[quote="SJUFAN2" post=367611]I go away for a few days and I come back to this? Crazy.
My two cents, and feel free to fact check me on this beacuse I wasn't around for most of it, but...
The name "Redmen" didn't come from anything related to Indians, American or otherwise. It was derived from the color of the uniforms the team wore. Syracuse are the "Orangemen" for the same reason. Finding offense in that word is absurd, unless you also feel that Cuse is racist towards Oranges as well.
The Indian Chief or Indian Warrior iconography came about much later when it was in vogue to use images like that in association with sports teams. Eventually society realized that it was using racist imagery in many cases and like most sports teams, St Johns chose not to actively or passively insult a minority group of Americans. I applaud that decision. I'd have preferred to keep the original Redmen name and ditch the offensive imagery, but understand the reasoning behind making a clean break.
My view on the old Redmen gear is simple. If it doesn't have the offensive imagery, go a head and wear it proudly. The name Redmen predated the Indian Logo by what...a half century or more? If you are sporting the Indian stuff, you should know that its offensive and reflects poorly on our fanbase and program. You have every right to be offensive, but you have to expect to take heat for that.
As for the BS comparison to the confederate flag...if you sport that disgrace in public you are supporting traitors to the United States and our constitution. It's your choice and your right to do that in this country, but only because the people that flag represents LOST the war they started. I hope you can appreciate the irony...[/quote]
You are a great poster here but the references to the Confederate battle flag and native American imagery are both true and exaggerated.
Yes, the Confederate flag represented a symbol of the nation's civil war and one of the tenents of the confederacy was the right to own slaves but it had many different meanings since the civil war. How many here lived in the south prior to the nineties? Long before our current cultural period of political correctness the flag had no connection with slavery or the civil war.
During the 1970s, the battle flag enjoyed a nationwide fad, and became a widely used popular culture symbol. "Confederate heritage groups protested and southern politicians legislated in vain against “desecration” when the flag assumed new meanings". It became a symbol of youthful rebellion, of “good ol’ boys,” (ever watch The Dukes of Hazard?) and southern rock music.
I lived for a period in both South Carolina and Texas in the 70's and loved going to concerts of the popular bands of the time. Over those years I attended dozens of concerts featuring great bands like Charlie Daniels, The Marshall Tucker Band, the Allman Brothers, Willie Nelson and others. It was common attire to wear a cap with the southern cross or tee shirts that had the Confederate flag in the art. That practice followed those bands even when they played in NYC, L.A. or Chicago. That generation (my generation) didn't associate the flag with racism. It was embedded into many state and city flags when I was in the south. In this era of political correctness symbols have become an increasingly negative image in the minds of the ultra liberal new morality left. Thus, anything remotely associated with that symbol, such as the southern cross, becomes a negative image and anyone wearing or using it becomes tarred and feathered.
As for depicting Indians, check out the official flag of New York City.