"...Colored people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don't feel good about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Burn it. Someone's written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight outside. Better yet, into the incinerator...."
-- Fahrenheit 451
Dear NCAA:
Last Friday I read your policy that forbids "displaying hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery at any of the 88 NCAA championships."
"Finally!" I thought. "There's a macot out there that offends me every time I hear it! Maybe now this school will finally change their mascot to something less offensive."
So I read through the list of schools who have mascots you deem offensive.
Much to my dismay, I didn't see Nortre Dame's mascot anywhere on the list.
As a proud Irish-American, I am offended by the school nickname Fighting Irish. It is a slur on all Irish-Americans. In case the NCAA is unaware, the label "Fighting Irish" derives from "anti-Catholic nativists who reviled the poor and mostly uneducated Irish immigrants who came to these shores in the mid-19th century--a drunken, brawling breed, it was said, who espoused the wrong religion."
By not adding Notre Dame to the list, it's obvious that the committee that adapted this rule are a bunch of Irish-American bigots.
The truth is that most Irish-Americans are hard working, productive citizens. We obey the law, pay our taxes, and raise our children to be good Americans.
And what do we get in return? Nothing but hatred and a cold shoulder wherever we go.
Just the other day I was at the bank depositing my hard earned money. When the teller brought up my account info she asked if Keogh was Irish. I told her it was.
"Shouldn't you be out drinking or chasing leprechauns or something?" she said.
See what we have to endure.
And you know where ideas like this come from, don't you?
Television. Especially sports related television.
In a matter of weeks college football will start. Norte Dame will start another outstanding season and the term Fighting Irish will be said over and over again on ESPN. And the amount of harassment that I and other Irish-Americans will experience will go up as well.
Soon I won't be able to walk down the sidewalk in my own neighborhood without someone wondering if I'm simply looking for trouble.
You may say that most Irish-Americans don't care.
Well, I do.
And in a society where all we're concerned about is another's feelings, that should be enough to justify banning the Fighting Irish mascot.
Thanks for your consideration in this matter.
I look forward to you adding Norte Dame to the list.
Sincerely,
Abel