COMMENTARY: Tribe loses feathers for good

This is the only time you will read supportive words for our conference foe William & Mary in this space. You’ve got to know the school’s weighty reputation-snobby students lapping at the feet of mighty men and women: Henry Kissinger, Sandra Day O’Conner, among many more superstars.

They’re real smart down there in Williamsburg. But snobs they all are; I know because my sister goes there.

Anyway, the venerable institution also known as the Tribe announced to the world last week that it will change its logo to comply with a National Collegiate Athletic Association program attempting to remove “hostile” and “abusive” American Indian-related mascots, nicknames, logos and imagery from the college sports lexicon.

The NCAA initiative, I assume, is attempting to preempt the legal circus that has dogged professional teams for years.

For example, the Washington Redskins have defended the use of their name and logo for 16 years from various legal challenges. Brainy activists have challenged the team on everything from racism and cultural insensitivities, to lobbying the U.S. Patent Office to revoke the trademark of the logo.

But are we talking about a true controversy here, or did a few angry and isolated people contrive this whole thing?

There is no doubt that we have treated our indigenous peoples like trash in our short history. They continue to be a marginalized population, among others, and that the status quo is untenable. We continue to fail these people.

But what are we really talking about here? Do American Indian-themed teams really perpetuate the racist feelings that were major factors in their initial demise? And if so, just what exactly goes too far?

The William & Mary Tribe is based in Williamsburg, a historical settlement that had an involvement-relationship maybe is a better word-with American Indians. The logo is “WM” with two green and gold feathers hanging off the back. Now, and I really want to know, how this is “hostile” and “abusive?”

It’s not!

That’s the answer. This is political correctness going way overboard. Why waste significant time with this garbage? You’re wasting my time.

William & Mary President Gene R. Nichol agrees.

“It is galling that a university with such a consistent and compelling record of doing intercollegiate athletics the right way is threatened with punishment by an organization whose house, simply put, is not in order,” he said in a media release.

Now, were we talking about the Redskins, whose logo is a Vince Lombardy-inspired profile of an American Indian warrior, and name that calls undue attention to skin hue – let’s just say that there are compelling arguments for both sides.

DC-based columnist Gregg Easterbrook, making light of the controversy, yet lobbying for change, wrote that the team should be renamed the “Potomac Drainage Basin Indigenous Persons.”

In fact, this writer believes that the Redskins may take the whole theme a tad bit too far in our current sensitive world environment. I don’t know if it’s racist or what. I’m just not qualified to pass that judgment.

But the name and logo should not change!

I don’t typically use exclamation points in my writing because I think them silly. But you should note that I’ve used two of them in this bit. That is because I want to make this perfectly clear: The Redskins should not change. William & Mary should not change.

It is specifically this sensitive world environment that provokes us, as educated people, to know better. It is marketing and money that motivates these franchises, not hatred and racism.

I grew up watching the Redskins fall from football grace (that’s another column, another time). At no time did I associate the team with the people. I spent zero seconds thinking, “You know, watching Rickey Sanders drop one in the back of the end zone makes me want to discriminate. I really hate those Indian folk.” It just didn’t happen.

The current troubles facing our aboriginal people are not caused or worsened by nicknames and logos. If anything, watching teams like the Redskins or Tribe reminds us that they’re still around. It’s sad, but true.

We all know that early Americans made quick work pushing American Indians around and worse. Who knows? One day, hopefully a distant day, these teams could be the only tangible reminder that American Indians were ever here at all.