Backlash seen if Colonel Reb fades away

The Clarion Ledger, Jackson Ms. ^ | 05-21-03 | By Andy Kanengiser

[WKB]

He may be old, but Colonel Reb has people talking.

While a consulting group has been hired to study the longtime sports mascot and whether he should be updated or lost to history, Ole Miss fans are taking sides and debating the issue.

[WKB]

It is difficult for coaches to recruit African-American athletes.

The bottom line!

[Conspiracy Guy]

I think the latest incarnation looks like a pimp anyway.

[Magnolia]

"They are trying to get rid of the Old South imagery."

Bingo!

[zip]

The flip side is from Charles K. Ross, a professor of history and African-American Studies at Ole Miss. A change "definitely would be welcomed," Ross said. "It is difficult for coaches to recruit African-American athletes. It is difficult to recruit African-American faculty and students. ... These symbols have negative connotations for athletics.

How can he be a "professor of history" without ever studying history of the southern US? WE MUST NEVER ALLOW THE LEFT TO REWRITE (REVISE) HISTORY TO IGNORE REALITY. The symbol does not seek to reinstate slavery or even glorify it, it only shows part of history. This PC bs sickens me.

[Hatteras]

"I think the latest incarnation looks like a pimp anyway."

Hey, that's an idea! Just use Huggy Bear as the mascot!

[Conspiracy Guy]

Or Fat Albert. Hey hey hey let's football play.

[Comus]

I think the mascot for Ole Miss should be the 'Interior Decorators'. It sums up the manliness of most of the Ole Miss student body and alumni, or maybe the 'Bath House Boys.'

[Magnolia]

I thought trial lawyers as a mascot was a good idea. BTW, in the past Ole Miss Law School graduates weren't required to take the MS bar exam to be admitted. Has that changed?

[Seti 1]

Let's all join in a chorus of "I'm jes' a rebel so-jer":

I'm jes' a rebel so-jer and that is all I am
About this land of freedom I do not give a dam'
I hates the Freedmens' Bureau and uniforms of blue
And I hates the Declaration of Independence, too.

[Rebelbase]

When this happens, the loud sucking noise heard on campus will be Alumni dollars leaving the university.

[Magnolia]

Messing with a southern university's sports program is a sure way to halt the cash flow by alums. It will bring the administration to its knees very quickly!

[uncbuck]

As an historian, I find it difficult to understand when and why the reason for the Civil War became slavery. The symbol of Col Reb is a part of our collective history and represents a debate that still exists today, STATES RIGHTS.

Next you'll be seeing the end of the miniteman because it might offend people from Britain. Or more likly, the N.E. Patriot will become the N.E. Pu$$y because it offends democrats.

[Redbob]

A culture and a way of life is under siege, and the Yankees will never be satisfied as long as we're different from them.
Accents will be next.

[Redbob]

"Next you'll be seeing the end of the miniteman(sic)"

You haven't been paying attention to what's been going on a the U. of Mass., have you?
They've already tried to get rid of The Minuteman because he represents (a) guns, and (b) white men!

Honest, I'm not making this up!

[stainlessbanner]

Quick Poll

Leaders at the University of Mississippi are contemplating a makeover, or a complete replacement, for the decades-old Colonel Rebel sports mascot. The Ole Miss Loyalty Foundation recently spent 30,000 dollars for a study of Colonel Reb, Ole Miss lettering, and the university’s logos. Which mascot option would you prefer?

	13.4%
Replace the Colonel Rebel mascot

	12.8%
Make alterations to the Colonel Rebel mascot

	63.8%
Keep the Colonel Rebel mascot

	4.0%
Replace the mascot with an animal

	1.2%
Replace the mascot with a person

	4.7%
Another option, such as the Miami Hurricanes or the Alabama Crimson Tide

Total Votes: 1471

[dixiechick2000]

"It is difficult for coaches to recruit African-American athletes."

"They are trying to get rid of the Old South imagery..."

Getting rid of the "Old South imagery" is what this is all about.

Also, I guess they won't mind giving up all of that alumni money they are used to receiving.

[bourbon]

Yes. that has changed. Now all candidates for admission to the bar have to take the bar exam, regardless of which school they graduated from. I think the old "diploma rule" policy was repealed sometime in the 1970s, but I may wrtong about that.

[bourbon]

Accents will be next.

Accents of all kinds are already on the chopping block thanks to television.

[NCC-1701]

"...About 13 percent of Ole Miss' students are African Americans..."

The minority controlling the majority. Isn't that what all the stink was over apartied in South Africa? That ended years ago there and landed sqaurely in the USA. I have no ties to Ole MIss, but this PC ca-ca has GOT TO STOP! Little by little, the trappings of Rebel U are being stripped away. The flag was the first. Now this. end apartied in the US now. If some adherents to PC had their way, there would be bar codes on everything at Ole Miss. The Ole Miss Barcodes, how's that. Sucks dosen't it? Stand up against the change.

[WKB]

The flag was the first. Now this

We had to stop playing "Dixie" along the way to.

[bourbon]

OUCH! The news only gets worse for Ole Miss.

NCAA investigating Ole Miss.

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I wonder if the NCAA is leveraging Ole Miss to get rid of its troublesome, non-PC mascot?

I mean, the NCAA has already pressured Mississippi once about Confederate imagery. (SEE NCAA memo and news story). I don't know whether the NCAA has since backed off the positions it took during 2001, but it's worth pointing out.

[wardaddy]

Don't forget...no flags either.

[WKB]

It's like SARS being "more deadly" than first thought!!

[ought-six]

"As an historian, I find it difficult to understand when and why the reason for the Civil War became slavery."

Come on. If you're an historian you should know the answer to that. The victor always writes (or rewrites) the history, and in almost all cases in a light that is most favorable to them. In the case of the CW, the North had to justify its aggression by putting it in moral tones (i.e., they fought to free the slaves); "freeing the slaves" put them in a better light than admitting they went to war because they couldn't stand the insult to their egos by the South telling them to shove it. The South had every right to secede, and the North just couldn't abide that "act of rebellion". The North couldn't very well admit their arrogance and bully tactics were the main cause of the war. If the North cared so much about the slaves, why was it illegal in the North for blacks to vote, own property, or enter into contracts?

[WKB]

It only gets worse see #22

[WKB]

It only gets worse see #22

[SCDogPapa]

I did and your right.

NCAA investigating Ole Miss

I wonder why they don't ever investigate the drug problem, single parent homes and crime in the neighborhoods???????

Could it be because there is NO MONEY IN IT?????

[GOPcapitalist]

Next you'll be seeing the end of the miniteman because it might offend people from Britain.

Actually, that movement is already underway as well: http://www.masslive.com/news/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1052292610178622.xml

[GOPcapitalist]

We had to stop playing "Dixie" along the way to.

Are you sure about that? I saw Ole Miss at LSU last football season and the band there played a rendition of Dixie after they scored.

[WKB]

We had to stop playing "Dixie" along the way to.

There was an attempt to stop Dixie that failed. My Bad

[uncbuck]

The reason I find it hard to understand is that when I went to grade school, high school and college in New Jersey (That's in the heart of the north, in case you didn't know), and had all northern born and educated teachers and profs, it was drumed into us that the war was NOT fought over slavery. But that it was over states rights.

I'm not sure what is being taught now or even then in Mississippi, perhaps a different cause, but at some point, the left (revisionist historians) has decided to change history to fit their political agenda.

I'm not sure when that happened, but Burn's "The Civil War" has historians stating that it was fought over slavery.

Historians that I can only figure went to Ole' Miss.

[uncbuck]

"However, the Legislature raised a similar flag at the Confederate Soldier Monument on Statehouse grounds."


Next thing on the chopping block will be the Stars and Stripes removed from the tomb of the unknown soldier.

[speedy]

I'm as anti-PC as anybody, and I don't favor getting rid of the rebel, but from what I've seen of the school administration they are mostly Southern, not Yankees.

[Magnolia]

I think the old "diploma rule" policy was repealed sometime in the 1970s..

When I left in '79 it was still in effect. Glad to hear it's been repealed since then though.

[ought-six]

"The reason I find it hard to understand is that when I went to grade school, high school and college in New Jersey (That's in the heart of the north, in case you didn't know),...."

Oooh, getting a tad testy, aren't we, that you have to resort to personal attacks? New Jersey's in the north? Wow, I would have thought it was some place in England (Jersey is English, you know, and England has about as restrictive and oppressive a record on gun rights as New Jersey does). And wasn't it in New Jersey where the court ignored the law in order to allow the Democrats to substitute a losing Democratic senatorial candidate for one who had a chance of winning against the Republican candidate?

I'm in my 50s. I'm a Vietnam vet. I've lived pretty much all over this country at one time or another, (although I grew up in California). But I can tell you there is a definite difference in how the different regions view the Civil War. The North sees it one way, the South sees it another. And the West, when it sees it at all, sees it in any way it pleases so long as a buck can be made and whomever is in power at the time isn't offended. I've lived in three Southern states and graduated from a southern University; I currently live in Illinois (that's in the north, don't you know). I've lived out West. I've spent a good deal of time in the Northeast. Believe me, the Civil War is almost as divisive today as it was 140 years ago, and it's all because of agendas.