habitually probing generalist

Yesterday, the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced that Chief Illiniwek will perform for the last time on February 21st at the last men’s home basketball game of this season.

The campus-wide email was short and completely vague. We were asked that if we received any questions or had any concerns to quote the following:

Thank you for your comments about the recently announced decision on Chief Illiniwek. For more information, please refer to this web page: www.uillinois.edu/chief

You can email comments by clicking on Contact/Feedback link
[InfoSource@uillinois.edu] in the top section of the web page.

That URL goes to a page titled, Announcement Concerning the Chief Illiniwek Tradition. It, too, is extremely vague and consists entirely of links to other resources. If one reads the first item, Press Release, February 16, 2007, it only says that Chief Illiniwek will no longer perform. Pretty damn vague for the official press release. If you make your way to the 2nd item, FAQ, one can finally get to something resembling details.

Q What does this mean?
A It means the Chief Illiniwek tradition will be discontinued at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:
No connection of Chief Illiniwek to Illini athletics or the Marching Band.
No selection of a student to portray Chief Illiniwek.
No performance by Chief Illiniwek at Urbana athletic events, or other University events.
No use of the name Chief Illiniwek in connection with the University.

Both of those documents are pdf, by the way.

Well, it’s about damn time! I had given up on trying to sort this issue out. There really was no middle ground allowed by the groups at the two poles. There was also hyperbole, overemphasis, and quite possibly outright lies on both sides. I have no real doubt that this clearly was a case of racism, at least by some. It was certainly not that for others, either. But the fact that the decision took so long to make because of money and in the end was motivated by money (but from a different angle) is what makes it evil for me. It also was a major distraction from the educational mission of the University.

It was racist (to and for some), it was rude, inconsiderate, and completely uncalled for in this day and age, and it distracted from the mission of the University. This should have been an easy decision (morally) years ago. It is shameful that it has taken this long. And I wish I could say that it is finally over, but it will, unfortunately, be at least a couple years before it is truly over.

May we get there quickly and peaceably.

Update 19 May 2007: I reluctantly allowed the below comment because I wanted to address it. Unfortunately I am having trouble commenting on some of my own posts. Thus, I am adding my reply here and then turning off comments.

I almost did not approve your comment, but as I have been know to make a fool of myself in public I feel others ought to be given the same chance.

Anonymity is so very interesting and, while sometimes called for, is simply cowardly in this circumstance.

It’s not shameful or racist because YOU say so? Interesting how often that statement is made. Notice I did not claim that it was either of those things because I said so.

As for authentic … well, that’s just so wrong that it’s funny, in the sad way. The regalia may be; the “dance” is not; and (almost) anytime a white boy is dressed up as and supposedly representing another ethnicity is an issue.

The Seminole’s point of view is completely irrelevant in central Illinois. I wonder how “they” (that is, the corporate entity) might feel if they had no casinos or other corporate, money-making entities to support. Brands are powerful thing. I also find it ironic that the only Native American peoples not to sign a formal peace treaty with the US are now supporting the use of their name and image as a brand.

And while I, may perhaps, be stupid, I at least am respectful enough to know that a proper noun is capitalized.

Clearly, you are a troll. And not even a timely troll, seeing as this was written 3 months ago.

Thank you for your concern about my stupidity, and for demonstrating your own.

I will, now, finally turn off commenting on a post. I think this is the 1st one I have done so for.  If anyone really has anything serious to add to this they can contact me via other means. Honestly, though, re-read the post and you’ll see that it is not really something I care to discuss.