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Francis A. Boyle
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From: All the News That Doesn't Fit [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2007 9:16 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: [NYTr] The Racist Mascot: Why You Should Still Boo Illinois
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Francis A. Boyle - Aug 26, 2007
[Imagine that on game days everything remains exactly the same except
that the Rabbi itself has since been "retired" from "performing." -fab]
A slightly different version of this piece was published by
Counterpunch on Mar 20, 2005 and distributed by NY Transfer here:
The Racist Mascot: Why You Should Boo Illinois. Apr 2, 2005
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20050328/015117.htm
l
The Racist Mascot from Urbana-Champaign:
Why You Should Still Boo Illinois
By FRANCIS BOYLE
The self-styled "Fighting Illini" of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign are on their way to the NCAA Tournament with their
racist and genocidal mascot and symbol Chief Illiniwak still in
tow. Although the NCAA just forced the University of Illiniwaks to
prevent this Little Red Sambo from desecrating at half-times
everything American Indians hold dear and treasure, nevertheless Chief
Illiniwak still remains the officially designated "honored symbol" of
the University of Illiniwaks at Urbana-Champaign. In his "Year 501: The
Conquest Continues" (1993) Noam Chomsky suggests an apt metaphor for
such American Indian sports mascots and symbols that I will
elaborate upon here in order to conform to our local and most peculiar
rites on this campus:
Suppose the Nazis had won the Second World War. Sixty years later, a
prestigious German state university has a mascot for all of its
sports teams and sports fans by the name of "The Rabbi." Basically what
happens is that a student from the Hitler Youth League dresses up in
an authentic costume for an Hasidic Rabbi, complete with the curl-locks
and beard. The University itself collectively call themselves "The
Fighting Jews", and the school's band is called "The Marching Jews."
The student newspaper is called "The Daily Jew." All the sports fans
in town wear jackets and t-shirts with pictures of The Rabbi prominently
displayed on them. And most cars have Rabbi stickers planted all over
them. Two years ago the University's Board of Trustees ran out of
town on a rail a courageous and principled Chancellor who had the
temerity to publicly suggest that the time had now come to "retire" the
Rabbi. So of course there was a heated campaign on among the students
and alumni to "Save the Rabbi!"
This German state university plays its soccer matches over at the
Nuremberg Stadium in front of an audience of about 75,000 White Aryans ,
almost all of whom are wearing pro-Rabbi images and clothes. At
half-time the Marching Jews take to the stadium floor and begin playing
what they purport to be Jewish sounding music along the lines of
Fiddler-on-the-Roof. Then all 75,000 White Aryans rise as one and shout
in unison: "Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi" gesticulating wildly and working
themselves up into a feeding frenzy. One lone faculty member sits there
in protest shouting "Racist Rabbi!" and everyone in the vicinity
proceeds to throw garbage at him.
Finally, the moment these ardent White Aryans have all waited for has
arrived. The Rabbi runs out onto the arena floor from among the
Marching Jews, proceeds to the center of the Nuremberg Stadium, and
dances the Hava Nagila while the Marching Jews play on and march into
an intricately choreographed maneuver that they all brag about and take
special pride in that culminates with the band being organized into a
swastika. So the Rabbi continues to dance the Hava Nagila while the
Marching Jews form themselves into a swastika. By now all 75,000 White
Aryans are hysterical, shouting, screaming and yelling: "Rabbi, Rabbi,
Rabbi." This semi-religious spectacle that the Nazis are well known for
staging, especially at the Nuremberg stadium, goes on for a good
twenty minutes. It all concludes with everyone joining hands to sing
"Deutschland, Deutschland Uber Alles," with the Rabbi leading all
75,000 White Aryans in the song. Then the Rabbi proceeds to dance the
Hava Nagila out of the stadium followed by the Marching Jews. Everyone
goes wild, clapping and cheering. This Rabbi ceremony brings tears to
the eyes of many drunken alumni and students who had started several
hours beforehand getting inebriated on schnapps and good German beer at
pre-game tailgate parties.
When it is all over, a visiting law professor from another country asks
his host at the soccer match what this spectacle was all about. Without
missing a beat the former Dean Mengele of the Law School turns to his
guest and says:"We are honoring the Jews." Whom the Nazis had just
exterminated 60 years ago, so of course the memory of the Jews needs to
be honored by this spectacle at every home soccer match , basketball
game, and volley ball game. The Illiniwek Indians were ethnically
cleansed out of Illinois about a century before that. These are the real
"Little Eichmans." Be sure to "boo!" and root against the Illiniwaks.
Historically, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, its Boards
of Trustees, its Presidents, its Chancellors, its Provosts, its Deans,
Directors and Department Heads, and most of its Faculty and Alumni/ae
have always been the Ku Klux Klan dressed up in Caps and Gowns instead
of Hoods and Sheets.
[Francis A. Boyle is Professor of Law at the University of Illinois.]
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