By Phillip M. Bailey
The Final Four’s impact is inescapable, even for the most jaded student. For the past week, our editors have been reminding us that the Cardinal Nation has been getting unprecedented exposure; therefore columnists and reporters should bring their A-game. So join me while we walk through the Cardinals’ first — and last — opponent, No. 1-ranked Illinois.
I found the University of Louisville and the University of Illinois have a lot in common.
At the tip-off, although U of L’s Provost Shirley Willihnganz graduated from Illinois, she declared her loyalty to the Cardinal Nation. Cards 1, Illini 0.
Both schools have conservative activists. But the Orange and Blue Observer, Illinois’ conservative rag, staged a raffle -— first prize was an AK-47. The introverted U of L conservatives, however, are mostly shrew-like faculty who’ve tried to exorcise left-of-center students and colleagues through proper channels of grievance, while our own conservative student newspaper, The Louisville Patriot, still thinks calling feminists “ugly” is edgy punditry. Cards 1, Illini 1.
It looks like this could go into overtime,
But wait! Eureka! It’s the ubiquitous last-second campus race issue. The Big Orange have a big black eye when it comes to their mascot, “Chief Illiniwek,” a character in buckskins, feathery headdress and face paint.
Banned from performing at away games by other Big Ten schools and benched for the Final Four, the Chief was backed by the university’s board of trustees in 1990. But last fall the board unanimously adopted a resolution that whatever consensus conclusion it reached would include recognition of Native American cultures and traditions.
Every national Native American organization that has taken a stance on the issue has called for the elimination of the Chief, from the American Indian Council of Illinois to the entire Cherokee Nation.
A lawsuit by the Illinois Native American Bar Association seeks to force the school to stop using the Chief as its sports mascot.
“The use of this mascot is outrageous. It’s been going on way too long and it should come to an end,” said Kim Edward Cook, the association’s president. “We’ve tried for a long time to work with the Board of Trustees with the University of Illinois and we haven’t been able to get them to recognize that the use of the Chief Illiniwek is a racial stereotype.”
Still, almost 70 percent of Illinois students support the Chief, and board members — namely trustee William Engelbrecht — maintain paternalist views. “Chief Illiniwek is a respectful remembrance of those people,” Engelbrecht said. For the record: paternalism that ignores the publicly stated views of Native American organizations, activists and their allies in the name of school tradition is wrong-headed and racist.
Before belittling Native American advocates as “crybaby minorities,” look at the mascot’s origins. The dance and costume were derived from a 1926 Boy Scout project. The music is composed by the University of Illinois band director using Hollywood beats. What next? The campy television show ‘F Troop’ as the course material for the into to Native American Studies? That lack of authenticity makes the school tradition argument all the more embarrassing and, yes, racist.
U of L, on the other hand, has as its mascot an anthropomorphic bird of which the worst that can be said is that he’s anatomically incorrect: cardinals don’t have teeth.
The final score? Cards 2, Illini 1. Respect for Native Americans, 0.
Phillip M. Bailey is a junior double-majoring in Political Science and Sociology, Chair of the U of L SNCC and is a columnist for The Cardinal. E-mail him at:pbailey@louisvillecardinal.com
