According to the New York Times, After many years of complaints about a mascot dressed as a Confederate soldier as the symbol of a university where 14 percent of students are black, Ole Miss is retiring Colonel Reb for good this football season.
The white-bearded, cane-toting mascot has not been the Rebels’ official team cheerleader since 2003. But his image is still used on fan merchandise such as T-shirts, Confederate flags and corkscrews.
This summer, Ole Miss announced a ban on the sale of any items with his image. The university will soon hold a student-run election to pick a new mascot.
It is part of a plan to change the university’s image, still tarnished by racial strife in the 1960s. Confederate battle flags were discouraged from football games years ago, and “Dixie” is no longer the unofficial fight song OF Ole Miss.
Like controversies have occurred at other colleges involving team names or mascots of American Indians.
For example, Florida State University had to sign a special agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida .
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has a prohibition against use of Native American logos, signs in stadiums, cheerleader and band uniforms, and mascots as presumed "hostile and abusive."
Florida State University (FSU) was exempted from the NCAA ban after the threat of litigation. FSU has an agreement with the 3,100-member Seminole Tribe of Florida. During the dispute, the Oklahoma Seminoles also endorsed FSU use of the name and image.
Rightadia congratulates Ole Miss for discarding a a symbol of the defeated Confederacy. The GOP lack of leadership in the South and its misguided rhetoric about state's rights is responsible for a lot of this confederate nonsense.
More people died in the civil War than all other US wars combined. It is a sad period of US history that should not be esteemed or celebrated. Indeed, the slaves were freed, but many black people did not enjoy full civil rights in the US until the 1960s.
source: The New York Times and Wikipedia
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