Althouse: "Dear Fellow Alumni, I write to you to address the recent controversy over our college’s long-standing mascot, Sir Racist Von Genocide."

September 6, 2018

"Dear Fellow Alumni, I write to you to address the recent controversy over our college’s long-standing mascot, Sir Racist Von Genocide."

"Clad in his flowing white robes and hood, he has been a traditional fixture on our campus. To my utter astonishment, after this year’s homecoming, many current students have called him 'culturally insensitive' and demanded we replace him. Yes, during Homecoming, he did erect a Confederate statue on the field while shouting a full-throated defense of eugenics into the loudspeaker. But what are we supposed to do? Buy entirely new sweatshirts?..."

The funniest part of this satire at McSweeney's is how over-the-top they thought they needed to be to mock the traditionalists.

"Sir Racist Von Genocide" reminds me of "Boaty McBoatface" — a name so repetitiously and heavy-handedly literal that it opens a door to devilishness.

Subtler humor, please. I'm afraid of "Sir Racist Von Genocide." I'm afraid people will love him.

70 comments:

robother said...: Isn't the function of a team mascot to strike terror into the hearts of opponents? The Mississippi Community College Klansmen could roll over their snowflake opponents just by showing up.; 9/6/18, 7:25 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Good point. Some teams are called "devils."; 9/6/18, 7:29 AM
Tom said...: I'm outraged. Our mascots cannot be granted titles of nobility!; 9/6/18, 7:30 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: "You must consider which you care more about: our sacred memories and traditions or, as the radical students say, 'critical thinking and basic human decency.'"

That they will make you an outsider isn't funny.; 9/6/18, 7:30 AM
traditionalguy said...: Is it national Straw Man Day, again? The Racist Industrial Complexhas to go back to the 1920s for its sympathy material now. The Old White Guilt she ain't what she used to be, many long days ago.; 9/6/18, 7:41 AM
Ralph L said...: More subtle humor or subtler humor?

A slight difference.; 9/6/18, 7:43 AM
Ralph L said...: The hand-wringing at UNC Chapel Hill is amusing. The University admin. hates the Confederate soldier monument (Silent Sam) as much as the SJWs who knocked it down last month, but state law prohibits the the removal of historic monuments without OK. Two people were arrested, but I doubt much will happen to them.

They put a guard on our monument for a while, just in case. We're a red county. Orange is deep blue.; 9/6/18, 7:53 AM
Phil 314 said...: Is Sparky offensive?

Well if its just U of A fans that's good!

And I want the Sun Devils football team to be offensive.; 9/6/18, 8:00 AM
CJinPA said...: Just take a crowbar to George Washington's name and likeness already. The anticipation is killing me.; 9/6/18, 8:11 AM
Expat(ish) said...: I thought it was a fine modest proposal.

I may not be very swift today tho.

-XC; 9/6/18, 8:25 AM
Mr. D said...: McSweeney's is usually funnier than that. On the other hand, they got through the whole piece without using "lodestar," so that's something.; 9/6/18, 8:38 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: I din't realize that McSweeneys was still existent.

I clicked on the Althouse Tag: there was a McSweeneys post in May, then nothing between then and 2012.

The word "twee" came to mind, and in a roundabout way of clicks I ended up reading a 2014 Atlantic article called "The Twee Revolution."

"Is Twee the right word for it, for the strangely persistent modern sensibility that fructifies in the props departments of Wes Anderson movies, tapers into the waxed mustache-ends of young Brooklynites on bicycles, and detonates in a yeasty whiff every time someone pops open a microbrewed beer? Well, it is now..."

"...You’re Twee if you hate bullies. Indeed, it’s Spitz’s contention that we’re all a bit Twee: the culture has turned. Twee’s core values include “a healthy suspicion of adulthood”; “a steadfast focus on our essential goodness”; “the cultivation of a passion project” (T-shirt company, organic food truck); and “the utter dispensing with of ‘cool’ as it’s conventionally known, often in favor of a kind of fetishization of the nerd, the geek, the dork, the virgin”..."

2012. 2014. “A steadfast focus on our essential goodness.” Smack in the sweet spot of the Obama years.

Was Obama twee?

A 2015 Vox piece had this to say about a photo of Obama in India:

"This photo from Obama's India trip looks exactly like a Wes Anderson movie...

"...Obama's state visit has so many of twee, ironic Wes Anderson hallmarks that one can only assume the White House has brought on the hipster director to stage manage the entire weeklong affair. Here are a few more of the signs:

The elaborate costumes, either a nostalgic holdover from British imperial rule, or the mis-en-scene of a hit play directed by star high school student Max Fischer (no relation)...

The weird smirks of President Obama and his wife Michelle, possibly because they have just filled Bill Murray's hotel room with bees in revenge for Murray stealing their crush...

A fancy state dinner, which presumably included elaborate stationery with offbeat typefaces, all designed by moody but precocious adolescents...

Michelle Obama's beautiful but enormous dress and her towering-over-her-hosts high heels, which at this point is as much as of a no-more-fucks-to-give trademark as Margot Tenenbaum's cigarettes and fur coats...

Anderson's continued practice of casting a short, iconoclastic Indian man in every film, although now that standby Kumar Pallana has passed away, Anderson has instead deployed Indian President Pranab Mukherjee...

The Vox article led to this.

I was then going to Google if David Sedaris is Twee, but I already know the answer.

I am Laslo.; 9/6/18, 8:41 AM
Wince said...: Two things struck me about this parody:

1.) The initial humor was erased line-by-line by a complete lack of subtlety or nuance that would connect it to the actual issue.

2.) The fake earnestness of the parody reminded of the anonymous NYT letter.; 9/6/18, 8:45 AM
gilbar said...: i went through the Althouse Amazon portal, but i can't find where we buy these t-shirts at?; 9/6/18, 8:57 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: I'm afraid of "Sir Racist Von Genocide." I'm afraid people will love him.

Yes. This is the end effect of constantly telling your opponents that they are racist, haters, etc, etc, etc, who want all minorities to be oppressed and eliminated etc etc etc ad nauseum.

Eventually, being sick and tired of being falsely accused and railed at, they WILL eventually decide to accept and embrace the label and find a figure head to propel their newly acquired group status.

Be careful about what you imagine about others and what you ascribe to other people as it may become a self fulfilling prophecy.; 9/6/18, 9:08 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "More subtle humor or subtler humor? A slight difference."

"More subtle humor" is ambiguous in a way I didn't notice. I've adopted your phrase, which is clear. Thanks.; 9/6/18, 9:09 AM
CWJ said...: DBQ,

"Deplorables" comes to mind.; 9/6/18, 9:20 AM
robother said...: There are so many powerful team mascot names up for grabs. No one fears "Giants" or "Bears" (much less "Cubs") anymore. But a name like "White Devils" could turn even LeBron's knees to jelly, after years of Farrakhan's preachments echoing in his ears. What mixed gender wrestling team could hope for victory against the "Testosterone Poison"?

Ethnic and Gender Studies courses have been an easy way for athletes to maintain eligibility. This could be their Achilles Heel to a creative athletic director trying to make a name for himself.; 9/6/18, 9:49 AM
buwaya said...: The greatest event in the last thousand years was Columbus' voyage.
It was followed by the European conquest of the world, and their invention of the modern world.

Just about everything human that exists, they made, or at least changed profoundly. The ubiquity of it is oddly unniticed because it is ubiquitous, but so it is anyway.

No getting around that. There are thousands of "Sir Racist von Genocide" to get angry about, but they created every last thing we touch and even every thought we think, no matter how black your skin.; 9/6/18, 9:52 AM
buwaya said...: It is very curious that so many American minorities, or their intellectual class, reject Western culture. It is plain that they have no alternate culture.

Hispanics of all kinds, no matter how Amerindian they are, are heirs to Rome and Greece (and Jerusalem) no less than (or even more than) some Scandi Lutheran in Wisconsin.

There is no Nahuatl home to go to, no Indio heritage, no roots to dig up.

There is no choice - Europe or a vacuum.; 9/6/18, 10:01 AM
rcocean said...: SJW humor isn't very good. Of course, all the SJW have to explain why "Sir Racist Von Genocide" was the mascot for 100 years without anyone giving a damn.

Maybe the SJW's can explain why they were racists that didn't care in 2008, but suddenly "woke" paragons of virtue in 2018.; 9/6/18, 10:05 AM
rcocean said...: I wonder if SJW's ever get tired of the "everyone's a racist except little wonderful me" act.

I don't need some whitey McWhite bread SJW telling me how much he cares about black folks, cause sorry I don't believe it.; 9/6/18, 10:07 AM
buwaya said...: Every Latino voter in Los Angeles is a direct heir, by blood, language and culture, of the Roman Empire. Their ancestors were ruled by Scipio and Caesar and Domitian. Their history is European history. Their ancestors marched with Gonzalo de Cordoba, and were with Charles V at Pavia.

They just don't know it.; 9/6/18, 10:14 AM
tcrosse said...: In order for us to have subtler humor, we must first have subtler reality.; 9/6/18, 10:16 AM
Wilbur said...: They'll be coming for your Badger some day.

Why? Because they can and it's there.; 9/6/18, 10:32 AM
Mr Wibble said...: They'll be coming for your Badger some day.

Why? Because they can and it's there.

Tearing down statues has as much to do with ending racism as burning couches does to winning football games. They're looking for an excuse to destroy, because they revel in the pleasure of destruction.; 9/6/18, 10:49 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: I like the White Devils idea. Get on board, Dukies! Elijah Mohammed made you DaBomb! Now use it.

I also can see the Eastern Michigan Honkies emerging from Ypslianti to smite those Wolverines.

Ole Miss: Bring back Colonel Reb! The LSU Nightriders would have a certain elan. And Alabama, you need to add the Workin’ Men to your logo: George C Wallace was the Friend if the Workin’ Man. You stop ‘em at the schoolhouse door!

Harvard should junk the Crimson in favor of the Southies. Yale should become the Pequot Warriors. UVA is ready to be the Slavers. Cal, dump the Bears: you are the Claimjumpers.

I am sure there is enough here to terrify everyone. Just do it.; 9/6/18, 10:52 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: The Loyola Inquisition also burns bright. The Notre Dame Torquemadas. The Oklahoma Rioters. The BYU Massacres.; 9/6/18, 11:03 AM
Lovernios said...: Remember when Canada held a referendum on renaming the Northwest Territories? The people's choice was "Bob", so they went with Nunavut.; 9/6/18, 11:04 AM
Lovernios said...: "Harvard should junk the Crimson in favor of the Southies."

This got me to thinking, Do people from South Boston have a nick name? I know if you're from Charlestown, you're a Townie. That's closer to Harvard, but could be confused as a town/gown type of thing. Probably the best name would be the hero of Southie, the guy who kept the drugs out of Southie, Whitey Bulger!

The Harvard Whiteys. Yeah, that's the ticket.; 9/6/18, 11:17 AM
buwaya said...: Jesuits weren't inquisitors, this was a job for the Dominicans.
Jesuits did their best work as educators and ideological commissars of the European aristocracy. Plus spies, "grey eminences", and the like.

As for Domincans, consider the song by the "singing nun", " Dominique".
Listen for the albigensians and heretics.

Unfortunately the Dominicans have a small footprint in the US, re universities.
There are a couple of Dominican Universities besides a number of other colleges. But none are elite or prominent.

The Jesuits could certainly be "black robes", and adopt a suitably sinister persona.; 9/6/18, 11:18 AM
PhilD said...: "while shouting a full-throated defense of eugenics into the loudspeaker"

Strange that the SJW's and their ilk have problems with that. Eugenics has always been a very progressive 'science'.; 9/6/18, 11:20 AM
Lovernios said...: "The Jesuits could certainly be "black robes", and adopt a suitably sinister persona."

That made me recall a book I read many years ago: Black Robe by Brian Moore.; 9/6/18, 11:25 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Parody pretty much fails, when it does, for two reasons- firstly, the wrong side is parodied; and secondly, the parody lacks so much nuance and skill that the reader is never in doubt about what he is reading. The quoted example fails in both ways.; 9/6/18, 11:29 AM
Yancey Ward said...: In fact, when reading it, I started to think the author was satirizing bad satirists.; 9/6/18, 11:32 AM
Carol said...: Their ancestors were ruled by Scipio and Caesar and Domitian.

...and then the Caliphate...; 9/6/18, 11:40 AM
Sigivald said...: McSweeney's mostly stopped being funny about a decade ago.

A shame, since they started out pretty strong ... but as a print vehicle, not as clickbaity reflexive-left signaling.; 9/6/18, 11:49 AM
Pianoman said...: One of my favorites has always been "Felonia von Pantsuit". I think it was Kurt Schlicter's reference to HRC.; 9/6/18, 12:04 PM
Lovernios said...: "Their ancestors were ruled by Scipio and Caesar and Domitian.

...and then the Caliphate... "

And between those two ... the Visigoths.

And before the Romans ... the Carthaginians.; 9/6/18, 12:11 PM
Fernandinande said...: That made me recall a book I read many years ago: Black Robe by Brian Moore.

Moore wrote the screenplay for the movie.

High points, probably mis-remembered:
- guy has to sing while getting his ear cut off with a shell.
- tribe turns Christian and gets wiped out.
- crazy midget shaman.; 9/6/18, 12:26 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Some school sports teams once called The Crusaders, many but not all of them Catholic, are now called The Vanguard, or where named by the illiterate, The Vanguards.; 9/6/18, 12:33 PM
buwaya said...: "...and then the Caliphate... "

This is one reason why the Inquisition and the Jewish-Islamic expulsions were a good idea.

It burned a lot of the Moorish-Islamic influence out.
Not all by any means, but all that was humanly possible in those days.
The rest was "hispanicized" and became native over time.

I've got some of that in the family, including Goths.
My great-grandpa was a "maragato", a cultural minority in Leon. They have a territory with their own villages near Astorga. They have their music, costumes, traditions, etc. In historical times they were a class of pedlars ranging the Penninsula. The old story, unprovable today, is that they were a tribe of Goths that had converted to Islam, and then converted back again of course.

Maragato = moro-godo

My mother has a photo of herself, as a little girl, in maragata costume giving a bouquet to the US High Commissioner Francis Sayre.

Europe was full of little ethnicities, before the nation-states. Some have survived.; 9/6/18, 12:46 PM
Fernandinande said...: More subtle humor or subtler humor?

It was humor?

Beside being written by a sixth-grader, it didn't make much sense because college mascots are rarely humans* unless they're Indians. Now, many and probably most Indians really are racists, what with their racially discriminatory reservations and stated Indian-self-preference hiring practices**, but they don't hang out clad in flowing white robes and hood.

The hand-wringing at UNC Chapel Hill is amusing.

Their mascot is a racist sheep clad in flowing white wool.

* College Mascots - there four "Colonels", including a frog and a dog and apparently two humans (no pic), and two "Crusaders", both apparently humans, and there are probably a few more out of the XX-hundred mascots listed.

** E.g. "Starting March 01, 2017, Department of Personnel Management is requesting that you attach your Navajo Nation Certificate of Indian Blood (CIB) to your Navajo Nation Employment Application (Revised 09/16/2016) to receive Navajo Preference."; 9/6/18, 1:05 PM
RMc said...: I also can see the Eastern Michigan Honkies emerging from Ypslianti to smite those Wolverines.

Oh, don't get me started. EMU changed their nickname from the unique "Hurons" to the incredibly boring "Eagles" back in 1991, because reasons. As an alumni, I refuse to give them a penny until they change the name back, and I'm not alone.; 9/6/18, 1:48 PM
Gahrie said...: It is very curious that so many American minorities, or their intellectual class, reject Western culture. It is plain that they have no alternate culture.

Much of it is ignorance. I teach in an 85% Hispanic high school in Southern California. You would not believe the reactions I get as I explain to the students why they are nearly as European as I am, many of them as White as I am.

The thing I don't understand is the Mexican reverence for the Aztec. First of all, the Aztecs were wiped out. Modern day Mexicans are not descended from the Aztecs, they're descended from the Aztecs' victims. Secondly the Aztecs were the assholes of Meso-America, the NAZIs. It would be like Germany having the swastika on their flag and longing for the days when the NAZIs were in power.; 9/6/18, 1:50 PM
gilbar said...: gahrie said " the Aztecs were the assholes of Meso-America, the NAZIs. It would be like Germany having the swastika on their flag and longing for the days when the NAZIs were in power."

technically, is would be like having Che Guevara your t-shirt, and longing for the days of the purges; 9/6/18, 1:58 PM
buwaya said...: "Much of it is ignorance."

Indeed. But a lot of it seems to be a semi-involuntary distaste for European history and culture. This goes back to some of the intellectual fashions of their own lands of origin. The lower classes get the nativism and the upper (or at least educated) classes get the European connection.

Its curious that in the US you get some ersatz Aztec things.

Aztec Costume SF Carnaval

But in Mexico you get some extremely Spanish things -

Coahuila - Tuna Universitaria

A "tuna" is a university tradition in Spain, these are student-faculty minstrel groups with medieval origins, using Spanish rondalla instruments and dressing in sixteenth-seventeenth century costumes - traditionally black, adopted, it is said, in mourning for Phillip II.

I once explained to an adoptive father of a Guatemalan boy, Santiago by name, the name given to him in Guatemala, that the lad was named after the Spanish war-cry - "Saint James!"
The reaction was discomfort, which I was not expecting. I thought it was cool.; 9/6/18, 2:22 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: You can be subtle, or even subtler, but you gotta make it obvious.; 9/6/18, 2:49 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: Maybe the Aztecs are to Mexico what the Confederates are to the US, but with much more killing. Because the Aztecs were brown we have to celebrate them.; 9/6/18, 2:50 PM
rcocean said...: "The thing I don't understand is the Mexican reverence for the Aztec."

They have no other culture to identify with. Particularly if they Left-wing. The Spaniards were the enemy, and the Royalists until the 20th century, and then there was Franco.

Many in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia - identify with the Incas not the Conquistadors.

The USA is different. The British hold on the colonialists were always light, and once we became independent is was easy to identify with the world's No. 1 industrial power, and World wide empire.; 9/6/18, 2:51 PM
rcocean said...: Besides the Aztecs were wiped out over 500 years ago. Other than the human sacrifice thingy - they're a blank slate you project anything onto.; 9/6/18, 2:52 PM
rcocean said...: There was a book called "1492" or maybe it was "1491", that was very popular. Anyway, it was absurd in its claim that the Aztecs had this great civilization that "we" destroyed.

They had philosophers that equaled the Greeks. Their religion equaled Christianity in its nuance and sophistication. They had studied Stars and had arts that would have made Leonardo De Vinci and Michelangelo weep with Jealousy. They were Kings.

Of course they didn't have an alphabet or word signs like the Chinese. Or the Wheel. And then there was that religion based on human sacrifice thingy. And none of their philosophy or art has survived - because no one liked it.

But anyway, they were just as good as the Spaniards - probably better.; 9/6/18, 2:59 PM
Chuck said...: Rob McLean said...
I also can see the Eastern Michigan Honkies emerging from Ypslianti to smite those Wolverines.

Oh, don't get me started. EMU changed their nickname from the unique "Hurons" to the incredibly boring "Eagles" back in 1991, because reasons. As an alumni, I refuse to give them a penny until they change the name back, and I'm not alone.

The University of Michigan, my alma mater, is known by the nickname "Wolverines," but there is no mascot and there never has been a mascot. In 1927, for the inaugural season in Michigan Stadium, a pair of caged Wolverines were borrowed from the Detroit Zoo and brought to a few games but it lasted just one season.

The winningest football program in college football history does not do mascots.

Michigan is 10-0 versus Eastern.; 9/6/18, 3:16 PM
Bilwick said...: "Sir Racist von Genocide" reminds me of Kurt Schlichter's name for Hillary: "Felonia von Pantsuit."; 9/6/18, 3:21 PM
rcocean said...: SJW's and Never trumpers.

Is there a difference?

They seem so, goddamn similar. Don't they?; 9/6/18, 3:22 PM
rcocean said...: Why are we naming sports teams after killers and Meat eaters.

Bears. Eagles. Lions. Tigers.; 9/6/18, 3:24 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: "Aztecs are to Mexico what the Confederates are to the US"

No, they're pretty much what the Indigians are to US -- a conquered people, renowned for their past glory and valor, who were simultaneously feared, reviled, and admired for their hardness and cruelty.

There was always a combination of honoring and fear in choosing sports team names like Blackhawks, Mohawks, Indians, etc., with the hope that the honor would go to the team, and the fear would go to the rivals.

The main difference is that most Mexicans have a considerable amount of Indigian blood, yes, even Aztec, and most US people don't have Indigian blood, or have very little of it.; 9/6/18, 3:35 PM
Tom said...: How's "Insufferable Twits" as a mascot name?; 9/6/18, 3:57 PM
traditionalguy said...: My thanks to Buwaya for sharing his wisdom today.; 9/6/18, 4:10 PM
Gospace said...: Bob. Boaty McBoatface. Give the people a chance to vote on something, especially if it's something they really don't care about, especially on the internet, and the trolls will come out.

Although I really did like Bob. As the campaign pointed out, Bob is a friendly name, everyone likes Bob.; 9/6/18, 4:15 PM
n.n said...: Is their mascot Hutu? Or Tutsi? They take turns.

Perhaps Anasazi. Not diverse, but genocidal.

Actually, the Hutu and Tutsi do not meet diversity standards. Perhaps the problem is #NoLabelsTooManyLabels.; 9/6/18, 5:51 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: buwaya said...
"...and then the Caliphate... "

This is one reason why the Inquisition and the Jewish-Islamic expulsions were a good idea.

It burned a lot of the Moorish-Islamic influence out

Nothing in Spain was improved by the expulsion of its Jewry. Columbus himself was a marrano, perhaps. The only important thing Spain ever did, and it was done by a Jew. That was at the peak of your civilization, it was all downhill from there.; 9/6/18, 10:52 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Colon wasn't a marrano; he was an Italian.; 9/6/18, 11:36 PM
buwaya said...: Spain had a very large Jewish population in the Middle Ages, I think at one time up to 10% of the population. Even before the expulsion most had already converted, and of those left in 1492, about 2/3rds also converted; indeed they continued to be a considerable part of the Spanish elite, its bourgeois, its class of merchants, well represented in government and the Church, well intermarried with the aristocracy even before the expulsion.

Only a minority took the option to emigrate permanently, a fragment only of the whole. This was no enormous population transfer.

Spain lost some Jews, but kept the vast majority, on its own terms. If you want to find the Spanish Jews, most of them, their descendants are still there. They are Spanish.

The Spanish Golden age was about 1550-1650, not in 1492.; 9/7/18, 12:17 AM
buwaya said...: Colon (Colombo) was most certainly Genoese. The evidence is overwhelming. It takes considerable creativity to assert otherwise. And if not Genoese one can imagine he was anything at all, Sardinian or Norwegian, Polish, Greek or Scottish, and find something to justify such a speculation.; 9/7/18, 12:28 AM
Scott M said...: Big McLargeHuge.; 9/7/18, 7:30 AM
Lovernios said...: TrumpHitlerMussoliniStalin von RacistSexistHomo-Trans-Xenophobe; 9/7/18, 9:05 AM
Lovernios said...: Herr Oberfurhrer TrumpHitlerMussoliniStalin von RacistSexistHomo-Trans-Xenophobe; 9/7/18, 9:20 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: The Spanish Golden age was about 1550-1650, not in 1492.

That was you living off the fruits. Spain is nothing now, a seaside resort. Has been for centuries.; 9/7/18, 10:13 AM
Lovernios said...: I could be wrong but I believe Spain produces the most wines of all wine producing countries.; 9/7/18, 10:56 AM