It was with great delight that I read recent letters about Teddy Roosevelt's ghastly racism, and why that means UND should not use Roughriders as a team name.
I, for one, agree. I'd also like to point out just how problematic and toxic the other names can be, and I'd love to throw in what I consider to be emergency options to save the integrity of our university.
▇ Fighting Hawks: Much too aggressive; plus, hawks often eat the young of many species, and that could be triggering to any expectant mothers in the crowd or watching on TV from home.
▇ Green Hawks: Again, beware the hurt that expectant mothers and various land mammals could experience.
▇ North Stars: Labeling our athletes "Stars" affords them a status of privilege and places them higher on the totem pole of college life over, say, liberal arts majors. Plus, it could demean and offend their opponents of the field or ice or what have you.
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Also, let's not forget how important the North Star was in navigating the earth via the sea. Many of those ships carried colonizers who destroyed local populations.
▇ Nodaks: I just don't like this one, and besides, it probably offends someone somewhere.
▇ Sundogs: I'm sure a friend of a friend has a cousin who has a girlfriend who knew a guy who momentarily lost control of a vehicle because he looked at a sundog, and we don't need to be forcing that person to relive that horrible trauma.
So there it is: Everything is bad and racist and terrible. So, I implore the committee to consider my option as a last ditch effort to be on the right side of history.
My suggestion: The UND Sports Persons; surely, that wouldn't offend anybody.
But wait: Now that I think about it, "persons" are having a negative effect on the environment; so on second thought, forget Sports Persons.
Whoops, gotta run. Can I write again later with an appropriate, Social Justice-friendly name? You see, someone just said something dumb on Twitter, and I need to sharpen my digital pitchfork.
Justin Denault
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Grand Forks
