded the Holy Land. It's an affront to all Arab Americans everywhere; they need to change it.

[Woolen Horde]

Just change the name to "Minuteperson" and the atheletes to "Minutepeople".

This type of stuff always annoys me. One of our local high schools had to change their name from "Black Knights" to "Knights" because the term "black" wasn't poltically correct. Apparently, the black knight is considered evil, and since it is the word "black" that makes "knight" evil, it was deemed to be racist.

Yay P.C.! Eventually all our teams are going to be named after vegitables or something. The Ralston Cherry Tomatoes!

Um, but isn't Black Knights racist then?

No. Knight is a Christian term, and a Black Knight is a Heathen Knight... an Unholy Knight so to speak. It has nothing to do with ethnicity.

Though there's perhaps something wrong with celebrating religious intolerance... ;)

Yup, a Black Knight has absolutely nothing to do with race. It had to do with a rogue or evily dark knight. Africans were simply called Moors, and they had no knights, at least, not to Christian Europe at the time.

In a way, it reminds me of that "scandal" about 5 years ago or so, when that white school administrator used the word "niggardly" to describe something. A firestorm erupted, because all African Americans in the heavily African-American school district thought it was a play on "nigger", when it's actually a Scandavian word that dates back to the middle ages that just means "grudgingly mean about spending or granting."

[Mark Bussman]

In a way, it reminds me of that "scandal" about 5 years ago or so, when that white school administrator used the word "niggardly" to describe something. A firestorm erupted, because all African Americans in the heavily African-American school district thought it was a play on "nigger", when it's actually a Scandavian word that dates back to the middle ages that just means "grudgingly mean about spending or granting."

Yeah, I bet. How many apologies did he receive?

[Timemaster Tim]

I think the enire country of Nigeria should apologize for its name. It clearly is an insult to its own people.

[Rywill]

Long ago my high school's athletes were known as the "Fightin' Quakers," which is the best goddamn sports name ever, since the central point of Quaker doctrine is pacifism.

My school had the "Orangemen," which I thought was the worst mascot ever, until I heard what their prior mascot was: the Saltine Warriors. I was like, Wow, we fear no soup.

[Ben Sones]

Heh... yeah, I thought orange and blue were an ugly pair of school colors, until I learned that the original school colors were pink and green. I hadn't heard the "Saltine Warriors" thing, though. Funny.

[TimElhajj]

I work in the software industry. Once had a product code name Crusade changed because it wasn't PC. Worst part was the lead was from down under and changed it to Gunnametta, which is a beach in Australia. When we released test bits it was called Gunnametta Beta. Ha!

[XPav]

I work in the software industry. Once had a product code name Crusade changed because it wasn't PC. Worst part was the lead was from down under and changed it to Gunnametta, which is a beach in Australia. When we released test bits it was called Gunnametta Beta. Ha!

I named a couple projects "Frodo" and "Rohan".

CEO was not amused because he didn't know what we were talking with him and he'd get confused.

This is in our company that at the time had involved with this project:

2 software guys
CTO
CEO

This was the only project. He couldn't get the names straight. More annoying was that it didn't even matter that he knew what they were in the first place. So basically, he made me come up with boring meaningless names just because the thought the original names were too creative.

And then we had a nice argument about computer names.... I tend to be of the opinion that you don't put the OS or employee name in the computer name, so you don't end up with W98_STEVE 2 years later that's running Windows 2000 and operated by Joe.

I think I won that one though.

[TimElhajj]

Man, that's bad Alex. Maybe he was just being obtuse because he secretly wanted to name them after his wife or girlfriend. I have noticed that coming up with the code name is always a huge competition. Everyone wants to name it. I am that way about my computers. At MS the hard part is finding a cool computer name that hasn’t already been taken.

[Jason McCullough]

The perceived offensive of phrases is an interesting subject. Since definitions are pretty much the consensus opinions of society, and change over time, it's a chicken-egg problem. If no one knows the "Black Knight" refers to something not racially charged, does it become so? Dunno.

[Because They Are Hirsute]

If no one knows the "Black Knight" refers to something not racially charged, does it become so?

What the fuck are you saying, Jason? Since language is fluid, therefore "black knight" could mean "negro in chain mail" because, hey, you never know?

[Jason McCullough]

I'm saying that if only .01% of society knows what "niggardly" means, then over time it will probably end up meaning with the other 99.99% thinks it does. Same deal with the black knight thing, I guess.

[Mark Asher]

In a way, it reminds me of that "scandal" about 5 years ago or so, when that white school administrator used the word "niggardly" to describe something. A firestorm erupted, because all African Americans in the heavily African-American school district thought it was a play on "nigger", when it's actually a Scandavian word that dates back to the middle ages that just means "grudgingly mean about spending or granting."

Yeah, I bet. How many apologies did he receive?

Here in St. Louis a government official resigned recently after using "niggardly".

"Along these same lines, we've had two recent cases of people accused of saying stupid and hurtful things here in St. Louis. Jane Geiler was forced to resign from her $96,000-a-year gig as Drug Court commissioner after she allegedly misused the word "niggardly." The seldom-used word means miserly, but Geiler was accused of using it to describe a black prosecutor who was late to court."

That's from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

[Jim F.]

The perceived offensive of phrases is an interesting subject. Since definitions are pretty much the consensus opinions of society, and change over time, it's a chicken-egg problem. If no one knows the "Black Knight" refers to something not racially charged, does it become so? Dunno.

That was my point. There is nothing at all wrong with Black Knight. As a matter of fact, the "mascot" on the helmets of the football team was a black knight from a chess board.

However, some local group, looking for something to get upset about, keyed in on "black" being in the name. They then followed the insane path of knight = good, black knight = bad, so black = bad. What is really sad is that the school caved in after 2 board meetings and began the process of voting on a new name.

This, incidentally, is the same group that claimed that placing cameras at stop lights to catch red light runners is racist and hurts the poor because there are more lights in the inner city, so there were more opportunities for them to be accidentally run, costing the inner city residents $10 a shot.

It's just amazing the lines of logic some people follow.

I'm going to see if I can find a link to these events. These are the kind of stories that sound like BS because they are so out there.

[Jason Levine]

The "PC Mascot" movement has gotten so ridiculous that I've even heard from fellow alumni of my high school whose mascot is the Tigers. Seems that for these folks the fact that the tiger is a predatory animal "sends the wrong message." You wonder what "message" these people are hearing in their brains.

[Aleck]

In a way, it reminds me of that "scandal" about 5 years ago or so, when that white school administrator used the word "niggardly" to describe something. A firestorm erupted, because all African Americans in the heavily African-American school district thought it was a play on "nigger", when it's actually a Scandavian word that dates back to the middle ages that just means "grudgingly mean about spending or granting."

Yeah, I bet. How many apologies did he receive?

Here in St. Louis a government official resigned recently after using "niggardly".

"Along these same lines, we've had two recent cases of people accused of saying stupid and hurtful things here in St. Louis. Jane Geiler was forced to resign from her $96,000-a-year gig as Drug Court commissioner after she allegedly misused the word "niggardly." The seldom-used word means miserly, but Geiler was accused of using it to describe a black prosecutor who was late to court."

That's from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Back in 1999 an aide to the Mayor of DC (who is, incidentally, Black) was basically forced to resign after using the word niggardly.

Sadly enough, he used it correctly, but a number of black community leaders took offense at it (including, sadly, a number of ministers). As a result, he was forced out of the city government -- despite apparently being fairly capable (which is a ringing endorsement for DC government officials!). His sin was being white and using a word that anyone who scores about 1200 on his/her SAT should know.

Personally, I don't think that you can/should get upset because someone uses a word correctly and you don't know that word. I mean, yes, the word faggot can be offensive, when when you refer to a small bundle of wood as a faggot your audience needs to be made up of morons to get offended.

Then again, it's the morons getting offended, so....

asjunk

[voltaic]

Don't be so niggardly about your faggots.

Voltaic for President! Haahaha

[dwinn]

West Point actually changed the Army team name from "Cadets" *to* "Black Knights" a couple of years ago, strangely enough.

[Xaroc]

And then we had a nice argument about computer names.... I tend to be of the opinion that you don't put the OS or employee name in the computer name, so you don't end up with W98_STEVE 2 years later that's running Windows 2000 and operated by Joe.

I think I won that one though.

In our company when an employee leaves their machine is wiped and Win2k is put on and a new name is assigned to the computer consisiting of the users first initial, last name, and a laptop or desktop designation. That way what you are talking about never happens. I use various names for my machines at home due to the fact there are only a few of them and they are easy to remember. In a work setting it is far easier to find jsmith on the network than it is to try and figure out Joe Smith's computer is called Gandalf.

-- Xaroc