After receiving harsh criticism from black community leaders, Buffalo's emerging minor-league basketball team will be changing their logo from a silverback gorilla to an imaginary, black panther-like creature.
A storm of criticism, led by NAACP leader Frank Mesiah, labeled the seemingly harmless gorilla as an unacceptable symbol of bigotry - the term "monkey" or "gorilla" can be a racial slur against African Americans - yet the motive and rationale of this accusation can only be seen as questionable.
It will definitely take a little more clarification to explain as to exactly how and why a basketball-dunking, red-skinned gorilla has connotations of racial insensitivity, but the new design that supposedly appeases those originally offended brings an even more tactless, insensitive meaning into public view.
In the 1960s, the Black Panther Party was an African American civil rights organization with an intense sense of ideology and reclusive membership selection. Although characterized by forceful black nationalism and fueled ideology of equality and freedom, their history is riddled with questionable practices in their confrontational, and even sometimes militaristically brutal ways of fighting oppression. While a silver back gorilla may get some people up in a huff, a black panther most definitely alludes to even more intense issues of racism and bigotry; so how is this a solution in the eyes of protesters?
It's not that this new black panther connotation should be addressed, but rather such a debate over the at best vague racist label of a silverback gorilla should never have come up at all. The naming of a sports team should not have such controversy spinning aimlessly around it, because sometimes a gorilla is just a gorilla.
We can't leap hurdles in the future, unless bigotry of the past can be left behind. Of course in our present day world, hatred and racial discrimination viciously and unfairly occur countless times each day, but that does not mean everything is inherently xenophobic. Nearly everything can be bent and misconstrued to outrage or upset individuals, but many of those things are truly innocent in nature and intent.
With a city of popular professional sports teams, Buffalo's minor-league basketball team will already have an uphill struggle to gain recognition and a passionate fan-base without the help of distasteful arguments and problems brought by this conflict of words. Ironically, this name groveling has brought the relatively unknown team to the public spotlight, but this spotlight is for all the wrong reasons.
Leaders and activists against the original logo have blindly led the fight for political correctness into a far worse situation of contradiction and unnecessary controversy, and in the end lets hope that this newly emerging team can overcome the shadows cast by such an inane debate.
Bush bashing backfires
Careless wording stirs up a political firestorm
People stood in awe. Jaws fell to the ground and a collective gasp of disbelief echoed through the entire room. While some students may find this reminiscent of the Student Association Induction Dinner last semester, this scene was relived at the national level as a botched joke by Sen. John Kerry enraged Americans across the country.
In an attempt to continue a long strain of Bush bashing, Kerry commented that students who don't work hard and study "get stuck in Iraq." What he later said he really meant to say was those kinds of individuals "end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq," a jab at President Bush. But instead of rousing a bit of laughter, he stirred up quite the mess as anyone with any tie to the military denounced the careless words of the demonized senator.
In the political arena, especially in one as volatile as our current election year, politicians should pay extra attention to what they do and say. Yes, it was a mistake, but whether it was a Freudian slip or a genuine error, Kerry needs to realize what is appropriate for a public speech.
There was no need to degrade Bush's already-crumbling image, and as a consequence Kerry hurt his own chances for a potential bid in the 2008 presidential election. Lets just hope that he learned a thing or two about public speaking: If you don't have the delivery, don't try for the joke.
