Posted on 12/21/2013 7:07:42 AM PST by markomalley
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed an Indian mascot bill on Thursday that will make it harder for politically correct meddlers to force public schools around the state to change their mascots, logos and team names.
Before he signed the bill, Walker informed state tribal leaders in a letter.
“I share many of your concerns about some of the mascots and nicknames used in Wisconsin and across America,” the governor wrote, according to The Capital Times. “If it were up to me personally, I would seek viable alternatives that were not offensive to Native Americans.”
In the same letter, Walker also pointed out that a previous law allowing a single complainer to instigate a review process and then a name change flouted the First Amendment rights of everybody else.
“If the state bans speech that is offensive to some, where does it stop?” he said. “A person or persons’ right to speak does not end just because what they say or how they say it is offensive.”
Wisconsin Indian Education Association spokeswoman Barbara Munson described the new law as “institutionalized racism.”
“This is a poke in the eye with a sharp stick to all of the tribes and all of our children,” she told The Cap Times on Thursday.
“Attorneys are discussing this as we speak,” she added sternly.
Chris Ahmuty, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, chimed in defending free speech calling for chilling limitations on free speech. Ahmuty called Walker’s free-speech argument “bogus.” Amazingly and hilariously, he also suggested that the First Amendment does not extend to Wisconsin schools and communities.
The new law, colloquially called AB 297, replaces another law colloquially called Act 250. The old law took effect in 2010 after it was signed by Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat.
Act 250 forced school districts to prove that their mascots were not offensive after a single individual filed a complaint. The new law requires offended people who claim offense to start a petition and obtain signatures from 10 percent of the adult population within a school district.
“No longer will the mere existence of an Indian logo, mascot or team name automatically be construed as a violation of state law,” said the lead legislative sponsor of the bill, Republican Steve Nass.
Offended individuals had complained against the mascots and logos of four Wisconsin school districts under Act 250. Three of those school districts capitulated voluntarily. The Mukwonago Area School District — home of the Mukwonago Braves — chose to fight.
“We’re pleased that Wisconsin’s elected officials have heard the overwhelming majority of residents loud and clear on this issue,” said Mukwonago School District attorney Sam Hall in a statement obtained by the Wisconsin Daily Independent. “Wisconsin now has a law that eliminates the kangaroo court that school districts and their residents have been subjected to since the Doyle administration.”
A list compiled by the American Indian Cultural Support organization entitled “Schools Using Native American Racial Mascots in WISCONSIN” shows that over 40 schools in the state use names that somebody, somewhere finds grossly offensive. These names include Indians, Warriors, Red Raiders, Blackhawks, Apaches, Warhawks and Chiefs.
Does she have high cheek bones to prove it?
Racism because you have the likeness of an indian for a mascot. Where does the racism stop? Why is catering to the minorities so lucrative to the liberals and race baiters?
Anyone else see the irony of the leader of an INDIAN group getting upset? I thought it was “Native American”?
Geeze—some folks sincerely need to get a life.
They should spend all of this energy on finding the cure for cancer, or achieving world peace or something.
Sorry—it get’s tiring the way some people must spend their lives searching for something that they can call discrimination...........
Guess I’m not feeling too liberal today—LOL!
If Democrats were a team, they should have mascot names like the Democrat Busybodies, or Whiners, or Crybabies, or Loafers, or Know-It-Alls or Spenders.
Perhaps tribal leaders can worry about the school names and mascots on tribal lands. They should not concern themselves with schools outside of tribal lands unless the school has misrepresented itself as a tribal school.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed an Indian mascot bill on Thursday that will make it harder for politically correct meddlers to force public schools around the state to change their mascots, logos and team names.Thanks markomalley.
When I entered the military in 1956 I was a “Hillbilly†because I was from Kentucky. The military used tens of thousands of “Hillbillies and found most of them to be capable and of good cheer. Most of us didn’t object to being called redneck(the result of earning an honest living and spending more time outdoors than indoors) There are so many things to do with our lives other than making ourselves mentally ill by blaming others for our perceived problems.
My high school mascot was a Highlander.
My biggest beef is when the Marquette Warriors changed their names to the Golden Eagles. Since then, they haven’t done jack in the NCAAs.
It doesn’t seem to matter to white liberals that 90% of Indians are NOT offended by these nicknames, and in fact, many use the names themselves in their own tribal schools.
That’s not all...
Just send them some firewater and beads, they’ll get calmed down in a day or so.
White Liberals think they speak for all minorities.
Another Amen! Give me Liberty, or give me death!
I like the old law. All it takes is one person to complain about the name of a school. Complain about every name of every school. Overwhelm the system. I find any school named after Martin Luther King racist. I find every school named after Any Kennedy anti-American and offensive.
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